also scheduled on
September 19, 2025 20:00
as part of the Fabbrica Europa 2025 festival
The hand has long been thought of as a conduit of power, which transforms invisible energy into the world of form. The Latin term MANIFESTUS (clear, evident) includes the word manus (mano in Italian) or hand.
Manifesting is the way of saying “I am here!”, it is the moment in which we catch a fleeting stretch of reality, caught in the act, and present it to the evidence of the public, of the square, of others, with a concreteness that is held between the fingers. There is no break between thought, gesture and imagination: the hands create, shape both matter and ideas, they are the distinctive organ of the human race emancipated from the constraints of the animal world. They are faces without eyes, but seeing and speaking.
Hands are always figurative even in abstract dynamics, they are our first contact with the outside world, each culture has defined different linguistic aptitudes. It has always been believed that the hand is an instrument of thought as well as an actionable one.
This project develops a choreography for a group of three dancers, researching an abstract form of representation, starting from the movement of the hands through the study and hybridization of some street dance practices (tutting, fingering, popping, waving, vouging, flexing etc), defining an articulated energetic system that generates constantly changing figurations. Dance will create an abstract form of physical representation, where hands as graceful and plastic units in a sort of cosmic drama that can mean everything or nothing, using the immediacy of street dance and the quality of bringing one into direct and instant involvement with something.
Jacopo Jenna is a choreographer and director creating stage works, video pieces and installations. His works reframe the body in relationship with the perception of movement, through dance, choreography and videos, working across disciplines, studying different possibilities of embodiment and generating a variety of performative contexts. Often audiovisual arts and movement are in dialogue, creating a performative act.
As a graduate of Sociology at the University of Urbino Italy, he also studied dance in Codarts (Rotterdam Dance Academy). He creates training and educational programmes for various age groups experimenting with new ways of relating to performance art.
In Europe he has worked with dance companies, choreographic research projects and various artists like Jacopo Miliani, Caterina Barbieri, Roberto Fassone, Ramona Caia, Bassam Abou Diab, Alberto Ricca Bienoise. He has presented his works at Italian and international festivals and venues including Centrale Fies (Dro), La Democrazia del Corpo Cango (Florence), Palazzo Strozzi (Florence), Pecci Center for Contemporary Art (Prato), Fabbrica Europa (Florence), Short Theatre (Rome), Danae Festival (Milan), Dansem (Marseille), Bipod Festival (Beirut), YPAM – Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting, Palazzo Grassi Punta della Dogana (Venice), Chantiers d’Europe – Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Do Disturb – Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Mudam Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg, MAXXI (Roma), B-Motion festival (Bassano del Grappa), Tanec Praha festival, Tanzhaus nrw (Düsseldorf), Aerowaves Twenty22.
concept, choreography, direction: Jacopo Jenna
choreographic collaboration: Mattia Quintavalle SLY
dance: Simone De Giovanni, Petra Audrey Mangoua Youaleu, Phex
sound: Alberto Ricca / Bienoise
technical direction and light design: Mattia Bagnoli
management: Luisa Zuffo
production: Klm – Kinkaleri, Le Supplici, mk
with the support of OperaEstate Festival, MilanOltre Festival, Fabbrica Europa
photo (detail): Gabriel Ledda,
