Gioia Live

Based on the life of Gioia Fiorito

Bitter Sweet Dance creates strongly physical and lightly absurd performances that penetrate into every fibre of the body. Gioia Live expands upon the film documentary Gioia that Liat Waysbort made in 2019 together with Laura Stek; the documentary was nominated for a Gouden Kalf in the category of Short Documentaries. The documentary, as well as the performance, are based on the life of Gioia Fiorito. Her greatest dreams and darkest nightmares become reality during two manic episodes.  At full speed, energetic and unfettered, she was like an unstoppable force of nature with a unique experience of her surroundings. Now ten years later, she leads a normal life, but not without the richness of her imagination.

In Gioia Live, together with dancer Mara Hulsepas, she honours the power of imagination, dreams of the future and reflects on the past. With dance, video, and text a play unfolds between reality and illusion. Not everything is as it seems. Mara’s warm, intangible and powerful dance, and the poetic, humorous, and sharp reflections by Gioia flow together in an intense performance that celebrates the autonomy of the individual.

Credits

Choreography	Liat Waysbort
Co-creation & performance	Gioia Norina Melody Fiorito & Mara Hulspas
Artistic associate & dramaturgy	Annette van Zwoll
Coaching & script advice	Grainne Delaney
Lighting design & technical production	Maarten van Dorp
Music editing	Guido Verwer
Producer	Bitter Sweet Dance
With thanks to	Laura Stek, Witfilm, NTR, BAU Amsterdam
Supported by	Fonds Podiumkunsten, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Fonds21, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds en BNG Cultuurfonds