The first time I met Daniela Lucato we talked about her new project Connecting Fingers after it has been selected for the festival The 2015 Expat Expo – A Showcase of Wahlberliner.
After the degree in Philosophy with an antropological thesis on contemporary dance, Daniela moved to Rome, Wellington and finally Berlin where she is currently working as an actress for film and theater performances. Among her recent works the theater piece Call me Reality (2013) and The Birthday a short film that she wrote/directed in mandarin/english.
Talking about Connecting Fingers and about my role as a dancer in the show, I was immediately attracted from the concept. From the beginning we found a good empathy and and we have seen the possibility of a collaboration together.
The idea of the project is to tell, through dance, the stories of several refugees living in camps in Germany. Daniela interviewed them about their past, their relationship with their country and their social-political situation. She was interested in their emotional approach in remembering their country, the way they were telling their stories, the silences, the hesitations and their memories, the small and private events that came to their mind.
The project reflects on the fact that the being a refugee is just a temporary condition and that, independently of our cultural background and social extraction, under the wrong social/political situation anyone of us could find himself into it.
The decision to work with dancers was taken considering that body language can build a bridge between different cultures.
The body has very communicative powers: it talks about human beings, it deletes social and ethnic distinctions and connects people from different groups. The body identifies and creates deep emotional connections and its moving representations are expressed through a language that, like music, is universal.
The piece reinterprets the emotions of the protagonists, the images that come from their words, the strong memories that belong to them. The dancer becomes here a storyteller.
The show will go on stage the 3rd of June at the English theater
(http://www.etberlin.de/production/connecting-fingers/).
Connecting Fingers:
Concept and Dramaturgy by Daniela Lucato | Choreography Assistance by Alessio Trevisani | Music Design by David Travers | Cultural Mediation by Kathrine Janetzki | Danced by Liat Benattis, Nicola Campanelli, Ana Cotoré, Martha Hincapié and Maia Pik | Costumes by Laboart | Lighting by Simone Trotta/Brian Pertti | Photo by jpantale
