Stuporosa takes as a reference the essay Morte e pianto rituale by Ernesto De Martino to carry out a choreographic research on the so-called ‘crying without a soul’, on the figure of the lamenter. The title of the project is a quote from De Martino: hebetude is stuporosa, that state of catatonia that can manifest itself in the individual attempt to overcome mourning and which contrasts with the paroxysmal explosion of destructive/self-destructive gestures. According to the Neapolitan scholar, these two are the possible reactions to the crisis of grief for the loss of a loved one and both forms are an expression of the unconscious tendency to want to share the fate of the dead.

The institute of the funeral lament does not cancel the crisis of grief but allows you to experience it by subjecting it to a cultural discipline that takes the form of the creation of verbal, melodic and mimic modules, the repetition of which allows you to relive the pain, the pathos but in a protected form.

Francesco Marilungo’s choreographic work will focus on the identification of practices that implement the process of mimesis of pain and its stylization. The two extreme poles to strive for will be stuporous immobility on the one hand and violent gestures on the other, poles corresponding to the two forms of the crisis of grief.
The focus of the work will also be the power dynamics that exist between the individual and society within a ritual context; ways in which emotional excesses are controlled through commonly recognized forms of expression and institutionalized forms.
Another parameter that will be examined is the concept of rhythmic repetition. In ritual crying, the obsessive repetition of modules are aimed at attenuating the presence of wakefulness to facilitate the fall into a sort of ecstasy – a state that gives access to ‘time out of time’, where there is the heritage of words, movements, of sounds that mediate the symbolic transfiguration of human death.

Francesco Marilungo is a choreographer and performer After graduating in Thermo-Mechanical Engineering and a research period at the Von Karman Institute in Brussels, he attended the DanceTheater Atelier at Scuola d’Arte Drammatica Paolo Grassi in Milan. Since 2010 he has studied/worked with internationally renowned dancers and choreographers – Lisa Kraus and Elena Demyanenko (Trisha Brown Dance Company), Julie Anne Stanzak, Juliana Neves and Quan Bui Ngoc (Les Ballets C de la B), Masaki Iwana, Gabriela Carrizo (Peeping Tom), Yasmine Hugonnet, Jan Fabre, Gisele Vienne and Romeo Castellucci. He has worked as a performer for Enzo Cosimi, Mara Cassiani, Antonio Marras, Jonathan Burrows/Matteo Fargion and Alessandro Sciarroni. Parallel to the activity as a dancer, he has begun his own authorial journey, focusing his research on creating atmospheres as the result of the juxtaposition of images structured on multiple levels of representation. In 2013 he created his first solo, Emily, and in 2014 he was selected by Anticorpi XL network for “Vetrina della Giovane Danza d’Autore” with Siegfried. His work Paradise, winner of NEXT 2015/2016 announcement by the Regione Lombardia, premiered at Danae Festival 2015 and was selected by Anticorpi XL network for “Vetrina della Giovane Danza d’Autore” 2016. New Horizon, a project supported by the European network Open Latitudes, made its première at Danae Festival 2016. Love Souvenir, awarded the Inteatro Festival call and NEXT 2017-2018 announcement by the Regione Lombardiay, premiered at Inteatro Festival 2018.  His last work, Party Girl, was awarded the Premio Prospettiva Danza 2020 and Cross Award 2020 and was selected by NID New Italian Dance Platform 2021.

direction and choreography: Francesco Marilungo
with Alice Raffaelli, Barbara Novati, Roberta Racis, Francesca Linnea Ugolini, Vera Di Lecce
music and vocal coaching: Vera Di Lecce
space and light design: Gianni Staropoli
costumes: Lessico Familiare
photos and video: Luca del Pia
production: Körper | Centro Nazionale di Produzione della Danza
co-production: Fabbrica Europa
with the support of IntercettAzioni – Centro di Residenza Artistica della Lombardia
and Short Theatre Festival, Fuori Programma Festival, Teatro Akropolis &
Dracma Teatro – Progetto CURA, Did Studio, Base Milano, Qenhun

UBU Prize as 2024 Best dance performance

Calendar

June 30, 2023 | Fuori Programma – Teatro Biblioteca Quarticciolo, Rome
September 8, 2023 | Danza Urbana – Ex chiesa di San Mattia, Bologna
September 15, 2023 | Short Theatre – Teatro India, Rome
September 16 – 17, 2023 | Festival Fabbrica Europa – Museo Novecento, Florence
October 12, 2023 | Città delle 100 Scale Festival – Il Piccolo teatro | CESAM, Potenza
October 24 – 25, 2023 | Danae Festival – Teatro Out Off, Milan
February 15, 2024 | International Theatre Festival of Kerala, Thrissur (India)
February 18, 2024 | Attakkalari India Biennial 2024, Bangalore (India)
April 18, 2024 | SUPERNOVA – Teatro Amintore Galli, Rimini
April 20, 2024 | Fuorimargine – TEN Teatro Eliseo, Nuoro
April 27, 2024 | Spazio Allori Palazzo Vecchia, Poncarale (Brescia)
June 2, 2024 | CROSS Festival – Teatro Il Maggiore, Verbania
June 27, 2024 | Marosi Festival, Stromboli
July 26, 2024 | Festival Trasparenze – Ostello Podesteria, Gombola (Modena)
August 22, 2024 | Segesta Teatro Festival – Teatro Antico Segesta, Calatafimi (Trapani)
September 28, 2024 | Festival Il Rumore del Lutto – Abbazia di Valserena, Parma
October 9, 2024 | NID Platform – Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza

photos: Monia Pavoni (Festival Fabbrica Europa, Museo Novecento, Florence, September 17, 2023)

cover photo: Luca Del Pia, detail