Simona Bucci is an Italian choreographer who has garnered critical and public attention over the past five years. Initially a prominent dancer in the 1990s with Alwin Nikolais's company and later an assistant to Carolyn Carlson, Bucci is now known for creating a highly theatrical and imaginative world, populated by characters whose identities are meticulously crafted to infuse the space with various dramatic colors. This is evident in works like the intimate solo Di ombre cerchiati gli occhi, where a woman dances in a room of mirrors, or the five destitute figures in the dense I Rimasti, inspired by the divisionist painter Angelo Morbelli.
Arresi alla notte was conceived around a theme more nuanced than one might initially assume: Body & Eros, the guiding subject of the 2007 International Contemporary Dance Festival at the Biennale di Venezia, which co-produced the show with Oriente Occidente. Bucci sets *Arresi alla notte* in a visionary location—an elevated, two-story space, possibly an abandoned or post-apocalyptic place, bathed in the burning colors of the earth. The setting is intriguing, marked by lights that suggest a devastated landscape or a day-after scenario.
In this space, the characters hide their desires beneath elaborate costumes that denote roles of mysterious power or subdued submission. By night, Eros emerges, manifesting and consuming, confusing and ravaging the souls and bodies with its orgiastic and sometimes overwhelming emotional games, as revealed by the duo that opens the performance. As dawn arrives, Eros flees, and men and women return to their daily roles and garments, lacking the courage to confront the nocturnal experiences in the daylight. Watching them, one might wonder if it is truly possible to remain unscathed by the embrace of Eros.
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