In many facets of life, the female form is still objectified, scrutinized, and overly sexualized. Despite varying cultural ideals in an increasingly volatile time, one thing we can universally agree on is that there is no universally agreed-upon standard of what the ideal female form should be. Between dance and visual art, the deconstruction of the female state is what the Italian choreographer Manuela Rastaldi explores in her new work “Specchi, two variations on the woman cut into pieces”. Through the use of mirrors and boxes, dancers manipulate our perception of their bodies. They dance, merge, spread, mix, and create poetic imagery that challenges collective memory and iconography.  

Manuela Rastaldi (1972, Italy) graduated in Zürich, started her research in 1998, creating a solo Ennesima. Manuela Rastaldi made the trio performance TRA in July 2000 and then Stanze#, a site-specific performance series. In July 2001, Studies for Loom at Szene Salzburg. In 2002 she created Loom . In 2004 she created Layers and Soffici Immagini (video installation). In October 2006, she signed the choreography Le vie di Gibellina , a site specific work specially created in the frame of the video installation 'From Inside'of Thierry De Mey (premiered at Bozar - Brussels, April 2007) Specchi, two variations on « the woman cut into pieces» has been created in November 2007 at the Théâtre National de Bretagne in Rennes, France.