CARMEN | Nous sommes toustes des étoiles

A project by Anna Basti – Associazione Chiasma
produced with the support of Lavanderia a Vapore as part of the “Residenze Trampolino” program
artists involved for Lavanderia a Vapore Viola Scaglione/Balletto Teatro di Torino; Elena Rolla/Compagnia EgriBiancoDanza; Amina Amici/Compagnia Zerogrammi
participating schools  Ad’a Dance Studio, Apid Piemonte, asd Sport 8, Fondazione Egri per la Danza (Alta Formazione Egri Danza), Mamadanse – Centro di Formazione alla Danza, Scuola del Balletto Teatro di Torino, Tilde Danza

The Carmen_Nous sommes toustes des étoiles project has developed thanks to dialogue between various local entities, dance schools, artists Viola Scaglione, Elena Rolla, Amina Amici, and choreographer Anna Basti, as a starting point for reflecting on the content that great ballets and classical works have conveyed and continue to convey. The goal, in 2026, is to continue to investigate what the figure of Carmen evokes; to reflect on the power that bodies can express in relation to Audre Lorde’s idea of the erotic: the erotic as a generative force, as a quality of doing, as power. This new research session touches on another fundamental aspect of the figure of Carmen: the magical. In the novella, the magical element drives the archaeologist/narrator’s desire to deepen his knowledge of Carmen. In the opera, it is reduced to a reading of cards, which foreshadows the tragic end of Carmen and Don José. In Roland Petit’s ballet, it is completely eliminated.
Just as we have encountered and tried to embrace an idea of the erotic that differs from the commonly perceived one, can we give a different value to the idea of the magical? Can we read it as a resource, an additional level of sensitivity and perception that can nourish our relationship with reality? As a terrain that escapes the rational and productive control that is offered to us as the only way to be in the world? As an “illicit form of power” and knowledge, which, because it is perceived as exceeding a standardized vision of reality, is fought against because it is difficult to control?

From 2019 to the present, Anna Basti‘s research has been increasingly oriented towards the involvement of non-professionals and the construction of experiential and participatory containers, in the belief that knowledge about the body has a revolutionary and transformative power when shared with as many subjects as possible. With this in mind, she straddles different artistic languages, taking research on the body as a starting point for building bridges between various disciplines.