L’imagination sans pouvoir. Le 68 de la danse moderne et contemporaine en Italie

L'articolo analizza la situazione della danza in Italia tra il 1968 e il 1979 alla luce del mutato contesto sociale e politico a livello internazionale.

Starting from the analyses of the picture of Lucy Briaschi and other members of the Gruppo Sperimentale di Danza Libera ("experimental group of free dance") founded in 1968 in Vicenza by Franca Della Libera (1933-1999), the essay inquires about a complex historical dimension of modern and contemporary dance in Italy. Taking advantage of Mark Franko’s observations concerning the potential for dance to represent protest and to subvert power, the essay explores how the political dimension of this movement was rather a means of exercising ideological power without being its emblem. It also tries to cast new light on the late affirmation of modern and contemporary dance is intertwined with the situation of research theatre, whose chronology reveals the profound difference between these two worlds. The near absence of contemporary dance in Italian theatres today is a sign that the protest of the ’68ies marked the beginnings of Italian modern and contemporary dance, but without fuelling a long-term cultural policy capable of creating a space and visibility or even national centres for choreographic training and production.