HIGHER is a dance performance inspired and based on the experience of clubbing and club dancing. Trusting in dance as the practice that compensates for the fact that we, humans, can never be one another, three dancers attempt to become one.
Philosopher Julia Kristeva once said: “As to be human it means to embrace political, sexual, religious, familiar identities, yet we are undergoing a time of major identity crises. We need to find a language that transcends the human in order to overcome such crises and awaken a new Renaissance. This language can be dance.” Michele Rizzo interprets this cathartic power of ecstatic dance as it being a form of prayer and celebration of existence, capable of sculpting the body-mind of the dancer through movement, and finds ‘the club’ a place for such transformative activity. This way of seeing the phenomenon of clubbing matches the often heard comparison of clubs to churches, a popular association that is however often obscured by a common understanding of clubbing as a mere recreational activity. In HIGHER, clubbing as a form of dance which is not easily ascribed to any category and which features various techniques, styles and influences, exceeds the recreational and takes on the cultural role of a social dance.
CONCEPT AND CHOREOGRAPHY: Michele Rizzo
MUSIC: Lorenzo Senni
PERFORMANCE: Juan Pablo Camara, Max Goran and Michele Rizzo
LIGHTING DESIGN: Michele Rizzo
TECHNICAL SUPERVISION: Lucas Heistinger
DURATION: 45 minutes
PRODUCTION: Frascati Productions and ICKamsterdam