On Thursday, Dec. 2 at 7pm, the European Union Center and Lincoln Hall Theater will host a performance by Artemis Danza, a modern dance company from Italy. Artemis Danza will perform “Dante Solo Inferno,” a reinterpretation of select passages from the Divine Comedy, in commemoration of the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri. Organized by the European Union Center and the Italian Cultural Institute in Chicago, the performance is free and open to the public, and it is part of a world tour that includes Canada and France.
To know how big an audience to expect, we would greatly appreciate it if you could RSVP here. RSVPing is not required. Please note that masks are required inside Lincoln Hall Theater.
About “Dante Solo Inferno”
In this performance, the dancers are the protagonists of several choreographic scenes dedicated to the lost souls met by Dante on his infernal journey. Charon, Minos, Francesca da Rimini, Pier Della Vigna, Ulysses, are some of the characters chosen by Monica Casadei to investigate the human soul and compose a poetic and, at the same time, visually impacting image, in which every archetype of the collective unconscious finds its own carnal and earthly manifestation. The soundtrack alternates between original music composed by Luca Vianini and pieces of Giuseppe Verdi's sacred music, interspersed with Dante's most famous verses. Please see a trailer of the performance here: https://vimeo.com/593151409/ac5bb99583.
About Artemis Danza
Artemis Danza is supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture and Emilia Romagna Region; several international projects are supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Emilia Romagna Region - Local Authority for Cultural Heritage and Landscape.
To date, Artemis Danza has staged more than forty creations, ranging from contemporary dance shows to choreographies for theatrical performances and operas. Artemis Danza also supports the work of young choreographers and promotes educational initiatives such as professional workshops and theoretical conferences.
Since 2005, Artemis Danza has been engaged in “Artemis Incontra Culture Altre” (Artemis Meets Other Cultures), a project of artistic residencies and international tours that gave birth to performances, workshops, publications, reports and exhibitions (in Germany, France, Swaziland, Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Japan, Argentina, USA, Colombia, Lebanon; Paraguay, Thailand, China, Ethiopia, Korea, South Africa, Nigeria, Cuba, Vietnam, Mexico, and beyond).
Artemis Danza also concentrates on Corpo d’Opera, a project of choreographic re-imagining of the opera repertoire, with a special focus on female figures. Some of the main productions that the company has staged in recent years - such as Traviata, Tosca and Carmen K – originate from Corpo d’Opera.
About Monica Casadei, Founder of Artemis Danza
A graduate in Philosophy from the University of Bologna with a dissertation on Plato and Dance, Monica Casadei acquired in Italy, France and Great Britain a solid preparation in the techniques of western contemporary dance. Central to her artistic formation are also some Eastern influences as a result of periods spent in India and China and from her training in the martial arts: towards the end of the 1980s in Paris, she moves on to the Japanese martial art of Aikido and also attends the Academie des Arts Martiaux et Arts Contemporaines directed by André Cognard. At the same time, she pursued the following endeavours: training to achieve first dan in Aikido, a teaching degree in Aiki-Taiso in the Autonomous Academy of Aikido and the study of Japanese Buto Dance with Kazuo Ohno Masaki Iwana, Carlotta Ikeda and Ko Morobushi. In these years she is also a performer and dancer for the Compagnie Terre Rouge of Isabelle Dubouloz. In 1994, Monica Casadei founded, in France, the Compagnia Artemis Danza, with which she moved to Italy in 1997.