Choreographer and dancer Roberta Racis in residency at the PARC Performing Arts Research Center with her new choreographic project White Act.

White Act was born from a reflection on fragility.
In the course of existence we face the idea of our end. The transience of life and of the body is something terrifying for everyone. As a dancer who relies on the performative capabilities of the body, I feel that White Act revolves around this topic.
White Act is a solo whose protagonists Giselle, Myrtha, Odette or Nikija merge in the body of a single performer, mine.

The white act is the section of the romantic ballet which stages the Dionysian dimension of life (madness, fear, death) through a markedly Apollonian form: a dance based on virtuosity, focused on beauty, control, exaggerated purity in the symbolism of the color white.
I’m interested in delve into this tension and relate it to some questions: What’s the point of trying to look light when you are struggling? What is the point of flaunting that you are always in control of yourself? Does it make sense to dance to talk about something that by definition escapes control? Does it make sense to dance?
– Roberta Racis –

project, choreography, dance: Roberta Racis
music project: Samuele Cestola
dramaturg: Martina Badiluzzi
artistic collaboration: Dea Merlini
co-production: Fabbrica Europa, Oscenica

photo: Fabio Novembrini