Il Palmerino is still a place of wonderful encounters, like in 2017, when Angeliki Papoulia, an emergent Greek actress and director came to stay, and we began working with her, on our dream of performing Vernon Lee's 'Ballet of the Nations'.
This play was written in 1914 and published in 1915, but it had not been performed since then. In 'The Ballet of the Nations', Vernon Lee denounces the waste of War, through an allegorical dance. She comments on the rousing of the human passions, brought together by Satan (played by actor Alessio Montagnani), and forms an unlikely orchestra, whilst the Ballet Master, Death - played by the dancer Elisa Barucchieri - leads the Nations in a macabre dance.
Our play brought together aerial artists, dancers, actors, original film clips and sound to create an immersive experience for the audience. Our goal was to ironically reinterpret the show with a contemporary viewpoint, in order to showcase the author's strong vision, which continues to be relevant today.
The Ballet of the Nations was performed in the gardens of Villa il Palmerino, in Florence, on the 30,31 May and 1 June 2019 . Our continued dream is to host the performance in Europe and beyond. For each run, we designed a site specific performance, involving members of the local community, alongside the main cast.
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