Andavamo tutti (We Were All Going) is a creation for five performers born from an encounter with Andavamo tutti come fosse un’emigrazione, a poem by Giancarlo Majorino—a visionary and powerful text capable of condensing the present, the near future, and that “continuous near future” that seems never to resolve.

The poem portrays an “axis-less” humanity, one that has lost its centre: ideologies, religions, and its relationship with the natural world that contains it. A chaotic and surreal migration runs through Majorino’s verses: humans and animals advance together, alarmed and disoriented, intermingled to the point of losing distinctions of species, role, and memory. “To pass through was necessary”: movement becomes necessity, urgency.

On stage, a humanity takes shape that seems momentarily halted after a frenetic and disordered advance, driven toward an undefined yet inevitable direction. A vast collective march unfolds, in which animals, humans, and things merge without conflict, crossing a devastated landscape no longer capable of welcoming or sustaining life. The proximity of ferocious and vulnerable bodies, the confused struggle of paws and legs, the smell of burning, and the loss of orientation fracture the rules of survival and of territory as we know them.

From these images emerges a choreographic language that is intensely dynamic and urgent, marked by disorientation, by being swept away, and by sudden stillness—as if gestures were interchangeable and overlapping. Action is dominated by an inescapable sense of going: a migration without a clear direction, yet driven by an imperative destination.

Bodies traverse the space by overturning planes and perspectives, overwhelming the viewer’s gaze in an attempt to restore the image of a multitude in full motion. Nature, though wounded, seems to suggest a call to togetherness in emergency: a salvific imperative that pushes toward a possible recomposition.

Andavamo tutti takes shape as a manifesto of life: when necessary, one flees together; one becomes cohesive—or at least forced to intermingle. The well and the water emerge as symbols of a search for salvation, of an obstinate attempt at resolution. Resilience and continuity run through the work as vital forces.

The creation explores the relationship of belonging among human beings, animals, and nature, revealing a profound equality: like among like, particles that compose and decompose, generated by the same urgency. An urgency at the surface of the skin, questioning a humanity called upon to save itself, to awaken, to reassemble.

DIRECTOR’S / DRAMATURGICAL NOTES

The performance asks us not to fall into the trap of the title or an immediate allusion to migration. The interest lies not in representing a phenomenon, but in what occurs when humanity reaches a state of emergency so extreme that it is forced into mixing, into an unexpected and profound form of belonging—even through separation.

The stage is inhabited by reversals of planes and viewpoints, by the dismantling of hierarchies, by a persistent engagement with movement toward: dynamics, breathlessness, going without memory.

The scenography is built through objects and signs that evoke an inescapable march: traces of the animal world and relics of consumption, objects no longer useful, no longer functional. No dominant structure, only fragmentary presences: tails, heads, legs.

A central element of the project is the lighting design, conceived as a sensitive landscape. Naturalistic, nearly colourless light—evoking dawn and dusk—accompanies strong environmental shifts, constructing a place/non-place in continuous transformation.

Andavamo tutti arises from the desire to translate the visionary force of Majorino’s poetry into choreographic form, recognising within it an urgent reflection on contemporary humanity: disoriented, driven by an unstoppable collective motion, yet still capable—in moments of crisis—of rediscovering an unexpected sense of togetherness. A work that presents itself as both political and poetic act: a shared escape, constrained yet vital.

KEYWORDS

paws/legs · well · belonging · intermingling

disarming and wondrous

suspended time

no place, no direction

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution — Pyotr Kropotkin, Elèuthera

Torme di tutto — Giancarlo Majorino, Mondadori

Collected Poems — Wisława Szymborska, Adelphi

Atlante delle migrazioni — Giovanna Ceccatelli, Stefania Tusini, Stefania Tirini, Clichy

Geografia delle migrazioni — Maria Luisa Gentileschi, Carocci Editore