I returned made young again,
Dante Alighieri
Pure and disposed to rise up to the stars
Dante Beyond Borders is an Indian-Italian co-production between Instabili Vaganti, the Italian Cultural Institute of Mumbai and Ahum Trust, directed by Anna Dora Dorno and inspired by Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy and created on the occasion of the celebrations of the 700th anniversary of the Supreme Poet’s death.
The show explores different languages ranging from traditional Indian dance to physical and experimental theater, video art and electronic music to ferry the viewer through the otherworldly journey undertaken by Dante.
Dante Beyond Borders brings Absence to the stage, and is the result of a long process that began during the first Lock down, which saw the company work remotely, on video, with classical dancer Anuradha Venkataraman.
The evocative physical actions take place in an essential setting, characterized by a few stage objects, which are also natural and material elements: sand, charcoal, a burned log. The shaped use of light and video projections evoke dreamlike contexts and imaginary naturalistic settings that become scenic backdrops or separating elements to be crossed to enter otherworldly contexts.
In these dream-like spaces, performer Nicola Pianzola’s physical actions meet the mudras and gestures of Bharatanatyam dance, choreographed by Anuradha Venkataraman, while composer Riccardo Nanni’s electronic music interacts with classical Indian sounds and the performers’ vocal experiments around Dante’s text and poetic fragments from the Mahābhārata, creating evocative soundscapes.
The performance becomes a concrete tool for exploring the many connections between Dante’s work and Indian culture, both iconographically, philosophically, and theologically, but also and above all connecting two centuries-old cultural traditions such as Italy and India. In fact, Dante mentions India, the Ganges River, repeatedly in his poem, and as per the tradition of the time, places the Earthly Paradise in Indian territory. India thus struck, with its wonders, the mind of the poet, who, in imagining the East, saw the sun rising from the river sacred to the Hindus.
Creation Instabili Vaganti
Direction Anna Dora Dorno
Dramaturgy Anna Dora Dorno, Nicola Pianzola
Performers Nicola Pianzola, Anuradha Venkataraman
Choreography Anuradha Venkataraman, Nicola Pianzola
Performers in video, original songs and voiceover Anna Dora Dorno, Nicola Pianzola, Anuradha Venkataraman
Original music and sound design Riccardo Nanni
Video creation Anna Dora Dorno, Nicola Pianzola, Ashwin Iyer
Set and light design Anna Dora Dorno
Technical and lighting direction Mattia Bagnoli
Production Italian Cultural Institute of Mumbai / Italian Cultural Institute of New Delhi/ Instabili Vaganti / Ahum Trust
With the support of MIC – Ministry of Culture
Premiere November 21, 2021 – TATA Live – International Literature Festival, Mumbai – INDIA
Premiere November 30, 2021 – Rangashankara Theatre, Bangalore – INDIA
National Premiere September 17, 2022 – International Festival PerformAzioni – Bologna