Michele Rizzo

Trained in visual arts as well as dance, choreographer and multidisciplinary artist Michele Rizzo makes performance works that explore processes of transformation and transcendence. HIGHER xtn., an adaptation of the artist’s 2015 performance HIGHER, explores the power of dance by focusing on the nightclub as a site of community building and radical self-expression. The artist draws inspiration from theorist Julia Kristeva’s writings on dance, and particularly her belief in its ability to accelerate the process of transhumanization—the technologically-aided enhancement of human beings beyond their current physical and intellectual limitations.

HIGHER xtn. also references the important role nightclubs play as gathering spaces for marginalized groups. Rizzo’s own search for a queer community in Rome and Amsterdam led him to explore the techno scenes in both cities. He points out that raids on nightclubs have often catalyzed political movements, citing recent events in Tbilisi where the phrase “dance for freedom” became a slogan among protesters. The artist believes that club culture fosters public intimacy by encouraging collectivity, while also allowing individuals of different backgrounds the space to explore their own identities. In the nightclub, dancers express themselves on an individual level while also becoming part of a multitude of people in motion. Each dancer is both object and subject, simultaneously seeing and being seen by others.