Rebecca Murgi, a young interpreter and choreographer from Ancona, is part of the latest generation of Italian contemporary dance. She trained at the School of Contemporary Dance in London and the European Dance Development Center in Arnhem, Netherlands. Her movement style is concrete and tactile, focusing on detail and muscular work. This style results from her research into body techniques, backed by a decade-long experience in rhythmic gymnastics. Aware of the potential expressiveness of dance movements, explored through contrasts of tension and energy, Murgi develops her performances with both self-referential insights and general themes related to nature and human history.
Murgi ventured into dance following an enlightening workshop with Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus. She created her first choreography in 1995 for her diploma at the Arnhem Center, a school that greatly emphasizes student creativity and is structured around workshop cycles on techniques such as Steve Paxton's contact improvisation and Trisha Brown's release technique. Murgi debuted with the solo Magnum Miraculum. This piece is a playful interaction between the self and a dancing body that rolls and unrolls with amused wonder to the onomatopoeic sounds of the soundtrack and Murgi's live voice, engaged in ironic monologues mixing language and dialect.
Before moving on to her first group creation, Physis in 1998, Murgi created the sophisticated duet Focus on L in 1996 for herself and Cristina Rizzo from the Kinkaleri group. Inspired by texts from Leonardo Da Vinci and using video images that highlight the body in its physical-mental duality, Murgi employs dance and stage design to demonstrate the relevance of the Renaissance master's thoughts. The dance takes place on a gym trapeze, with the body suspended mid-air to emphasize its organicity. The focus is on body parts, exploring their movement and expressive potential. The interactions between the two performers are articulated, playing on the oxymoronic contrast between mechanical movements and poetic flight. These performances are supported by Francesco Pirro's rich score, featuring sampled and computer-processed sounds alongside classical-symphonic harmonies and pre-recorded Leonardesque texts.
This foundation allows for dancing the eye as a "window to the soul," the heart as a "vessel of dense muscle," and force as a "spiritual virtue" and "invisible power."
