The Italian Cultural Institute and Beirut Physical Lab, in collaboration with ZEBRA Cultural Association, presents Graces, an award-winning humorous contemporary dance performance, by Silvia Gribaudi.

Graces is a project inspired by The Three Graces, a sculpture created by Antonio Canova between 1812 and 1817. The work draws from mythology: Zeus’ three daughters – Euphrosyne, Aglaea, and Thalia – radiates splendor, joy, and prosperity. Three male figures – Siro Guglielmi, Matteo Marchesi, and Andrea Rampazzo – take the stage in a space and time suspended between the human and the abstract: a place where male and female meet without roles and dance to the rhythm of nature itself. They perform together with the author Silvia Gribaudi, who likes to define herself as ‘author of the body’ because her poetics elevates imperfections to an art form with a direct, cruel, and empathetic comic style without any boundaries among dance, theater, and performing arts.

Over the past ten years, Silvia Gribaudi has been questioning gender stereotypes, female and male identities and the concept of virtuosity in dance and daily life, expanding beyond clichés and appearances.

“With generous humor and radical empathy, the Italian choreographer Silvia Gribaudi elevates notions of human imperfections into an art form beyond clichés and appearances. Drawn from the sculpture The Three Graces (Antonio Canova 1812-1817) – representing Zeus’ daughters Euphrosyne, Aglaea and Thalia – the three male performers together with Silvia search for new meanings of the word ‘grace’. With dance and text, but most of all with warmth and lightness, the performance reveals a core of our humanity.”

Annette Van Zwoll, dramaturg

Tickets available at Ihjoz