Laura Corradi, the sole representative of Italian dance at the 2004 Festival, has distinguished herself in the Italian landscape for her fluid style, always closely tied to dramaturgy and text. A pioneer of authorial choreography in Italy in the 1980s, Corradi, who honed her skills in Paris under Jean Gaudin, Jorma Uotinen, Larrio Ekson, and Carolyn Carlson, as well as through advanced studies at the Folkwang Schule in Essen, has shaped her two-decade career around a dance theater (not strictly in the Bauschian sense) that fully exploits the dramaturgical potential of movement and the overall structure of the performance. Often inspired by significant literary sources, even the name of her company is borrowed from Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities."
Her debut as a choreographer was remarkable: in 1986, the year she founded her company, she won the International Competition in Cagliari with "Vedrai come si biforca la cantina," and the following year, the President of the Republic Prize at the Prix Violinine Competition in Paris. This was followed by a series of successes with works such as "Non è bello che un re si allunghi al suolo" (1990), "Nella grande stanza centrale del pian terreno" (1994), "Achillemente, studio per un eroe in bilico" (1996), "Chimera" (1998), "Fiumana biancomuro" (2000), "Studio per le cose che cambiano" (2001), and "La Mandria" (2002), presented at various Italian festivals and seasons.
The work she presents in Rovereto is her latest creation for five dancers, exploring the theme of the body as a medium between the self and the world, its functionality, and its significance, built upon an original score by Enrico Terragnoli. The choreographer writes about the work as follows:
"With these legs, I travel all the road I must, forced marches and aimless strides, exhausted runs that make me feel better. The hands have tiny blue veins that push, search curiously and investigate, speak and nervously explain and defend themselves, caress with a touch of manta and crumble bad thoughts. This face, better to cover it when it can't lie, hide the eyes that sparkle and the smile that opens and tells me everything. The body knows how to vibrate and speaks proudly and autonomously, impulsively and capable of choosing without hesitation, attentive and aware from the bowels to the skin."
