A reflection on the process of objectification of the female body and on the power dynamics often associated with the sex market. A journey into the feminine through the figure that has always embodied its gender stereotypes, the sexworker.
From the choreographic point of view, the research on movement found expression in the identification of qualities that could metaphorically represent the process of objectification of the female body.
Starting from postures and movements capable of triggering desire in the collective imagination, the three dancers build a minimal dance, a stylized, slowed down, suspended alphabet. The sensual and erotic component is completely canceled by a body that gradually loses life, becomes an object, a mannequin. The process of objectification is intensified by a voiceover, which through orders given to the dancers, shapes the structure of the performance in real time.
The apparent dominance relationship is in fact a much more articulated, ambivalent relationship, just as the client-sexworker relationship is ambivalent. “There is no single source of power in prostitution, this can be obtained and maintained by the client or by the prostitute”.
The dialectic of subjection and subjectivation is subtle, mobile. The gaze of the dancers takes us back to an intimate dimension, to the dimension of a one to one performance in which the audience is placed in an almost voyeuristic state. The gaze of the stripper, who usually leans outwards to address and arrest the customer with the ambition of a monetary gain, in Party Girl is characterized by an intimistic nuance and opens the doors to an inner, human world, which contrasts with the apparent dehumanization that the body is undergoing.
Three televisions on stage: abandoned artifacts that broadcast videos of landscapes, streets, night clubs, private apartments, places where everything that is not ‘lawful’ can find space.

After graduating in thermo-mechanical engineering and a period of research in aerospace aerodynamics, Francesco Marilungo has turned his interest to the performing arts, attending the theatre-dance atelier of the Scuola Paolo Grassi in Milan. While working as a performer for several Italian companies, he has begun a personal choreographic career in search of a code that connects performance art and contemporary dance. Driven by the precision of the RTC (Real Time Composition), he focuses his research on the creation of atmospheres resulting from the combination of images structured on multiple levels of representation. As a direct consequence of his scientific education, his works have a Cartesian mathematical structure. In his works he uses the body to investigate the archetypes of our culture with particular attention to everything is connected with forbidden desire.

choreography and direction: Francesco Marilungo
with Agnese Gabrielli, Roberta Racis, Barbara Novati
lighting and space design: Gianni Staropoli
video: Gianmaria Borzillo, Francesco Marilungo
costumes: Efisio Marras
production: Körper
coproduced by Teatro delle Moire/Danae Festival, Festival MilanOltre
in collaboration with Amat and Comune di Pesaro as part of “Residenze Marche Spettacolo”, promoted by Mibact, Regione Marche and Consorzio Marche Spettacolo;
supported by Centro di Residenza Emilia-Romagna (L’Arboreto – Teatro Dimora | La Corte Ospitale); Teatro Petrella di Longiano; Centro di Residenza della Toscana (Armunia Castiglioncello – Capo Trave / Kilowatt Sansepolcro, Teatro Pubblico Pugliese – Consorzio Regionale per le arti e la cultura / Compagnia Menhir e Comune di Ruvo di Puglia / Talos Festival, Did Studio / Nao Performing Festival, Anghiari Dance Hub, ResiDance XL – luoghi e progetti di residenza per creazioni coreografiche, azione della Rete Anticorpi XL – Network Giovane Danza D’autore coordinata da L’Arboreto – Teatro Dimora di Mondaino
with the support of MiC – Ministero della Cultura and Regione Campania
Selected for NID Platform 2021
Winner of Prospettiva Danza Teatro Prize 2020 and Cross Award Prize 2020

[photo: Luca Del Pia]