Himalaya Elisa Zuppini

In Himalaya, choreographer Elisa Zuppini delves deeper into her exploration of the material and affective dimensions of the body, as well as the understanding of reality as a complex entanglement of relational systems. 

This time she does so by drawing inspiration from contrasting ones, incorporating the extemporaneous and textural aspects of the geological realm, the fragmented temporalities found in the digital space, and the repetitive and obsessive qualities of mechanical bodies.

In Himalaya, she seeks to examine the clash between these systems, envisioning them as moving tectonics that collide and intertwine, yet never fully merge. This can be interpreted as a metaphor for the way these systems operate within our perception: disjointed, interrelated, forced, and unsettled. 

In this work Zuppini investigates how these clashes manifest both in the choreography itself and within the human body. A body that becomes a constant source of exploration, incessantly pushing its boundaries in an effort to transcend both its internal and external spaces. 

Collaborating with the acclaimed composer James Whipple (M.E.S.H.), Zuppini intertwines her ideas with an ongoing interplay between sound and movement. Whipple's distinctive sound interventions, derived both from the geological and the synthetic, act as splinters and tectonic waves encountering the body, reflecting upon it, or bypassing it entirely. As sound and body continually align and diverge, the audience's attention oscillates between a focus center and a broader field of resonance.