SAGA

2021–2023
International Tour (Torinodanza Festival, Rencontres chorégraphiques de Seine-Saint-Denis, among others)
2021
World Premiere Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris (FR

“Not the intense moment / Isolated, with no before and after, / But a lifetime burning in every moment / And not the lifetime of one man only / But of old stones that cannot be deciphered...”

— T. S. Eliot

SAGA is an ensemble choreographic work for five performers created by Italian choreographer Marco D'Agostin and dramaturg Chiara Bersani. Proceeding with the placid, expansive pace of a novel, the performance centers on five human beings navigating an isolated clearing, a land where the past lies buried beneath layers of hard earth. The work serves as a physical interrogation of kinship, proposing that family and community are inherently foreign, unexplainable, and disturbing, yet profoundly active systems where bodies live, die, remember, and forget together.

Moving through a shifting landscape of mysterious physical resonances, intuitive gazes, and underground tumult, the performers construct alternative family structures through voice and gesture. The single voice constantly returns to accentuate the fullness of a collective choir, untangling a quiet song that balances between a distant memory and a future gathering. Sound and image intersect heavily through the electronic soundscapes of Pablo Esbert Lilienfeld, while the voice of the performers acts as an archaeological tool, detaching pieces from the background of the world to bring them into absolute focus.

Choreography and Direction: Marco D'Agostin
Performance and Creation: Marta Ciappina, Alice Giuliani, Leon Marič, Stefano Roveda, and Júlia Rúbies
Dramaturgy: Chiara Bersani
Sound Design: Pablo Esbert Lilienfeld
Scenography & Scenes: Paola Villani
Lighting Design: Alessio Guerra
Costume Design: Lucia Gallone
Scientific Advice: Carlo Capello
Vocal Mentoring: Francesca della Monica
Production: VAN
Supported by: Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès (within the framework of its New Settings program)
Co-production: Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, KLAP Maison pour la danse à Marseille, Malraux – Scène nationale Chambéry Savoie, Torinodanza Festival / Teatro Stabile di Torino, CCN – Ballet de l’Opéra national du Rhin, POLE-SUD – CDCN Strasbourg, CCNR / Yuval Pick, CCN Roubaix Hauts-de-France, Charleroi danse, Schaubühne Lindenfels Leipzig, Centrale Fies, and Marche Teatro / inTeatro Festival