DANSITE AT ROCCHETTA MATTEI

DANSITE arrives at Rocchetta Mattei: dance, virtual reality and heritage in dialogue

 

On 17 July the DANSITE project arrives at Rocchetta Mattei (Grizzana Morandi – Bologna) with a day of presentation and performance that weaves together dance, technology and the enhancement of cultural heritage.

The event opens at Palagio – Casa delle Arti, with the inauguration of the new DANSITE VR corner: a space dedicated to immersive experience that allows the audience to step into the dance through virtual reality. Here it will be possible to experience Agogik, a choreographic creation by Francesca Lattuada, conceived and developed in dialogue with the architecture and imagery of Rocchetta Mattei.

The journey then continues inside Rocchetta Mattei, where the audience can attend the site-specific performance Opera in bianco by Vittoria Franchina, in an experience that renders dance through the interplay of body, space and architecture.

The presentation of the DANSITE project and the performance on 17 July take place within Spaesaggi Festival, a cultural event that is part of the pilot project “Da Campolo l’arte fa Scola,” funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU. The festival is organised by the Municipality of Grizzana Morandi and the Union of Municipalities of the Bolognese Apennines, in collaboration with the Emilia-Romagna Region, and is managed by the Ministry of Culture and the Emilia-Romagna Region, with the aim of contributing to the construction of a new territorial system rooted in culture and tourism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://youtu.be/sPP1sQJG_fk

DANSITE: when dance remains in place

 

Can the emotion of live performance exist even in the absence of the performer? And can a place be discovered, or rediscovered, through dance?

 

DANSITE was born from these questions and from the experience of the Centro Coreografico Nazionale / Aterballetto, which for years has been developing site-specific creations: works conceived to exist in a precise place, in dialogue with its history and identity, and destined to live only in the instant of performance.

 

With DANSITE this research opens up to virtual reality: the performance is recorded and transformed into a permanent immersive experience, accessible directly in the places where it was born. Wearing a VR headset, the viewer can step back into the work exactly where it was created. The technology does not replace the visit but amplifies it, offering a fresh key for reading architecture and memory.

 

The result is a model for enhancing cultural heritage that does not merely tell the story of places but reactivates them. Dance, ephemeral by nature, thus becomes trace, memory and access.

 

DANSITE stems from the “DOUBLE REALITY – Il Monumento e il suo Doppio” project, winner of the Emilia-Romagna Region’s ERDF call for the digitalisation and enhancement of cultural heritage (Digital Humanities), with the support of European funds.

Agogik

 

Direction and choreography Francesca Lattuada
Music In Nomine Lucis by Giacinto Scelsi
Performers Vittoria Franchina and Jive Faury
Technological development and user experience design, video shooting and editing Impersive

 

“Agogik”

refers to the slight fluctuations in tempo that do not appear in the notation.

Rocchetta Mattei, a staggering architectural delirium, is a place steeped in fluids and alchemical symbols.

AGOGIK is a ritual for two performers who embody the genius loci of a space that is at once laboratory, place of peace and tomb. We witness a jarring dance between living and dead matter. A breach of the infinite and the eternal opens before our eyes. Where do reality and legend begin and end?

 

The castle known as “Rocchetta Mattei” owes its name to Count Cesare Mattei (1809–1896), who had it built on the ruins of an ancient structure dating back to the 13th century, the Rocca di Savignano. The castle’s structure was altered several times by the Count during his lifetime and by his heirs, turning it into a labyrinth of towers, monumental staircases, reception halls and private chambers that echo different styles: from neo-medieval to neo-Renaissance, from Moorish to Art Nouveau.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published On: 6 July 2026

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