How do you revive a dance that is about to disappear? When the Italian choreographer Alessandro Sciarroni became interested in the polka chinata in 2018, only five dancers were still practising this dance in Italy. Yet it has spanned the twentieth century: originally performed only by men, this popular dance of seduction – in which the dancers’ embrace gradually allows them to whirl around, knees bent, without letting go – was created in Bologna in the 1900s. In collaboration with Giancarlo Stagni, a dancing master who unearthed and studied videos of polka chinata from half a century ago, Alessandro Sciarroni offers a twirling and physical performance of this dance in Save the last dance for me. Two dancers, Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini, perform to a techno beat as a way of reviving these almost forgotten steps and adjourning the ‘last dance’ of the polka chinata. 

Source: programme of the CND

Alessandro Sciarroni is an Italian artist active in the field of contemporary performing arts. The performance "Your Girl", produced in 2007, has toured the main Italian Theatre and Dance Festivals and in 2010 has been presented to the European audience in London (The Place), Oslo (Dancenshus), Dublin (Dublin Dance Festival), Burgos and Warsaw. In 2008 he wins the prize "Nuove Sensibilità” with the show "If I was Madonna". Sciarroni's works are produced by the Teatro Stabile delle Marche [The Marche Regional Theatre] in collaboration with Corpoceleste_CC00#, an independent cultural association created and directed by S. Between 2009 and 2010 his productions become part of the Italian network Antibodies Explo and of Aerowaves, a cross-border dance performance network that promotes the mobility of artists throughout Europe.

Since 2009, Alessandro Sciarroni is member of the faculty of the School of Theatre at Teatro Stabile delle Marche in Ancona. His research workshops focus on the contemporary art practice and the cross overs between the languages of performance art, theatre, and visual arts.

In 2010, together with other 8 Italian coreographers, he is selected for the project "Choreographic Dialogues" and invited to spend a one-month residency at the Festival B-motion in Bassano del Grappa and at the prestigious SNDO institute in Amsterdam. In 2011, one of the two Italian artists selected for the Choreoram project, he has been asked to develop a research project within the cities of Zagreb, Copenhagen, Rotterdam, Bassano del Grappa, Madrid and London.

Alessandro Sciarroni, is part of “Progetto Matilde”, a regional platform for the promotion of new theatre. In 2012 he is chosen as priority company for Aerowaves with the creation "Joseph" and wins the Danza&Danza prize as best 2012 emergent author. His last creation "Folk-s, will you still love me tomorrow?", inspired by Northern Italy's folk dances, is a performative and choreographic practice focusing on time.

More information: www.alessandrosciarroni.it

Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).