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Diana Anselmo & Cristina Kristal Rizzo: Monumentum DA

Two performers stand barefoot on a dark stage under focused lighting. Both wear white tops and bright red wide-legged trousers. With one arm extended forward and their hands forming expressive gestures, they appear engaged in a choreographed movement sequence. A small ball lies on the floor in front of them, while the black background and empty stage draw attention to the performers' positions and gestures.
Monumentum DA, Diana Anselmo and Cristina Kristal Rizzo, ph. Lorenza Daverio

About the performance

The creation takes the form of a story, a body-to-body movement, which aims to amplify and give space to the intrinsic possibilities of sign language. Long marginalised and alienated by phonocentric processes of power that have attempted to abolish it throughout history, Sign Language is a human, living, corporeal language; it does not speak of margins but of new forms. Monumentum DA brings into play the relationship between languages (signs and dance), observing the erosion of the boundaries between the two semantic domains. The LIS and Diana’s body are an ever-changing archive of documents; we might call them “linguistic monuments” that form a narrative into which the politics of a body can flow in a vital momentum – and thus reconnect to the shared history of a momentary collectivity. It is therefore a matter of reconsidering the expressive potentials of all bodies and opening up a space in which diversity is pure expansion of possibilities.

The Story Behind the Project

Monumentum is a project by the choreographer and dance maker Cristina Kristal Rizzo, which interrogates the forms of collective memory and the return of images by reflecting on the device of the Monument, as a living trace in its unfolding into corporeal matter. It began in 2022 with a solo performed by dancer Megumi Eda and a creation for ensemble.

Now Monumentum changes form and continues, multiplying the gazes along the thread of choreography in a new stage that avails itself of the collaboration and interpretation of Diana Anselmo, Deaf and bilingual (Italian and Italian Sign Language LIS) performer, activist/co-founder of Al.Di.Qua.Artists. association.

Monumentum DA is a dedication to their singularity.

Accessibility

The performance is equally accessible to foreigner Deaf and hearing audiences: since Diana’s signs have been built as part of the choreography, they will remain in LIS (Italian Sign Language) while the projected text will be in the local language. The final five minutes of dialogue, in English, will be translated by a local sign language interpreter.

Credits

by Cristina Kristal Rizzo, Diana Anselmo
Choreography Cristina Kristal Rizzo
Performance Diana Anselmo, Cristina Kristal Rizzo
Text by Cristina Kristal Rizzo, Diana Anselmo and Laura Pante on writings by Yvonne Rainer, John Cage, Simone Weil, Ilya Kaminsky and CKR
Theoretica support Laura Pante, Sergio Lo Gatto
Production Fuorimargine Centre for Dance and Performing Arts Production in Sardegna and TIR Danza Supported by MilanOltre Festival and Oriente Occidente Artistic residencies, PARC – Performing Arts Research Centre, Kilowatt, Armunia.

Dossier

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