A solid background in Western contemporary dance techniques, combined with significant forays into Japanese butoh and martial arts, particularly aikido, is the foundation upon which Monica Casadei from Ferrara established her young group Artemis in 1993. Casadei's training followed the usual path for many Italians, taking place abroad, including travels to the East and an extended residency in Paris at the end of the 1980s. In the French capital, Casadei studied at the Academie des Arts Martiaux et Arts Contemporaines, earned a diploma in aikido technique, attended Kazuo Ohno’s seminars, and worked with key choreographers of French dance such as Josef Nadj, Catherine Diverrès, Bernando Montet, and especially Pierre Doussaint and Isabelle Dubouloz.
Artemis was founded in Paris, but Casadei's work soon gained recognition in Italy as well. This led to the creation of solos such as Un mare di pietre (1994), Il vizio del cielo (1995), and Le pas perdus de l'amour piétinant (1996), which were hosted in France at the Biennale of Val de Marne, the Polverigi festival, and in Avignon, respectively. However, it was with Mamanonmama, a show presented in 1997 at the Biennale of Visual Arts in Venice, that the group truly began to stand out in Italy. In this show, the dance style is marked by a generous energy, formally expressed through sudden falls to the ground, large runs, and whirling couple embraces, all driven by the urgency to give voice to inner feelings.
Two shows followed in 1998: Senza domicilio fisso, dedicated to the social and psychological issues of migrants, and Angeli di carne: concerto per quattro danzatori e due musicisti, created in collaboration with the musical group Nextime Ensemble of Danilo Grassi. This show, which premiered last November at the Teatro Stabile di Parma, explores the theme of eroticism and moves between the sacred and the profane. It is an important recognition for the young artist, as Teatro Due has hosted Artemis as a resident company since 1998.
Antonio Ligabue debuted in Rovereto in co-production with the festival. For this new show, Casadei brought together her dancers with clown Alexandre Pavlata, actor Marcello Vazzoler, and musician Mario Arcari, who also composed the original score. The idea is to create a dual plane in the performance. The first, more realistic plane, entrusted to Vazzoler, aims to embody Ligabue as a symbol of solitude and estrangement from social conventions. The second plane, handled by the dancers and other performers, draws inspiration from documentaries on Ligabue’s life by Ruggerini and Andreassi and from the biography by Marzio Dall'Acqua. This approach aims to create an ensemble choreography that projects the moods, situations, and environments that marked the painter's restless and dramatic life: the relationship with his Swiss stepmother, his unresolved passion for music, hospitalizations in psychiatric institutions, escapes into the woods, and his obsession with animals. This work commemorates the centenary of the birth of a painter whose visions, as Monica Casadei recalls, were the voice of "a shattering truth, sharp to the point of pain."
