The liberating power of dance
Michele Rizzo’s HIGHER xtn. explores the power of dance by presenting the nightclub as a place that allows radical self-expression and community building. The previous version of the work featured at the 2016 URB Festival in Helsinki.
Rizzo has noted that clubgoers often refer to the club as church, a safe environment where they can fully express themselves without fear of judgment. HIGHER xtn. highlights the cathartic and transformative power of techno music, whose repetitive rhythms can temporarily detach the dancers from their sense of self by inducing a state of trance.
Moved by hypnotic electronic music composed by Lorenzo Senni, the dancers enter the museum from different directions. Gradually making their way through the galleries, they ultimately gather in the one place, where pairs of dancers begin to perform in sync, until the entire group eventually dances in unison, becoming a single body.
Michele Rizzo
Michele Rizzo is an Italian choreographer. He has studied in Amsterdam at the Sandberg Instituut and at SNDO (School for New Dance Development), where he is a visiting professor of choreography and movement studies. Rizzo’s practice touches various disciplines, including performance, music and visual art. His choreographies and installations often revolve around themes related to human existence, such as the definition of the self.
The team
Concept and choreography: Michele Rizzo
Original soundtrack: Lorenzo Senni
Dancers: Michele Rizzo, Charlie Laban Trier, Max Göran, Juan Pablo Cámara, Milena Weber
Artist’s assistant: Michael Scerbo
Production: DANSCO
Supported by
Stedelijk Museum, SNDO, ICK, Mondriaan Fonds and Prins Bernhard Cultuur Fonds.
