ANIMA CAPRAE ET LUPUS

NON-VERBAL: Dance performance, no text.

DESCRIPTION

Anima caprae et lupus is a physical theatre and dance performance conceived by Piera Gianotti Rosenberg. It is the final piece in her trilogy exploring the figure of the goat and the coexistence of art and agriculture.

The performance was born from a curiosity to discover what lies behind ancient cults centred on the worship of horned animals, and the mystery surrounding the presence of the wolf.
A choreography for a flock of human beings, Anima caprae et lupus unfolds through a succession of images, situations and symbols, moving like a dream through a forest.
Goats and wolves: symbolic figures and physical presences inhabiting the landscape, unaware of our human struggles.
The performance is permeated by the spirit of a society in transition, threatened and perhaps approaching the end of its story.

INSPIRATIONS

Anima caprae et lupus is a project inspired by the symbolism of the goat and the male goat in its many forms and meanings, and, in contrast, by the figure of the wolf.
Throughout art history, the figure of the goat and the male goat has appeared since the very beginning (from the horned figures depicted in prehistoric cave paintings; to the powerful symbolic figures and horned, hoofed deities found in pagan rituals around the world; to fauns, devils and demons that have always inhabited the collective imagination; to goats sacrificed as offerings, acting as a connection between earthly life and other dimensions; and so on).

And what does the goat mean today?

This question naturally leads to a reflection on agriculture, its history, its gradual disappearance, and the relationship between humans and nature.
Within this reflection, the figure of the wolf cannot be overlooked.
The wolf as the goat’s counterpart, its enemy, but also as a force of nature that resurfaces beyond the human desire for control — and therefore as a figure of opposition.
And so, the wolf becomes the second source of inspiration for the creation of the performance.
What is human about the goat and the wolf? And which aspects of the goat and the wolf live and act within us as human beings?
How can these aspects be translated into a physical language, and ultimately into dance?