Bow
- 2023
- by Gaetano Palermo, Michele Petrosino
- with Gaetano Palermo, Michele Petrosino
- sound design Luca Gallio
- funded by MiC and SIAE, in the context “Per Chi Crea”
- with the support of SupportER - Rete Anticorpi Emilia-Romagna
- 30'
Bow is a choreographic project centered on the act of bowing or curtsying (in English, bow), a gesture typical of theatrical and religious contexts and also widespread—albeit in different forms and modalities—within social practices of greeting, acknowledgment, and consent. Through a form of writing embodied in the performers’ bodies, the project seeks to develop an analysis of the tensions and ambiguities inherent in this gesture, retracing its history through a catalogue of its variations to grasp its sociopolitical and psychological implications. At once a folding inward toward the self and an opening toward the other, the practice of bowing or curtsying signals an affirmation of presence to which vital, worldly, or divine power is attributed. Corresponding to this act of recognition—of which the bow is the bodily signifier—is a human disposition of dependence, obligation, service, or prayer, aimed at transcending a limit or obtaining a gift, a grace. Situated at the boundary between subjective intimacy and public representation, this gesture takes on different meanings depending on the degree of bending, ranging from a simple inclination of the head to genuflection or complete prostration. Self-abnegation and salvation, servility and power coexist in a physical tension that finds in the bow its fragile yet potent measure.
Bow is a choreographic project centered on the act of bowing or curtsying (in English, bow), a gesture typical of theatrical and religious contexts and also widespread—albeit in different forms and modalities—within social practices of greeting, acknowledgment, and consent. Through a form of writing embodied in the performers’ bodies, the project seeks to develop an analysis of the tensions and ambiguities inherent in this gesture, retracing its history through a catalogue of its variations to grasp its sociopolitical and psychological implications. At once a folding inward toward the self and an opening toward the other, the practice of bowing or curtsying signals an affirmation of presence to which vital, worldly, or divine power is attributed. Corresponding to this act of recognition—of which the bow is the bodily signifier—is a human disposition of dependence, obligation, service, or prayer, aimed at transcending a limit or obtaining a gift, a grace. Situated at the boundary between subjective intimacy and public representation, this gesture takes on different meanings depending on the degree of bending, ranging from a simple inclination of the head to genuflection or complete prostration. Self-abnegation and salvation, servility and power coexist in a physical tension that finds in the bow its fragile yet potent measure.