A disciple says to his Master: “I am a fool. I float, I drown, I float, drown, float, drown … When will I manage to free myself from this painful world? Floating, drowning, floating … Life is so hard!”. The Master does not reply. The disciple stares at him a long time, waiting, and finally tells him: “Master! I am here in front of you, asking you a question, am I not?”. “Where are you now? Are you floating or drowning?”

Concept, choreography and direction: Patrizia Cavola, Ivan Truol

Cast: Valeria Baresi, Anna Basti, Giorgio Iacono, Valeria Loprieno, Cristina Meloro

Original music composition: Epsilon Indi

Costumes: Medea Labate, Eva Seeber

Lighting: Danila Blasi

Artistic residency:

La Scatola Dell’Arte

CORE Officina Coreografica Progetti per la Scena

Supercinema Tuscania (VT)

Production: Atacama, supported by: MiBACT Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo (Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism) – Performing Arts Department

Regione Lazio – Department of Culture, Arts and Sport

Sources of inspiration of this performance are the book “Mystical Cabaret” by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s statement “Wisdom and laughter overlap” (quoted in Jodorowsky’s book). The short stories provided by different cultures and philosophical traditions – such as Sufi, Buddhist, Alchemical, Koan, Haiku, Zen, Tibetan tradition, all quoted by Jodorowsky in “Mystical Cabaret” – have been the basis of our improvisations and choreographic research. Along with our dancers we read, inhabited and swallowed these stories as well as the imagery evoked by them, then we created an original and personal subject which naturally parted from its sources and reached its own definition through a process of research. We were interested in creating images on the basis of the issues evoked by the written texts and then we worked on shaping and making these images come true, beyond any narrative structure. Through these stories we often had the opportunity to discuss, to smile and to laugh at human beings’ flaws, frailty and contradictions. This choreographic project combines the elaboration of dance creating a physical poem with a work of pictorial and visionary creation of images, as well as with the use of words and the interaction with the original music by Sergio de Vito and his group Epsilon Indi. “I Float, I Drown, I Float” is a concerted work embodied by an overflowing humanity moving within an imaginary and submerged ring, where it keeps on alternately floating, drowning and floating.

Production 2013

ATACAMA