A cultural project developed in collaboration with the Municipality of Antrodoco.
A Festival that puts contemporary performing arts at its core, blending languages and genres to bridge distances between people.
An opportunity not only to build closeness, but above all to [re]connect and share art within a community that inhabits shared spaces.
The 2025 edition, under the artistic direction of Lorenzo Pasquali / Ondadurto Teatro, will feature important collaborations and thematic sessions: a residential Masterclass dedicated to physical theatre techniques related to Contemporary performance, and a focus on the interconnections between contemporary circus and various artistic disciplines — further establishing the Festival as a multidisciplinary hub in Central Italy.
A tapestry of performative proposals, designed to meet the tastes of a diverse audience. A LINE-UP that embodies the values of inclusion and non-discrimination, bringing together some of the finest national and international talents in contemporary performing arts.
The theme is BALANCE. Balance as a foundation for building and as the glue of a community — seen through the network of relationships and interconnections that bring it to life, both among people and with the territory. A reality that takes shape day by day, starting from shared and participatory dreams.
ARIA aims to spark dialogue between “what could be” and the “real lives” of people — who embrace imagination to rediscover a sense of wonder in BALANCE, in front of what is all too often taken for granted.
A journey unfolding through different narrative elements. Circus, dance, music, and urban theatre become meeting grounds for diverse artistic expressions — in an edition that will feature artists from Spain, Chile, Belgium, and Italy.
Discover our LINE-UP: art doesn’t belong only to big cities, but also to small towns.
Antrodoco returns to being a cultural hub and home to new artistic journeys.
PROGRAM
FROM JUNE 30 TO JULY 10
Teatro Sant’Agostino
RESIDENTIAL MASTERCLASS
Margó Paciotti (IT) and Piero Partigianoni (ES)
Intensive workshop
A residential Masterclass with Margó Paciotti (IT) and Piero Partigianoni (ES): an intensive course focused on various physical theatre techniques related to Contemporary performance.
The program is aimed at students from Performing Arts Academies and Schools, or individuals with previous experience, offering professional training and in-depth exploration of specific themes.
JULY 10 – Thursday
Teatro Sant’Agostino – 18.00 – 19.00
2 VR shows per day / 2 seats per VR show – don’t miss the chance to reserve your spot.
C’ERA UNA VOLTA a VR EXPERIENCE
ONDADURTO TEATRO (IT)
Contemporary circus – VR & new technologies >> NEIBORGHI project
An evolution and transformation of a performance into something unique and surprising: welcome to the digital era – a fantastic, surreal, and awe-inspiring world. This production is rooted in a stage show presented on international platforms, engaging diverse audiences across ages and backgrounds. A fully immersive 360° 3D VR experience: an astonishing project that places the viewer at the center, completely surrounded by large-scale machinery and spectacular effects – a VR event with powerful emotional impact. Much more than a story of princesses and heroes, this fairy-tale world—usually crystallized in sugar-coated versions—gets turned upside down, blurring the lines between Good and Evil. Stories, legends, and fables from great literary traditions—from Lewis Carroll to the Brothers Grimm, from Johann Karl August Musäus to Hans Christian Andersen—are reimagined with a noir twist and a bittersweet flavor. An event that blends the ancient traditions of storytelling with cutting-edge digital technology, stripping fairy tales of their saccharine surface to create a bold new narrative experience.
Largo S. Chiara – 21.15
LUCES Y SOMBRAS
Performance by participants of the ARIA 2025 MASTERCLASS
Physical theatre >> ARIA project
Rituals have always been an essential part of human social life, and a deeply personal means to reconnect with oneself and others.
Who decides where we belong—and why? Where are your / our boundaries?
At the core of this work lies an intersectional approach rooted in the expressive practices of dance, theatre, and the performing arts.
A performance born from the research and creative process developed during the residency in Antrodoco.
Chiostro S. Chiara – 22.00
FUNAMBULES
COMPAGNIA CIRCO A VAPORE (IT)
Contemporary circus >> ARIA project
The clown’s wide-eyed gaze, unable to see past its red nose, is our gaze—free of judgment and full of childlike wonder. On stage, a series of quirky magic acts, songs, poetic verses, absurd competitions, and surreal dramas unfold. To laugh at them is to laugh at ourselves—at our clumsiness, our passion—discovering that every defeat can become a victory if we simply change how we look at it. Where do clowns come from, with their tiny masks and naked souls? They come from a distant place to show us our everyday failures and teach us wonder once again. Their magic tricks, dance steps, melodies, tragedies, and poetry—all are real to them, all are serious. Fairy tales can be rewritten, and the world can be transformed. And where do they go, these clowns, when they don their oversized coats and cross the curtain? They return to a place of innocence and freedom—a place known only to them and the truly innocent.
Bosco del Chiostro S. Chiara – 22.45
ORA#2
GIORGIA MARRAS (IT)
Dance – physical theatre >> NEIBORGHI project
“I’ve often asked myself: whose daughter am I? Am I an animal too? Or perhaps more like a machine? I want to remember where I come from.” With a musical score born from breath, Sardinian actress and dancer Giorgia Marras presents a journey to rediscover one’s origins—a continuous dialogue between the divine and the dancing body, between gesture and memory. ÒRA as an ancestral prayer. A voice that comes from afar but takes form and life within the time of a single exhale.
JULY 11 – Friday
Teatro Sant’Agostino – 18.00 – 19.00
2 VR shows per day / 2 seats per VR show – don’t miss the chance to reserve your spot.
C’ERA UNA VOLTA a VR EXPERIENCE
ONDADURTO TEATRO (IT)
Contemporary circus – VR & new technologies >> NEIBORGHI project
An evolution and transformation of a performance into something unique and surprising: welcome to the digital era – a fantastic, surreal, and awe-inspiring world. This production is rooted in a stage show presented on international platforms, engaging diverse audiences across ages and backgrounds. A fully immersive 360° 3D VR experience: an astonishing project that places the viewer at the center, completely surrounded by large-scale machinery and spectacular effects – a VR event with powerful emotional impact. Much more than a story of princesses and heroes, this fairy-tale world—usually crystallized in sugar-coated versions—gets turned upside down, blurring the lines between Good and Evil. Stories, legends, and fables from great literary traditions—from Lewis Carroll to the Brothers Grimm, from Johann Karl August Musäus to Hans Christian Andersen—are reimagined with a noir twist and a bittersweet flavor. An event that blends the ancient traditions of storytelling with cutting-edge digital technology, stripping fairy tales of their saccharine surface to create a bold new narrative experience.
Piazza del Popolo – 21.00
Mr. BIG CIRCUS CABARET
CHRISTIAN LISCO (IT)
Contemporary circus >> NEIBORGHI project
Mr. Big Circus Cabaret is an eclectic, dazzling, fast-paced show that fuses circus arts, theatre, and comedy. Its central character, Mr. Big—a charismatic and unpredictable figure—leads the audience through an unconventional journey filled with hilarious gags and technical skill. With juggling acts, balance feats, and direct interaction with the audience, Mr. Big overturns the rules of traditional circus, transforming the ring into a space of freedom, play, and amazement. Each performance is unique, shaped by the energy of the moment and the engagement of the spectators.
Chiesa Santa Chiara – 21.45 – Itinerante vicoli
limitato a 60/70 persone
ATTRAVERSAMENTI
RESIDUI TEATRO (ES)
Theatre-concert >> ARIA project
A bridge between theatre and dance, crossed by singing. A performance described by Eugenio Barba as “a show steeped in tenderness that addresses people with delicacy.” A journey through memories, songs, and poems from various cultures, echoing through streets and homes. Sometimes these sounds belong to the territories where they manifest; other times, they live there invisibly—brought by those who, for life’s reasons, must travel, emigrate, or flee. ATTRAVERSAMENTI consists mainly of traditional songs from the Mediterranean region, including ancient Greek and Eastern European polyphonic chants. During the itinerant path, the audience follows the “wanderers” who animate the streets with music and dance, bringing memory into the present. “Even though time passes, wars attempt to erase traces, and life takes us to unexpected places, harmonies, rhythms, and the sound of words move with us—from the places we have passed through.” A poetic suspension, a rediscovery of memory and village architecture.
Chiostro S. Chiara – 22.30
IN CONCERTO
BAKLAVA KLEZMER SOUL (IT)
Music >> NEIBORGHI project
The music of BAKLAVA KLEZMER SOUL is exactly what their name suggests. Just like the famous Eastern European dessert that blends multiple cultural ingredients, the band mixes Klezmer music with various other genres to create an entirely new sound. Listening to Baklava’s Klezmer-infused soul, one is swept up in whirling rhythms and frenetic melodies that make it almost impossible to stay seated.
JULY 12 – Saturday
Teatro Sant’Agostino – 18.00 – 19.00
2 VR shows per day / 2 seats per VR show – don’t miss the chance to reserve your spot.
C’ERA UNA VOLTA a VR EXPERIENCE
ONDADURTO TEATRO (IT)
Contemporary circus – VR & new technologies >> NEIBORGHI project
An evolution and transformation of a performance into something unique and surprising: welcome to the digital era – a fantastic, surreal, and awe-inspiring world. This production is rooted in a stage show presented on international platforms, engaging diverse audiences across ages and backgrounds. A fully immersive 360° 3D VR experience: an astonishing project that places the viewer at the center, completely surrounded by large-scale machinery and spectacular effects – a VR event with powerful emotional impact. Much more than a story of princesses and heroes, this fairy-tale world—usually crystallized in sugar-coated versions—gets turned upside down, blurring the lines between Good and Evil. Stories, legends, and fables from great literary traditions—from Lewis Carroll to the Brothers Grimm, from Johann Karl August Musäus to Hans Christian Andersen—are reimagined with a noir twist and a bittersweet flavor. An event that blends the ancient traditions of storytelling with cutting-edge digital technology, stripping fairy tales of their saccharine surface to create a bold new narrative experience.
Corso Roma – 19.00 – itinerante
LA RECICLETA
MARIONETAS APOKELLEN (CL / IT)
Contemporary circus >> NEIBORGHI project
A small stage on wheels that stops wherever it finds its audience to offer a concert—not without first creating a captivating prelude. A show full of surprises, with characters gradually appearing and giving shape to this puppet theatre mounted on an old bicycle pulling a cart filled with fantasy and illusion. Sergio Barrios, originally from Chile, is a puppeteer whose work is rooted in reviving puppetry as a theatrical form, promoting the use of recycled materials and raising awareness of environmental responsibility.
Parcheggio Nuovo – Largo Italiani nel Mondo – 21.30
A RUOTA LIBERA
CIRCO MADERA (IT)
Contemporary circus >> NEIBORGHI project
A show that masterfully blends comic theatre, circus, acrobatics, and the purest form of street performance. After more than a thousand performances, A ruota libera is a perfectly oiled mechanism of humor and circus technique. Acrobatics, charisma, and unexpected feats, all adaptable to any performance space. Between somersaults and hilarious gags, Sblattero charms the audience with a real show—surprise guaranteed! Roberto Sblattero, co-founder of the Circo Madera project and performer in the company, comes from a family of circus artists: grandfather and cousins were tamers, his father and uncles were acrobats, his mother a skater, and his grandmother a juggler.
Parcheggio Nuovo – Largo Italiani nel Mondo – 22.00
Cabaret Vertigo
Fondazione Cirko Vertigo / blucinQue (IT)
Contemporary circus >> ARIA project
Cabaret Vertigo is a poetic journey between earth and air—a contemporary circus performance for the whole family. On stage, acrobatics, emotion, and irony intertwine thanks to the outstanding artists of the Cirko Vertigo Foundation. Guiding the show with elegance and wit is Vladimir Ježić. Among the highlights are the suspended juggling of Jonnathan Lemos, the explosive hand-to-hand duo of Michelangelo Merlanti and Carlos Rodrigo Parra Zavala, and the breathtaking aerial work of Alexandre Duarte on silks and aerial ladder. A show that enchants, entertains, and leaves the audience breathless.
JULY 13 – Sunday
Teatro Sant’Agostino – 18.00 – 19.00
2 VR shows per day / 2 seats per VR show – don’t miss the chance to reserve your spot.
C’ERA UNA VOLTA a VR EXPERIENCE
ONDADURTO TEATRO (IT)
Contemporary circus – VR & new technologies >> NEIBORGHI project
An evolution and transformation of a performance into something unique and surprising: welcome to the digital era – a fantastic, surreal, and awe-inspiring world. This production is rooted in a stage show presented on international platforms, engaging diverse audiences across ages and backgrounds. A fully immersive 360° 3D VR experience: an astonishing project that places the viewer at the center, completely surrounded by large-scale machinery and spectacular effects – a VR event with powerful emotional impact. Much more than a story of princesses and heroes, this fairy-tale world—usually crystallized in sugar-coated versions—gets turned upside down, blurring the lines between Good and Evil. Stories, legends, and fables from great literary traditions—from Lewis Carroll to the Brothers Grimm, from Johann Karl August Musäus to Hans Christian Andersen—are reimagined with a noir twist and a bittersweet flavor. An event that blends the ancient traditions of storytelling with cutting-edge digital technology, stripping fairy tales of their saccharine surface to create a bold new narrative experience.
Parcheggio Nuovo – Largo Italiani nel Mondo – 21.00
GIANNI-PASQUALE
PABLO GIROLAMI / IVONA (IT)
Dance >> ARIA project
Gianni-Pasquale, 46 years old, ambiguous, a mama’s boy, possibly moody, definitely disturbed. Desperately in love—and in love with being desperate. Unfiltered, boundlessly generous, he inflicts his torment on his beloved. Gianni-Pasquale is me. Gianni-Pasquale is Giacomo. Gianni-Pasquale is you. We’re all a bit Gianni-Pasquale. Losers and lovers. Love makes us blind, foolish, innocent… and it’s this very relationship with love that the character explores. An impossible love story—sometimes romantic, Gianni-Pasquale style—sometimes violent and incomprehensible. “Dear Maruzza, I’m writing this letter because I truly care about you. The first time I saw you, my heart rudely whispered to me: ‘It’s her.’” Gianni-Pasquale, a love letter to an inflatable doll.
Parcheggio Nuovo – Largo Italiani nel Mondo – 21.30
FORTUNA
PIERGIORGIO MILANO | ORBITA | SPELLBOUND CENTRO NAZIONALE DI PRODUZIONE DELLA DANZA (IT)
Contemporary circus – dance >> ARIA project
The sea is neither man nor woman, neither masculine nor feminine. The sea is a feeling of struggle like youth, or of serene eternal peace. The sea is a soul unfolding without borders. From the waves come giants, from the fish—mermaids, from unclear transparencies—monsters and visions. The sea resembles nothing. It is the origin. Air is just rarefied liquid; the sea even triumphs over the land. To discover how many shadows make a night, how many nights have shaped the perfect face of the moon. To finally understand whether loneliness has a bottom, and how much water it takes to fill it. The sea, lover of the night and its fragments of light—stars, fishing lamps, lanternfish beacons. Here, the dream captures the flash, freezes the glow, forgets the way back.Accompanied by spoken and sung texts, two acrobat-dancers move on a self-supporting structure, evoking the physicality and extreme conditions of sailing. Their bodies recount a reverse shipwreck: from the image of a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean to the moment of departure, filled with the joys and excitement of the journey. A performance where dance and circus blend with immersive visual and sound landscapes.
Partners
