THEATERLAB PRESENTS
RHIZOME
by Cecilia Fontanesi & Elena Vannoni
Rhizome is an interdisciplinary performance that explores the invisible networks connecting all forms of life. Drawing inspiration from underground systems of roots and fungi, the work investigates symbiosis, interdependence, and the intelligence of natural ecosystems as metaphors for human and social relations. Through dance, live music, and visuals, the piece creates an immersive environment that invites audiences to experience interconnectedness as both a sensory and conceptual reality.
The production is a collaboration between dancer, choreographer, and neuroscientist Cecilia Fontanesi and theatre director, scenographer, and costume designer Elena Vannoni. Together they weave movement, sound, and imagery into a poetic meditation on how bodies—human and more-than-human—exist in relation.
Already developed in artistic residencies at Barnard College’s Movement Lab (New York) and Company Blu (Florence), Rhizome continues to evolve internationally, and with the upcoming residency at TheaterLab, the performance will find a new, original form.
PERFORMANCES
Saturday, November 22nd @ 7:00pmÂ
Sunday, November 23rd @ 3:00pmÂ
Monday, November 24th @ 7:00pmÂ
approx. 50mins (no intermission)
TICKETS
MEET THE ARTISTS
CECILIA FONTANESI (Creator/Performer)
Cecilia Fontanesi is a dancer and choreographer active between Italy and the United States. She holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from The Graduate Center, CUNY, and is a graduate of the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, where she now serves on the faculty. Cecilia has worked internationally, collaborating with Il Posto Danza Verticale, Ariella Vidach AiEP, and Company Blu in Italy, and with choreographers including David Appel, Julie Ludwick, Elise Knudson, Simone Forti, Kristin Hatleberg, Jody Oberfelder, and Jacqulyn Buglisi in the United States. She has taught in several Dance Departments, among them Barnard College of Columbia University and Hunter College, sharing her interdisciplinary expertise in movement analysis, somatics, and dance. She is a co-founder of Parcon NYC, a collective combining contact improvisation and parkour in community-based actions. Cecilia is also an Associated Artist at Overtime Dance Foundation and formerly served as Associate Artistic Director of the IDACO dance festival, supported by the Italian Cultural Institute of New York. Since 2019, she has been developing Rhizome, an ongoing interdisciplinary project supported by international residencies that interweaves dance, visual arts, and poetry. www.ceciliafontanesi.com
ELENA VANNONI (Creator/Director)
Elena Vannoni is a stage director, set and costume designer with an international career spanning Italy, Germany, and the United States. She trained at the Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica Silvio d’Amico in Rome, earned a degree in Theatre History from the University of Florence, and completed her MFA in Theatre Directing at Columbia University in New York. Winner of the National Prize of the Arts for Directing in 2005, she has directed and designed productions across Europe and the U.S., from opera at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino to contemporary theatre in Berlin and Los Angeles. Her recent work includes Rhizome at Theaterlab and The Sea Does Not Reach Naples, inspired by the writings of Anna Maria Ortese. Vannoni’s practice integrates physical theatre, visual composition, and dramaturgies of text, space, and body, drawing from Grotowski, Commedia dell’Arte, Viewpoints, and Orazio Costa’s mimetic method. She is currently Director-in-Residence at Theaterlab, where she is developing Bites by Kay Adshead in co-production with Mama Quilla Productions. Her work emphasizes theatre as a ritual of imagination and relationship. www.elenavannoni.com
LORENZO BRUSCI (Music Composer)
Lorenzo Brusci is an Italian sound-experience and spatial-sound designer whose work moves between Krakow and Berlin, shaping environments where architecture and listening meet. Trained in Philosophy and the Philosophy of Music at the Universities of Florence and Siena, he has long explored how sound can transform space into a living, responsive body.
Since the late 1990s, Brusci has created adaptive soundscapes and sensorial architectures through projects such as Timet, the Giardino Sonoro in Florence, and SED – Sound and Experience Design in Berlin and Krakow. In 2009, he co-founded Architettura Sonora, a division of B&C Speakers dedicated to sound as a material for design, and later MUSST – Multisensing Space Studio with Simone Conforti, devoted to advanced forms of sensorial and algorithmic composition. His more recent initiatives, Musi-co and MusicFit, explore music as a medium of connection, care, and renewal. Brusci shares his research internationally as a lecturer and guest artist in universities, art schools, and biennales across Europe and beyond.
www.lorenzobrusci.com
COVID-19 policy: In guidance with the city and state COVID-19 policies, we will no longer be requiring masks, but strongly recommend them.