Italian dancer and choreographer, Silvia Gribaudi, latest production, “Graces” is a reflection on the body and a hymn to self-acceptance.
ADVERTISEMENTItalian dancer and choreographer, Silvia Gribaudi's latest production, “Graces”, is a hymn to self-acceptance.
Fluid, irreverent, funny; the former classical dancer’s art glides lightly between dance, theatre, and the circus.
Inspired by Italian neoclassical sculptor, Antonio Canova's “Three Graces”, the production is a reflection on the body which she believes needs to be free, regardless of its form, gender, and aesthetic.
“With respect to the body, we are obviously inundated with stereotypes. And each of us then decides how to stand within the forms of the body,” she said.
“The words perfect, not perfect, are always slippery words, in my opinion. Precisely because there exists an almost unknown zone, a borderline zone within which perhaps perfection, imperfection no longer exist, but simply be a form made of strength, volume, space. The body is also made of this.
Since 2004, she has focused her research on the social impact of bodies, having placed the element of comedy and the relationship between audience and performers at the centre of her choreographic language.
“Perhaps it was irony, humour, that gave me that distance from everything that somehow, before as a dancer, could have created a difficulty for me, in feeling inadequate,” said Gribaudi.
For Gribaudi, the clown is always inadequate, always wrong, but because of the humour of this “continuous error”, it finds a great resource.
“Brought into dance, it was a revolution valve, truly a revolution. The revolution that starts with transforming through irony, of being able to say in freedom what you think, do, laughing together with others,” said Gribaudi.
Her shows have been featured in a number of national and international festivals and are the result of a creative process that focuses on dialogue and on the poetic encounter with other artists, dance companies, and communities.
Gribaudi believes strongly that there’s room for everyone in dance. You need to study, find your own masters, and then discover “your own poetic key, exalting your uniqueness”.
“Graces” was presented at the Maison de la Dance in Lyon on 27-28 February and is currently on tour across Italy and France until the 6 April.
