ZTA – outcome of the lab “Dal liscio al rave”

In the May in Dance news we had announced that on 27 May within Reggionarra we would present ZTA-zona temporaneamente autonoma, the dancing parade formed by the citizens of Reggio Emilia, which started from Via Agosti to arrive at the Skatepark in Piazzale Europa.

For organisational reasons beyond the organisers’ control, the event was postponed until after the summer.

However, the festive atmosphere that was to be shared within Reggionarra will not disappear. On Saturday 27 May at 9.00 p.m. in the spaces of the Fonderia, headquarters of FND/Aterballetto (via della Costituzione 39), the protagonists of ZTA will give the city a foretaste of the final performance, a real anticipation of what will be seen after the summer. At the end all the audience – comfortable shoes are recommended – will be invited to dance on the stage of the Fondazione Nazionale della Danza to the rhythm of a DJ set.

The event is free of charge, subject to booking through the FND/Aterballetto box office channels: tel/whatsapp 3341023554; email info@aterballetto.it

ZTA-Zona Temporaneamente Autonoma is a new intergenerational dance performance.

“ZTA is a project that was born from the desire to create an open and shared space where dance and movement can become an opportunity to meet and get to know each other beyond generational differences,” says Lara Guidetti, choreographer of the performance.

“ZTA is an event that we support with strong conviction as municipal administration, because it reinforces the idea of a city that is open, inclusive, and able to involve all age groups in all neighbourhoods,” says Reggio Emilia Municipality Councillor for Participation Lanfranco de Franco. “We thank the organisers and all the citizens who participated in the ‘From ballroom dancing to rave’ workshop, because through their commitment and passion they contributed to building a unique cultural and participation experience.”

The performance, which will be staged in its entirety after the summer, is the final result of the Workshop entitled Dal liscio al rave (From ballroom dancing to rave), an intergenerational dance project that involved citizens of Reggio Emilia over 55 and under 25, realised by Fondazione Nazionale della Danza/Aterballetto (within Over Dance) together with Fondazione I Teatri di Reggio Emilia, Municipality of Reggio Emilia, Laboratorio Aperto dei Chiostri di San Pietro, with the support of Fondazione Manodori and the collaboration of the social centres Rosta Nuova, La Mirandola and Tricolore, where the workshop took place between November and May.

Choreography was by Lara Guidetti, assisted by Fabrizio Calanna and Sofia Casprini as choreography assistants. Gabriele Tesauri took care of the dramaturgy, while Marcello Gori provided the musical consultancy.

About a year ago, the City’s main cultural institutions began working on the theme of longevity not as a synonym for ageing, but rather as a continuous process that affects the entire span of life and generates new possibilities for redefining identities, both subjective and social.

The relationship between generations, the culture of popular dance, the persistence over time of an original core that moves communities, were the key concepts that gave life to Dal liscio al rave (From ballroom dancing to raves), an idea that found interest and support in the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, expanding in the sign of participation and the idea of a widespread culture that inhabits and animates the spaces of sociality.

The central theme of ZTA is the comparison between the musical and relational structures and steps of ballroom dancing, typical of the Emilian tradition, and the anarchy of the rave, which calls for a freer and more connected collectivity, rejecting roles and conventions.

What will you see?

ZTA is a dancing procession, a parade of bodies of different ages that symbolically connects two places in the city: the Tricolor balera and the skate park, skirting the redeveloped spaces of the reggiane, occupying streets, roundabouts and urban elements in an uninterrupted flow of people dancing and ‘pedalling’ to bring bodies and music towards a shared ‘beyond’.

A journey “From ballroom dancing to rave” as a possible equation between tradition and innovation: processes in continuous movement that reflect different eras but are inevitably intertwined in the present and in the intergenerational relationship that is sublimated in the discovery that the internal motor of dance is always the same. Here we have the possibility of suspending time for a moment and transforming the streets of the city into a social centre and extended stage where different ages integrate as if in a single organism.

The musical, relational structures and steps of ballroom dancing confront the anarchy of the rave that calls for a freer and more connected collectivity, rejecting roles and conventions. The procession will see the citizens of the “Dal liscio al rave” (From ballroom dancing to rave) workshop parade, who for months have been engaged in a mutual exchange of physical practices and knowledge, immersing themselves in the steps of the different dances, inventing new ones and opening up to a primitive movement without rules, to become, literally, a single “corps de danse”. Accompanying them, along with the music, will be words and testimonies by the historical protagonists of the two universes: from Casadei and Castellina, to the workers of the Reggio Emilia dances and the rave groups of the 1990s and 2000s.

Lara Guidetti

choreographer