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by and with Viola Scaglione
co-directed by Silvia Gribaudi
movement coach Marta Ciappina
creative process Doriana Crema
sound design Max Viale
costumes Mariateresa Grilli
light design Luca Serafini
creative producer Ewa Gleisner
Turin Ballet Theater production
with the support of MiC-Ministry of Culture, Piedmont Region as part of the Choreographic Residencies Lavanderia a Vapore project

Secondo quarto di luna is a crossing, a threshold between what is shown and what still remains in the shadows. Like the waxing phase of the lunar cycle, where fragility and strength meet and melancholy becomes a driver of possibilities. Conceived and interpreted by Viola Scaglione, the work was born from a personal and artistic necessity: to give body and voice to a space that had remained in the shadows for years. To support this exploration, a constellation of female presences chosen out of profound affinity takes shape. Silvia Gribaudi, co-director, accompanies the interpreter beyond the boundaries of the known, also transforming fears into territories of freedom. Marta Ciappina, movement coach, translates the gesture into narration, weaving an intimate and sensitive grammar. Doriana Crema, with an attentive and enveloping gaze, holds together the fragments of the creative process, illuminating their connections and meanings.

Viola Scaglione is a dancer, choreographer and artistic director. She trained at the Balletto Teatro of Turin, specializing at High On Dance in Washington D.C. and at the Boulogne Conservatory in Paris. As a dancer she works regularly with the Balletto Teatro di Torino and has collaborated with the Teatro Regio of Turin in opera and ballet productions, as well as an international experience with the LA PIEL company of Madrid. In 2015 she took on the artistic direction of the Balletto Teatro di Torino, guiding it towards a contemporary identity, open to contamination between dance, performance and experimental musical theatre, collaborating with choreographers of national and international importance. She coordinates international projects at the Lavanderia a Vapore – Dance Residency Center. She is artistic consultant of the BEinSIDE Acqui in Palcoscenico Festival, and, between 2024 and 2026, she held the role of artistic supervisor of the TensioniTemporanee review of the Piemonte dal Vivo Foundation, in Novi Ligure. In her work she combines artistic vision and managerial skills, promoting inclusion practices and encouraging dialogue between dance, territories and communities.

A project by Jija Sohn in conversation with Lavanderia a Vapore
with the support of Viernulvier (Ghent)

Posture of Liquidity is a research framework that invites immediate and intuitive intimacy. It activates a state of “liquidity” in which time slows, social boundaries soften, and thoughts, emotions, and relationships move together like a shared tide. During this residency, the research unfolds through two interconnected collaborative chapters. The first focuses on the ongoing study of Pyjama Party, a gathering format developed in close dialogue with Kadri Sirel. Framed as an artistic practice, it invites strangers to cultivate immediate relational bonds by evoking the intimacy of a temporary slumber party. Entering this vulnerable domestic context, the research explores how social barriers soften to activate collective presence. The second chapter dedicates three days to profound and embodied encounters with longtime collaborators: Gosie Vervloessem (Wpzimmer), Julia Reist (Kunstenpunt), and Chiara Organtini (Lavanderia a Vapore). Sharing a resonant investigation into the fundamental question – What is our true work? – the inquiry this time focuses on collective conversations, mutual exchanges of thoughts, and work on the aquatic body, providing a vital space to inhabit the same room, align questions, and support each other’s journeys.

Jija Sohn is a Korean-Japanese artist engaged in creating collective performative situations aimed at exploring the emergence of moments of epiphany, intimacy, pleasure, and trust. Her work focuses on how we connect, foregrounding processes as a relational and experiential space. Her current research, Posture of Liquidity, develops by connecting her aquatic bodywork practice and her pedagogical work at DAS Theatre (ATD), each continually informing and reshaping the other. Since 2026, Jija has been practicing Watsu® and Waterdance, working with water as a space for non-linearity, touch, and deep listening. She also facilitates Listening Bodies, a program within the DAS Theatre Master program, where she works through body- and movement-based sessions to cultivate bodily attunement, fluid group dynamics, and co-learning environments rooted in shared care, playfulness, and curiosity.

Concept and production by Erica Pianalto and Lisa Nicatore

Inspired by Peter Pan and J. M. Barrie, the project explores the figure of the shadow as a double: an autonomous presence, capable of escaping control, which can transform into an obstacle, support, and opportunity. Through this metaphor, the research interrogates the relationship between disability and performance, asking whether and in what ways a disabled body can be recognized as a dancing body. Disability is imagined as a portal to unexplored worlds, where the pirate becomes a symbol of all those bodies that escape dominant aesthetic and physical canons. In this journey, the attempt to adhere to unattainable models gives way to transformation: the shadow, that which deviates from the norm, emerges as an element of strength and uniqueness.

Erica Pianalto is an activist and performer. Her path spans theater, dance, and contemporary performance practices. Her artistic research is a space for reflection and transformation, fueled by fusions with poetry, music, philosophy, and photography, deeply intertwined with her commitment to the fight against ableism.

Lisa Nicatore is constantly searching for wonder. Through her study of the body, she senses the ability to uncover different parts of the self, to bring worlds to the surface, and to find other tools for understanding reality.

by Marta Pastorino
research residency on body and language

The research explores the processes of integration between soma, tell, topics, and writing, traversing and studying four states of the creative process, from body to language and back.
The process occurs through two primary research channels: the sensitive and the integral. Thanks to the sensitive body, a state of expansion and intimacy is achieved in which one listens to the internal word and prepares the body for the birth of integrated language.

Marta Pastorino is an author, educator, and performer. For nearly thirty years, she has been exploring the intersection of writing and the body. She has collaborated on texts for schools and essays on Writing and the Body, including the volume Il corpo, part of the anthology Lezioni di Scrittura, published by Corriere della Sera (2023). On Substack, she publishes corpo>a<corpo, a newsletter on writing, education, pleasure, activism, and autobiography. At Scuola Holden, she is a senior lecturer in various fields of education, leading workshops on storytelling and autobiography. At Academy, she teaches the subject “Intensità.” In 2023, she won the Scuola Holden’s Spencer Chair grant for research on the theme of pleasure in narrative processes, which resulted in a public lecture and a short, unpublished essay. She has held workshops with young adults in prison, storytelling courses for Emergency on the themes of war and migration, and seminars on the relationship between the body and writing at the Lavanderia a Vapore in Turin. She has worked in the Education Department of the Merz Foundation. Together with Francesca Cola, she writes about dance and the performing arts for magazines and founded the BIOSAS collective, presenting its first work, Lathe biosas, in June 2026, as a residency at Mosaico Danza’s Living Lab.

Within the framework of the Étape Danse project
In collaboration with Mosaico Danza

Artistic and choreographic direction Elisabete Finger
creation and performance Lucas Resende, Marcela Reichelt, Mariana Romagnani, Mariana Pimentel
dramaturgy Olga Drygas
choreographic assistance Sandro Amaral
costumes Thelma Bonavita
sound design João Milet Meirelles
production management ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro
production residencies Micaela Trigo
Contributors to the research Ben Mucznik, Carolina Sendin, Manoela Rangel, Nicole Gomes

A production by Elisabete Finger
supported by Hauptstadtkulturfonds and Étape Danse, a network of fabrik Potsdam, La Briqueterie CDCN Val-de-Marne and Mosaico Danza – Interplay Festival Torino, Goethe-Institut in Exile and Radialstiftung
with the support of Bureau du Théâtre et de la Danse/Institut français Deutschland, the French Ministry of Culture/DGCA, the City of Potsdam, Fondazione Piemonte dal Vivo, Lavanderia a Vapore Torino and Torinodanza Festival / Fondazione Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale
in collaboration with Tanz im August Festival Berlin

Hidden Mothers (creation 2026/2027) investigates the tension between visibility and erasure in narratives of care. Drawing inspiration from historical images of the “hidden mother” — a 19th-century photographic practice in which mothers were physically present but visually concealed in order to hold children still — it raises questions about what we are able to see and what remains unnoticed. Rather than treating the hidden as an absence, the work brings it into the frame: the bodies, gestures, dependencies, and obligations that make care possible, but that are regularly pushed out of sight. In this way, the “hidden mother” becomes less a historical curiosity than a political figure: a trace of all those who are structurally necessary and culturally made available. It asks who is allowed to appear as a subject of care, who is condemned to remain its infrastructure, and what might happen when the background refuses to stay still.

Elisabete Finger is a Brazilian choreographer and performer based in Berlin. She studied dance and choreography at institutions including Le CNDC d’Angers and Udk/HZT-MA SODA. Her creations explore bodies and raw materials, revealing internal/external anatomies through images and situations that exist on the boundary between pleasure and disturbance. Her sensory narratives challenge expectations around gender, behaviour, and normativity. Her work has been presented internationally in dance, performance, and visual arts contexts.

Concept and form by Silvia Mai
curated by Anna Paola Bacalov
action by Silvia Mai and Eco, Chiara Marolla, and Molpè
video image by Ivan Gasbarrini
winning project of the 2024 Tuttoteatro.com “Dante Cappelletti” Award
co-production by Tuttoteatro.com
executive production by Tecnologia Filosofica (Turin)
with the support of IntercettAzioni – Lombardy Artistic Residency Center / Theater, delle Moire (Milan), and ORA-Orobie Artistic Residencies (Piateda-Sondrio), Lavanderia a Vapore (Collegno-Turin), BTT Balletto Teatro di Torino, Dello Scompiglio Cultural Association (Capannori-Lucca), Bianco Teatro/Ti con Zero (Bracciano-Rome)
thanks to Fernanda Pessolano, Enrico Fabris

Eco, from the Greek Oikos “the house”, is a dog. In the relationship between two beings who make a home for each other, work finds its origin, its foundation. The boundary between what is properly human and what is not, between those who care and those who are cared for, between those who look and those who are looked at, is revealed to be fragile and labile. In this border, which questions and breaks down every form and formality – and in the intimacy of the skin – lies the principle of every possible encounter. How much is it possible to bring to light what happens in the shadows as a secret? Can the “home” be revealed to another glance, without the risk of getting lost or hiding? What can come to us beyond the fall, from this inevitable exposure? What words are needed to get closer to the heart? What is the path to follow or trace? Nourished by these questions, the work moves between the skin and an inexorable distance, physical and soul.

Silvia Mai is a dancer, mountain shepherd, art therapist in training. His studies in the artistic field were marked by his encounters with Raffaella Giordano, Silvia Rampelli, Dominique Dupuy, Claudia Dias, Anna Paola Bacalov. A fter a few years of artistic silence, during which he learned and practiced the life of a shepherd, he resumed his artistic research in the field of movement and the plastic arts. In autumn 2021 he is a guest of Laterale for Danae Festival with Prospettive Animali, designed together with the dogs Gringo and Eco. In September 2023 he began training in Anthroposophical Art Therapy at the European Cinabro in Milan and in 2025 he enrolled in the two-year master’s course in Painting at the Albertina Academy in Turin. She is currently involved in the creation of SONO, a performance work composed of four chapters in collaboration with Anna Paola Bacalov, Chiara Marolla, Alice Berni, Enrico Fabris. The study of the first Oikos/SONO chapter, dedicated to the relationship with animals, is the winner of the 2024 Dante Cappelletti Award.

Nell’ambito del progetto Étape Danse 
In collaborazione con Mosaico Danza 

Performance Mackenzy Bergile  
concept, coreografia, musica, poesia and drammaturgia Mackenzy Bergile  
collaborazione artistica Inès Mauricio  
light design: Eduardo Abdala  
costum Mackenzy Bergile and Janette Laakso  
produzione e distribuzione Association Être et Faire et Être, Léa Simon Thomas  

La nuova creazione segna il capitolo iniziale di Autotherapie, lavoro coreografico e letterario del 2025. In Identity is a rumor, until death writes it down, l’autoritratto va oltre lo spazio di ampia esplorazione per diventare un luogo di voci e un banco di prova per l’identità. L’artista lavora con l’autoritratto come un luogo instabile, mai completamente sicuro; uno spazio in cui l’Io non è dato, ma attraversato da eredità politiche, narrazioni storiche, desideri appresi, a volte imposti, a volte adottati per sopravvivere.  

Mackenzy Bergile è un artista multidisciplinare autodidatta, nato a Parigi e residente a Lorient. Il suo percorso ricco ed eclettico combina danza, musica e poesia, profondamente influenzato dalle sue radici haitiane e francesi. Esplora le interazioni tra l’intimo e il politico, liberandosi dai tradizionali schemi accademici per sviluppare un linguaggio corporeo unico. Il suo lavoro musicale, incentrato sul pianoforte, fonde influenze barocche con risonanze voodoo, creando brani che evocano la storia e l’invisibile. Ha collaborato con figure di spicco della danza contemporanea, come Emmanuel Eggermont e Boris Charmatz, e ha composto musiche per film e compagnie di danza.   

Artists hosted during this edition will be selected through an open call
Guests Heike Langsdorf and Elena Bastieri
Artist-curators Francesco Dalmasso, Elisa D’Amico, Ambra Pittoni

For the 2026 edition, Workspace Ricerca X aims to further explore and investigate the relationship between dramaturgy and artistic research. After dedicating a specific focus to practice and critical thinking, the intention is now to observe the interactions and areas of intersection between research practices and dramaturgical practices, starting from the question: can we imagine a dramaturgy of research? Once again this year, the project will activate a complex research environment, shaped through shared residency sessions involving hosted artists, guests and artist-curators. Within a horizontal format based on the exchange of practices, self-learning and peer coaching, research and dramaturgy will be explored as interconnected practices, continuing to cultivate critical thinking and discursive reflection around artistic processes and making.

Workspace Ricerca X – Research and Dramaturgy is a platform dedicated to the development and support of artistic research and dramaturgy within the fields of choreography and performance. Founded in 2016 with the aim of disseminating, questioning and legitimising artistic research in the Italian context, it addresses professionals working in dance and performing arts. Through shared residency modules involving participating artists, curators and guests, the project activates an intense process of reflective dialogue starting from each participant’s practices and research materials. The aim is to focus on individual methodologies and working tools, while deepening each artist’s creative trajectory. Workspace Ricerca X moves from the desire to consolidate a culture of artistic research in Italy, creating spaces where alternative approaches to artistic work can be practised beyond conventional production dynamics. At its core is the creation of networks of alliances and the circulation of knowledge generated through artistic practices.