L'Impasto, a very young ensemble founded in Bologna in 1995, derives its name from the aspiration towards a scenic language that blends dance, singing, and acting. Not surprisingly, the two founders, Alessandro Berti, playwright and director, and Michela Lucenti, dancer and choreographer, base their exploration on a fusion of their experiences, aiming to develop a theatrical style where bodily gestures harmonize with vocal expression in accordance with the dramatic structure of the work. Their performances stem from a desire to narrate stories about intergenerational struggles, paths of growth, and contemporary as well as historical social realities, often depicted through eccentric vernacular "families."
The group's compositional technique begins with the selection of a theme, followed by Berti's writing of texts and songs for the performances. This initial phase is followed by Lucenti's choreographic-vocal creation, focusing on the development of a physical technique for vocal emission. The training is aimed at achieving a language where movement and singing are seamlessly integrated. Lucenti works to establish a dance style that allows performers to dance while singing, emphasizing strict control over the diaphragm in constant relation to movement development.
Following their debut work titled Occidentite (1995), the group created Skankrèr or the Artist's Family in 1996, a bittersweet story about the fate of a "balarino" (a dancer) raised in Padania. Michela Lucenti portrayed with grotesque energy the profile of a mother ready to project her own frustrations and anxieties onto her son. Skankrèr is part of the successful Trilogy of the Balarino, which includes Home Balòm and Pamphlet. After creating Il mondo dei figli in the previous season, a reflective piece still focused on generational contrasts, L'Impasto collaborates with the festival on their new work Trionfo Anonimo. The performance expands on and completes a short study of the same title, successfully presented in Ravenna in 1997.
The authors explain: "In that initial version, we witnessed the desperate cries of a girl from the wealthy North of the world, addressing God in the throes of the passage from adolescence to maturity. In a 'choreography of exhaustion,' we saw that young body thrash about on the vast stage against its own ghosts. Singing intertwined with tears, lamentations of invocation, and the anger of helplessness." The new work retains only the title and some of the songs from that study. It focuses on the physical energy expressed through singing and movement by the ensemble: a triumphant and anonymous energy because "it is tied to a pure emotional corporeality and a primordial physicality that does not rely on names and categories."
