as part of The First Dance / La Prima Danza
a site-specific contemporary dance project
funded by the 2025 Kore.A.Round Culture – Bilateral International Collaboration Program for Arts & Culture

A collaboration between Fondazione Fabbrica Europa and Ahn Aesoon Company, one of the leading choreographic groups in Korea, The First Dance project stems from the idea of transforming heritage into a platform for artistic experiences that foster a deeper connection between artworks and audiences, using dance and the performing arts as a language that is at once evocative and innovative.

In Seoul, Italian artists Damiano Ottavio Bigi, choreographer and dancer, and Alessandra Paoletti, dramaturg and director, together with Korean choreographer Ahn Aesoon, are working with dancers Na-eui Kim, Ji-hyung Kim, Seong-hyeon Park, Hyeon-seok Lee, You-joung Lim, and Joung-youn Son on a site-specific creation taking place at Nakseonjae Hall in the Changdeokgung Palace.
Nakseonjae Hall at Changdeokgung Palace was the final residence of the Joseon royal family, a place where the body of an age lingered at
the threshold between an old order and a new era.

Now, with The Butterfly Dream, new bodies enter.
They create a field where reality and illusion meet beyond yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Dreams map a borderless world, making the invisible visible.
Movement crosses spatial boundaries, walks with the wind, lingers in the air.
Even after the dance departs and dreams clear, we cannot say which side of the threshold we stand on.

Bigi Paoletti Fritz Company is an artistic project and dance-theatre company founded in 2020 by dancer and choreographer Damiano Ottavio Bigi – a longstanding member of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch and performer with Dimitris Papailioannou – alongside actress and director Alessandra Paoletti, a graduate of the National Academy of Drama “Silvio D’Amico” who has also worked extensively as a guest director for the Istanbul Municipal Theatre. Their collaboration began in Istanbul in 2013 with Yuvaya Dönmek, Babam için – Back Home, to My Father, created for the Istanbul Municipal Theatre. Since then, they have developed both pedagogical and creative projects, engaging with artists from diverse cultural and disciplinary backgrounds.
Their work explores a dialogue between different languages, traversing dance, theatre, and visual arts, and has been presented internationally at major venues and festivals, including Torinodanza Festival, Festival Equilibrio, One Dance Festival, Tanec Praha, Fabbrica Europa, Gdansk Dance Festival, Aerowaves Dance Festival Luxembourg, Le Chaînon Manquant, Le Temps d’aimer, Istanbul Municipal Theatre, Gorizia Dance Festival, Teatro Grande (Brescia), Visavì Gorizia, Nid Platform 2022/2023/2024, Bengaluru Hubba Festival, Serendipity Arts Festival (Goa), Living Dance Festival (China), LDTX Beijing Festival, ACT-Shanghai Contemporary Theatre Festival, and the Asia-Europe Cultural Festival (ASEF).

Ahn Aesoon Company uniquely merges Korean identity with contemporary sensibilities. Since its founding in 1985, Ahn Aesoon has developed a distinctive choreographic style by reinterpreting the Eastern traditions and concepts through contemporary dance. Her work, marked by dynamic movement, refined rhythm, and distinctive spatial composition, has positioned her at the forefront of Korean contemporary dance.
Following her 1998 Grand Prix at the Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Bagnolet, Ahn has been invited to major festivals in Germany, Singapore, Mexico, and Japan, and is documented in the Oxford Dictionary of Dance and International Dictionary of Modern
Dance. Through collaborations across film, theater, and visual arts, she continues to expand contemporary dance expression. Having served as artistic director of the Seoul Performing Arts Festival(SPAF) and Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, Ahn remains central to Korea’s performing arts landscape. Having established an independent position for Korean contemporary dance on the international stage, Ahn seeks new choreographic possibilities that transcend cultural boundaries through this project.

concept and project direction: Maurizia Settembri
production management: On Sim – Korea, Elisa Godani – Italy
associate producer: Hye-yeon Kim
international collaboration advisor: Andrea Paciotto
sound design: Jung-hoon Pi
sound operation: Ju-won Jeon
costume design: Seonoc Im
stage manager: Eun-jin Jo
production and presentation: Fabbrica Europa, Ahn Aesoon Company
sponsor: Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, KOFICE (Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange), 2025 Korea•A•Round Culture, MiC Italian Ministry of Culture
partners: Fabbrica Europa | Secret Florence | Florence Dance Festival | City of Florence
CROSS Festival | Fondazione Egri Danza CRID | City of Verbania
Associazione Tersicorea – Cortoindanza | City of Cagliari

in the photo: a rehearsal moment