With L'Animale, Chiara Bersani takes on The Dying Swan, the solo Michel Fokine created for Anna Pavlova in 1905. She reimagines it through a vocal and sound dramaturgy inspired by John Cage, around a single question: what do we become when, faced with the deepest night, it is through song that we recognize ourselves? The soul appears here like an aviary full of birds โ a space where gesture, color, breath and intention turn into flesh: the flesh of what once was, of what grows, transforms, fades and turns into a ghost.
An Italian performer and choreographer, Chiara Bersani explores the politics of the body and how the images we make speak to society's narratives, building on the idea of the "Political Body." Her landmark piece, Gentle Unicorn, traveled through the Aerowaves network, and her performance earned her the 2018 Ubu Award for best performer under 35; Sottobosco looks at the bond between disabled bodies and natural landscapes. Committed to accessibility for disabled artists on stage, she co-founded the association Al.Di.Qua.Artists in 2020. In 2023, the Kunsthaus Baselland presented Deserters, her first solo show in a European institution (with Bergamo's Gamec), and she was nominated for both the Black Carpet Awards and the Diversity Awards. In 2025 she won the international live-art prize at the ANTI festival (Kuopio, Finland), co-curated the Spazio Kor season (Asti) and was guest curator of the Bastards festival (Trondheim). In 2026, a finalist for the European Salavisa Dance Award, she also performed in and advised on the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Winter Paralympic Games, directed by Marco Boarino. She is an associate artist of the Milan Triennale (2025-2027).