The idea around which we developed Icarus is not faithful to the myth. Icarus is considered by the myth the one who wants to fly higher than possible and go beyond the natural rules for too much pride. For this reason he is punished with death.
According to the version of the ancient Greek writer Luciano di Samosata Icarus does not fall because he is crazy or proud but because he wants to fly towards freedom, as a supreme act of beauty.
In this piece Icarus does not die as the myth wants, he lives in nowadays life, as if in a new labyrinth, similar to the one he was escaping from. He has a skeleton of wings, his figure resembles that of a young dark man. He feels a stranger, coming from an other time and another part of the world. He has passed all his life in a labyrinth. He feels unable to live in our strict and not inclusive society, to be judged for having wanted freedom through his flight. As a rebel, or as a free person, he wants to fly again, to escape the rules and look for the light. Icarus has chosen to return to the light, as a place of extreme beauty, dangerous and vital at the same time.

AZULTEATRO, born in 2005, is an Italian based group. Serena Gatti is director and performer, Raffaele Natale is musician and composer. Other collaborative artists join their projects. Serena and Raffaele devise shows for theatre and site specific performances. Serena has performed and collaborated with R. Mireck, G. P. Ang, D. Manfredini, E. Moscato, C. Morganti, F. della Monica, Living theatre; S. Bucci, C. Zerbey, A. Certini, K.J. Holmes, R.Giordano, K. Duck, O. D’Agostino, P. Mereu.
Azul is a meeting field, an inviting harbour that hosts and receives foreign ships, looks to the sea, open its eyes to the horizon. In the journey we encounter Theatre, Dance, Poetry, Singing, the steps of Hearing. In this embracing Azul is fulfilled. Constantly work with Azul Teatro Fabrizio Leverone (Assistent Director), Marcello D'Agostino (Light design), Francesca Gatti (Logistics), Carla Pampaluna (Video).
azulteatro.com

The project challenges the ideological construct of white as “the essential” and black as “the other”. The framework of whiteness centers white-skinned people as the ruling class, white-skinned people as the purveyors of knowledge, and grants white skinned people with the power of defining itself and non-white folks,or, ‘the others.’ “Thus humanity is white, and white defines black, not in itself but as relative to whiteness. Black is not regarded as autonomous being but as defined and differentiated with reference to whiteness. Black is incidental; the inessential as opposed to essential. White is subject. White is absolute. Black is the other (deconstructed quote by Simone DeBeauvoir made to refer to whiteness).” But what if the so-called others that stood in direct opposition to Whiteness, redefined their humanity, and reclaimed dominion over themselves by determining who they are for themselves and thereby elevating themselves to a higher state of being, moving, and consciousness? Our project will explore the deconstruction of whiteness through the centering of blackness. We will explore how the construct of whiteness dictates how we speak, move, and see ourselves through poetry, dialogue, devised movement, and sound and as a result employ the labour required to center the power of our collective blackness in order to reclaim our identities as humansrather than ‘the others.’

Blackism is an artistic movement and ideology that aims to reclaim the autonomy of Blackness. The collective was founded by performance artist, Nasheeka Nedsreal, actress, Adrian Blount and poet, Emeke Ene in late 2016. Navigating through various African disaporic channels, using dance, theatre, poetry, music and video, Blackism aims to decolonize our entirety and center Blackness. Currently, the collective is working on its first performance, Back To (working title) and hopes to premiere the work soon.
blackismblog.wordpress.com

MUNDO LUNATICUS is the story of a man into an eternal exodus; scenes that takes the displacement, migration, as the process of discovering and questioning our individuality and foreignness, into a contemporary context. MUNDO LUNATICUS is a physical theatre play about the interaction and synchronicity with objects, sound design and light as part of the dramaturgy, a dramaturgy of actions where movement and gesture are full of meaning as words and a set dynamic set design where small boxes become a wall and a wipe becomes a snake in the desert.

The theatre company NARANJAZUL was born in 2014 through different artistic residences on Italy, France, and Switzerland, where the company started under the approach of surrealism and theatre of the absurd and the poetic of corporal expression as inspirations. It has participated on different international festivals as: Festival Santiago Off 2016, Chile; National Encounter of Scenic Arts, Mexico 2015; Quadrennial of Prague PQS2015, Czech Republic, ASCONA Theatre Festival, Switzerland, International Clown Festival, México 2014.
www.teatronaranjazul.com

How do I confront myself? How do I move? How do I challenge the paradoxes of hypervisibility: of power and vulnerability, of being detectable yet obscured? How can your idea of me begin to encapsulate all the complexities and pluralities of who I am and what I experience? My Black dancing body: a place of trauma, resistance, controversy, transformation, liberation and contradiction. This piece attempts to tackle the realities of black bodies in predominantly white spaces. It asks the questions, How and when will the black body be free to understand, perceive and accept itself outside the terrain of the white imagination? Will the black body ever look into the mirror and see only itself?

Nasheeka Nedsreal is a performance artist from Louisiana, working across movement, music and spoken word. After studying Dance and Fine Arts, she moved to Berlin where she has resided for the last 3 years. In recent years, her work explores identity, rituals, female and African diasporic narratives, intimacy and improvisation. She has collaborated with Ballhaus Naunynstraße, TanzFabrik Berlin, Ada Studios, Promethean Theatre, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Afropolitan, Circus Charivari and various artists throughout Europe, USA, and India. In 2014, Nasheeka founded Soul Sisters Berlin, a collective dedicated to connecting Black women in Germany. Further, she works in fashion, television and as a childhood educator; teaching English, Dance and Theatre, throughout Germany.
nasheekanedsreal.com

Extra Ordinary is a performance installation and a living photography exhibition. In this work in progress version, the multitalented artist Sifiso Seleme plays with stereotypes of men and women, with glamour and poverty, ecstasy and exhaustion. Longing and generosity, despair and hope are all present in this extraordinary idea and first performance. In this work, the viewer learns about the double life of the main figure. The performer misleads the audience and asks them to take careful look into the details on stage. The background of Sifiso Seleme's work of strong pictures is the "post-apartheid" society in his home in South Africa. His interest is particulary the in-between of different realities of life in Johannesburg and Soweto and its possibilities and impossibilities.
Extra Ordinary is a multidisciplinary work that uses dance and multimedia. A living marionette as a symbol for the search of identity and movement between identities plays an integral part in the work.

As a child in Soweto Sifiso Seleme loved to help his granny to sew, to do crafts with his brothers and to dance in the streets with other children. The late choreographer George Khumalo noticed him and taught him contemporary dance, which he drew on as a member of the Ntsoana Contemporary Dance Theatre and its international workshop programme. In 2008 Seleme was selected for an intensive workshop at the ImpulsTanz Festival in Austria and later as a participant in the Goethe-Institut’s Moving Africa programme, through which he visited the Danse Meets Dance festival in Nigeria. A creative spirit by nature, Seleme is an experienced photographer, sculptor, puppeteer and costume designer and has presented Pantsula workshops in Vienna and, for two consecutive years, at Tanzafabrik in Berlin. He has his own clothing range, called Africanism13, a “vintage, old-school” style that caters for both young and old. Currently he is intrigued by site-specific work. His latest project, “Politics of this Country are like Fish & Chips”, has moved his creativity from centre stage into public spaces such as taxi ranks, where he can express himself to people who are affected by the topical issues he raises — xenophobia, the hospital crisis, the e-tolling system. During his last public intervention about the Gauteng hospital crisis he walked 75km from Chris Hani Baragwanath via the Coronation and Helen Joseph hospitals to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, collecting 500 signatures for a memorandum. Although his work has attracted threats, he remains resolute and is currently working on interventions about HIV and Aids and domestic workers. His talents may have taken him from Mozambique to Morocco, but his work remains rooted in local issues and public discourse. “I am not sure if I really love it. It is more that I can’t help myself. I have to do it,” he admits. — Fatima Asmal 200ysa.mg.co.za/2013/sifiso-seleme

Hot-Dog is a theatrical experience set inside an unreal dimension, a dreamlike dog pound in which the thoughts live behind invisible bars. Many times, without knowing it.

Skaraventer is a project born in the spring of 2015, when Lucia Falco and Marcello Serafino (historical founders of the TeatroInRivolta Theater Company) decided that it was time to start a new artistic journey. No more creating a new theater company, but laying the foundation for the genesis of a log term project, provided with strategical, conceptual and aesthetic autonomy, and characterized by a strong need of growth and transformation.
skaraventer.wordpress.com

This work explores the common portrayal of the dynamics and relationships between men tainted by the affects of a patriarchal society. In this piece we will explore intimacy in particular and how men can find ways and room for intimate moments shared without it having to be overtly sexualised or romantic in any way. The portrayal of black men in particular is commonly one that consists of stereotypical images of power, violence and conflict between one and other. Through this performance we would like to show that relations between men of colour are not so black and white but consist of various shades of grey, we hope to break the stigma attached to us and challenge the expectation of the audience through presenting this piece of work in a different context than one may be used to seeing.

Waddah Sinada is a London based dance artist and choreographer. Waddah trained at The Place (London Contemporary Dance School) where he obtained a BA Hons degree in contemporary dance. His dance background consists of Hip Hop theatre in the pasts performing in works by Avant Garde Dance Company and associate choreographer of Definitives Dance collective whom have travelled competing throughout Europe and America. Over the course of the last few years Waddah had transitioned into a more contemporary style of work recently working with choreographers like Hagit Yakira, Lea Anderson and Fin Walker. Since graduating Waddah has been working in and around London teaching and developing his name and his voice as a young and emerging choreographer.