Given the relation of dance with music, it is not surprising that a festival of contemporary dance, like Equilibrio, Il Festival di Danza Contemporanea di Roma, is an integral part of a music institution, the Musica per Roma Foundation. Now in its 18th edition, this year’s programme was curated by Emanuele Masi, who has been in this position since 2021, in the footsteps of Spanish dance critic Roger Salas and Flemish choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, among others. Mainly located in the Auditorium of Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, a multi-purposed architectural complex designed by architect Renzo Piano to celebrate the art of music, this year’s Equilibrio festival renewed cross-institutional collaborations in Rome that saw a handful of performances in other locations – most prominently Vertigine, a dance season curated by Orbita | Spellbound National Centre for the Production of Dance under the direction of Valentina Marini, featuring Irene Russolillo’s Fàtico and a focus on Piergiorgio Milano at Teatro Palladium.
Whether for the architectural acoustics of the auditorium or the festival’s music context, aurality certainly seems to be an element threading this year’s featured works. In Closer/On the Other Side, a double bill evening choreographed by Benjamin Millepied for the corps de ballet of Rome Opera House, the minimalist notes of Philip Glass were performed live by the pianist Lucio Perotti. All the Way was an intimate trio of Meg Stuart with contrabass player Doug Weiss and pianist Marian Carvalho, while in Riflessi, a piece conceived for young audiences, Camilla Monga and multi-instrumentalist Giulia Tagliavia influenced each other in a live music-dance performance. In Russolillo’s Fàtico, her vocal research was a central aspect of her choreographic and spiritual universe where the linking of voice and body in an intense construction of presence lent to each moment of her performance a rare authenticity. Making a step towards accessibility – an initiative that will hopefully grow further in upcoming editions – Equilibrio also offered people with visual impairment the chance to access Marcos Morau’s Firmanento through the poetic audio-description of Giuseppe Comuniello and Camilla Guarino.