Contemporary Dance in Naples: An Immersive and All-Encompassing Sensation
Of Earth and Galaxies
On Thursday, December 12th, within the framework of the 27th edition of "Second Hand – Di Seconda Mano" (from December 12 to 15), a contemporary dance festival curated by Gabriella Stazio, the Spanish Quarters of Naples, (Quartieri Spagnoli), hosted an evening of contemporary dance that profoundly shook my senses and artistic perception. Curated by Movimento Danza – National Promotion Entity, the festival celebrates author choreography and, especially, talents under 35 years old. The Sala Assoli, in Vico Lungo Teatro Nuovo, transformed into a temple where artistic performance reaches its most intense and revealing peaks.
Two performances
I attended two performances – Origenìa by Antonello Apicella (Campania Danza Association) inspired by Marco De Simone's poem "The Story of the World", which explores the fascinating concept of Origin, connected to femininity, in a penetrating and stimulating perspective of connection between Woman and Earth with all its elements; and No Question by Irma Cardano (Arb Dance Company – Arabesque Association) – which represented much more than a simple exhibition: they were true rites of transformation and connection.
The physical proximity to the dancers allowed me to experience a total, almost ecstatic sensory experience. Every movement was charged with incredible physical tension. The bodies' effort manifested in an orchestra of underground sounds: the slight creaking of joints, tendons stretching, and muscles groaning under effort. Foreheads beaded with sweat were illuminated by a soft light that accentuated the dramatic intensity. Breathless breathing, almost a held gasp, accompanied the most intense movements, narrating the physical fatigue of dancing.
Living metaphor
In Origenìa, a performance inspired by Marco De Simone's poem "The Story of the World", the minimalist scenography included some symbolic elements: floating candles in water containers, a black shawl, and some apples. These objects did not decorate, but dialogued with the movement, charging themselves with profound meanings. The dancer was not simply playing a role, but became a living metaphor, thanks to Antonello Apicella's agile, shamanic, sinuous, and feral choreographies, breaking down every boundary between subject and object.
No Question featured four female and two male dancers moving in an almost zeroed-out space, where the only protagonist was movement. Vivaldi's Four Seasons, revisited with more modern sounds by a quartet of Neapolitan musicians and listened to not live but through diffused audio, intimately dialogued with contemporary dance, dissolving the boundaries between ancient and modern. The dancers seemed to inhabit an extremely thin line between effort and grace, between bodily fatigue and artistic elevation. The lightness of the costumes, the athletic gestures, and the intertwined musicality created a narrative that went beyond performance, becoming a reflection of communication, connection, and the energy that circulates between bodies and between arts.
No Question di Irma Cardano. Video by me.
A Rite of Re-Connection
I perceived that evening that I was not simply watching a show, but participating in a collective rite of re-connection. An experience that awakened dormant senses, that recalled how art – when it is truly such – is never distant, never cold, never merely intellectual, but always embodiment, blood, breath, life.
The artistic languages of Apicella and Cardano have demonstrated that contemporaneity is not a temporal category, but a way of traversing experience: with radicalism, with intensity, with the ability to dissolve boundaries between genres, between bodies, between expressive forms. An evening I carry within me like a precious initiatory tale, where dance revealed itself in its highest potential: not a spectacle, but a revelation.
Info: https://www.casadelcontemporaneo.it/event-pro/second-hand-di-seconda-mano-2/
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