When the Italian autonomist workers’ movements in the 1960s and 70s rejected classic forms of unionised organisation, their collective struggle gave traction to the feminist movement and the refusal of work. A decentralised network of free radio stations throughout the country informed and politicised listeners.“Radio Donna” is a dance-performance that takes its cue from this volatile past. Winding its way through a series of references, tongue-in-cheek gestures and manipulations “Radio Donna” meanders through scenes and sequences like a fictional broadcast or an impossible song. If, as dance “revolutionary” Yvonne Rainer stated in an interview, “the contrast between abstract movement overlaid with facts and history continues to be a challenge,” “Radio Donna” expands the scope of this question by operating through a body-language of contradictions, doubt and pleasure.
Infos
Duration: ca. 60 minutes
Language: English, Italian
Sponsors and Supporters
Concept: Laura Stellacci
Choreography and Performance:
Liza Baliasnaja, Dorsey Bushnell, Katja Cheraneva, Laura Stellacci
Light Design: Carina Premer
Special Thanks to: Emile Rubino, Viktorija Ilioska, Joana de Godoy Ferraz, René Alejandro Huari Mateus, Alex Piasente-Szymański, Lena Appel, Luis Garay, Xavier Le Roy, Bojana Kunst, Livia Andrea Piazza, Maximilian Zahn
In Cooperation with Hessische Theaterakademie. Funders: Hessische Theaterakademie, Kulturamt Frankfurt, La Raffinerie/Charleroi Danse
Historical Background & further Biographies
Historical Background
Radio Donna hosted several programs addressing topics such as unemployment and women’s work issues in a simple but effective manner. Founded in 1976 in Rome, as a part of the Leftist Radio Station Radio Città Futura, this feminist collective succeeded in introducing the spirit of liberation into many homes, convincing women of older generations to leave the kitchen and join the radio collective.
On January 9, 1979, during a discussion on a new abortion bill in one of their weekly programs broadcasted from Radio Città Futura in San Lorenzo, five feminist comrades were attacked by a neo-fascist group. Their screams were heard live on air, before a molotov set fire to the equipment and the women were shot in the legs. Despite the violence, the collective's efforts continued and their meetings resumed shortly after the attack.
Biographies Team
Liza Baliasnaja is a choreographer and dancer working between Cologne and Vilnius. Seamlessly combining movement and language, her works investigate shapes and patterns of thinking and reading the world. She is interested in questioning the historical, political and social fabrics that tailor our sense of the self. Liza studied dance and choreography in P.A.R.T.S and philosophy at the university of KU Leuven in Belgium. As a performer, she collaborated with Eszter Salamon, Christine De Smedt, Lenio Kaklea, Ula Sickle, DD Dorvillier among others. She is engaged as a pedagogue and mentor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater.
Dorsey Bushnell absolvierte eine Ausbildung in Expressive Arts Education in der Schweiz und den USA und arbeitet seit über 20 Jahren in verschiedenen Tanz-/Theaterprojekten und Workshops mit Jugendlichen, Erwachsenen und Migranten als Freiberuflerin in diesem Bereich. Außerdem war sie 12 Jahre lang persönliche Assistentin des Choreografen William Forsythe, Mentorin an der Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst im Master of Contemporary Dance Education Program und bei beramí berufliche Integration e.V. Sie ist Mitbegründerin, Sprecherin und Co-Koordinatorin des Women's March Frankfurt am Main.
Katja Cheraneva is a freelance dancer and choreographer based between Berlin and Frankfurt. She has worked in close collaboration with choreographers such as Fabrice Mazliah, Lea Letzel, Francis Chiaverini, Janina Arendt, Ksenia Ravvina, and visual artists such as Anne Imhof, Dudu Quintanilha, Gabriele Rendina Cattani. She has been a member of The Forsythe Company(2010 - 2015) and a co-founder member of HOOD(Host Organisation fOr proDuction), held an artistic fellowship at PACT Zollverein from 2017 - 2019. Together with Mazliah and Milz, she manages a Werkstatt project space in Frankfurt.
Carina Premer is based in Berlin and works as a lighting designer, teacher, andchoreographer in contemporary dance and performing arts. Trained as a light technician and operator, she studied Applied Theater Studies and the MA program Choreography and Performance in Gießen where she developed and hosted several discursive formats and created transdisciplinary performances and exhibitions. Carina often uses complex light compositions and polyphone dramaturgies to shrink, stretch and warp space and time almost imperceptibly. Her approach to performance and dance is strongly informed by the challenge of the very frame of the public presentation and the interconnectedness of working conditions and conditions of spectatorship. In her work, she questions origin, identity, and authorship by directing attention to what is already there and to subtle processes of transformation and change.