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ALCESTI

ARCHIVIO

STEFANO MAZZOTTA

// ZEROGRAMMI

ALCESTI

]

UNO SPETTACOLO, UN PROGETTO FOTOGRAFICO, UN PROGETTO DI FORMAZIONE PROFESSIONALE

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*Alcesti* is a choreographic and theatrical research project inspired by Euripides’ myth of sacrificial love and separation. A poetic journey through themes of farewell, loss, and transformation, developed through different autonomous yet deeply interconnected performative chapters.

The project explores the fragile boundary between presence and absence, between what remains and what inevitably dissolves, creating emotional landscapes suspended between intimacy and vision.

  • “But once again he saw her face, turned back toward him, in a smile bright as hope, a promise: to return to him, grown beyond the dark of death, to him alive… Then he pressed his hands against his forehead, kneeling, so as to see nothing but that smile.”
    ( Alcestis, Rainer Maria Rilke)

    The research originates from the myth of Alcestis, the tragic figure who chooses to die in place of her husband Admetus. Rather than a narrative transposition of the classical text, the project uses the myth as a symbolic field through which to investigate universal themes connected to love, sacrifice, memory, and separation.

    The imagery of Alcesti moves between body and word, silence and inner noise, constructing a dramaturgy made of emotional tensions, sonic landscapes, and essential images. The stage becomes a space of passage and transformation, where choreographic gesture enters into dialogue with human fragility and with the difficulty of letting go.

    The project unfolds through different chapters that share the same poetic matrix while taking on autonomous configurations, capable of inhabiting different contexts and performative devices.

  • Alcesti is conceived as a modular and layered project, developed through artistic residencies, dramaturgical research, and choreographic practices intertwining dance, theatrical presence, and sound composition. Each chapter investigates a specific emotional and perceptual tension within the project, generating different modes of relationship with space and audience. The research process privileges essentiality, subtraction, and proximity, creating scenic devices capable of amplifying the intimate dimension of the experience.

    From its earliest stages, Alcesti has taken shape as a deeply collective work. During its Italian debut phase, the project involved — alongside Zerogrammi’s seven performers — an ensemble of fifteen young dancers engaged in the construction of the corps de ballet, transforming the creative process into a space of transmission, generational exchange, and shared practice. This experience became the foundation for a replicable production device, capable of being reactivated over time through the involvement of new ensembles and different communities of performers.

    The project developed through a path of residencies and artistic crossings between Italy and Germany, in dialogue with Theater Osnabrück and Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto – Centro Coreografico Nazionale. The different creation phases allowed the work to engage with heterogeneous production contexts and artistic sensibilities, deeply influencing the construction of its scenic language and the relationship between body, space, and dramaturgical material.

    Over time, the project has generated new artistic and production trajectories, consolidating international collaborations and opportunities for dialogue between different artistic languages.

  • ALCESTI (O DEL SUONO DELL'ADDIO)
    2014
    SPETTACOLO // TEATRO E SITE SPECIFIC
    ARCHIVIO
    STEFANO MAZZOTTA
    ALCESTI (O DEL SUONO DELL'ADDIO)
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    ALCESTI (O DEL RUMORE DEI PENSIERI)
    2014
    SPETTACOLO // TEATRO E SITE SPECIFIC
    ARCHIVIO
    STEFANO MAZZOTTA
    ALCESTI (O DEL RUMORE DEI PENSIERI)
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  • Zerogrammi

    FONDERIA39 (It)

    Fondazione Nazionale della Danza (It)

    Theater Osnabrueck (D)

    Agorà Coaching Project (It)

    Teatro Nuovo Torino (It)

    CASA LUFT

    Regione Piemonte

    Ministero della Cultura

  • ALCESTI (O DEL SUONO DELL'ADDIO) // IN SCENA

    FOTO

    ALCESTI (O DEL SUONO DELL'ADDIO) // IN SCENA
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    ALCESTI (o del suono dell'addio) // teaser#2

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    ALCESTI (o del suono dell'addio) // teaser#2
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    ALCESTI (o del suono dell'addio) // teaser#1

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    ALCESTI (o del suono dell'addio) // teaser#1
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    ALCESTI (o del rumore dei pensieri) // teaser#1

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    ALCESTI (o del rumore dei pensieri) // teaser#1
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    ALCESTI // UN IMMAGINARIO

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    ALCESTI // UN IMMAGINARIO
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    ALCESTI (O DEL RUMORE DEI PENSIERI // IN SCENA

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    ALCESTI (O DEL RUMORE DEI PENSIERI // IN SCENA
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  • STATUS: archive
    FIELDS: contemporary dance / physical theatre / dramaturgical research / myth / emotional memory
    ACTIVATABLE FORMATS: performance / theatrical creation / workshop practice / public encounter
    ACTIVATION CONTEXTS: theatres / festivals / unconventional spaces / contemporary performance series / artistic research contexts
    AUDIENCES: general audiences / contemporary audiences / students / artistic communities
    MODES: indoor / site-sensitive / adaptable
    DURATION: variable depending on the chapter and configuration
    LANGUAGES: Italian / non-verbal
    PARTNERS: festivals / cultural institutions / co-producers / artistic networks
    AVAILABLE MATERIALS: dossier / teaser / gallery / press materials


“(...) Every small yet eloquent gesture of the hands, every swift and fluid dance figure — whether in the pas de deux or within the ensemble — radiates the emotional certainty of this love and this self-sacrifice. [...] ‘It is what it is,’ love says here, borrowing the words of Erich Fried. And what the dancers contribute in their respective native languages sounds no less resolute.”— Christine Adam, Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung


“(...) the creation stands out for its communicative power, clarity and rigor of imagery, and intense emotional impact. Stefano Mazzotta confirms himself as a mature authorial voice, and Zerogrammi as a production reality now in full development, ready to engage with large-scale compositions: a broad perspective that, in a time dominated by studies and short performances, is often missing from the work of many of his contemporaries.”— Maddalena Giovannelli, HYSTRIO


“(...) the choreographer plays with aesthetics and technique in a highly distinctive way, convincing and captivating precisely because his works are filled with mysticism, humanity, and freedom; the classical theme he has chosen is deeply meaningful, and within the performance the limited abstraction is counterbalanced by a strong sense of narration and reflection. A high-quality narrative carrying intense weight and meaning.”— Giselle Roiz Miranda, GBOpera Magazine


“It is through the expressiveness of dance that the drama of Alcesti becomes contemporary, turning into a question about love and about how much — both universally and individually — each person is willing to give of themselves within that relationship. This emerges above all in the final pas de deux, an encounter and confrontation between Alcesti and the one who represents life and love itself for her, without whom no survival would ever be possible. Zerogrammi received repeated and heartfelt applause at the Ridotto.”— Clelia Stefani, Il Giornale di Vicenza


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