Roberto Castello/ALDES: In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni

Exhausted wanderers, damned souls: four quivering figures struggle through the night, in the stark black and white of an expressionist film and accompanied by a relentless, trance-inducing musical soundtrack. A laconic voice announces dark and light over a loudspeaker; day and night alternate in an excruciatingly similar sequence. Resembling bizarre marionettes, the itinerants continue on, like a remotely controlled matrix that repeatedly finds a force within itself to counter uniformity. The figures doggedly maintain their course without a goal, never communicating yet finding small moments of contact, even tenderness. It is a race between the last, the lost, a tragicomic ever-onwards, which Roberto Castello positions somewhere between Samuel Beckett, Marcel Marceau and Pina Bausch. The mysterious palindrome making up the title translates as “We go around by night consumed by fire”. Backwards and forwards, moving in an endless circle. A cofounder of Italy’s contemporary dance scene, Castello’s experimental, political performances are pervaded by forceful images portraying the gloomy hopelessness of the human condition.

“A fascinating interplay of space, time and movement.” – Hannoversche Allgemeine, Germany

“A masterpiece of dance, which with harrowing dynamism presents the human body in the grip of hysteria, hypnosis and abuse.” – La Repubblica, Italy

“A choreography constructed like an astounding scenic machinery in which we become completely entangled.” – Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy

Choreography: Roberto Castello | Premiere: September 2015, Rome | Duration: 60 minutes no intermission