Flavia Zaganelli — Placebo Dances

Like disoriented lovers, we wander
with gentle pretenses and powerful intuitions,
celebrating the salvation of feeling in advance.
We are erotic clairvoyance.

Antidote to dark times,
we whisper an unbreakable wish:
to smile at each other, to recognize us,
and if a desire exists, to surrender.

(Our power: to feel pleasure)

Placebo Dances is a space of investigation around pleasure. It is a place for the reconfiguration of relationships. It is a tendency, an inclination, an unbalancing towards a condition of openness, connection and enchantment, which can foster pleasure at oneself and others, and question the positioning of our bodies in the world.

In Placebo Dances we seek for postures that are shaken by desire, that gently disrupt the body and make it waver, to find an erotic closeness of our being in the world. Pleasure as salvation in times of catastrophe.

about

Flavia Zaganelli (she/her) is a dance artist and performer. She trained independently by following and collaborating with international artists in Italy and around Europe, and then graduated at the Tanzfabrik in Berlin and Smash#9. Her research is transversal and multidisciplinary, she is interested in hybrid forms and collaborative processes. In those processes, the body is always at the root of creation and positioned as an agent of change. Dance and performance are understood as the concrete places to investigate the mechanism of relationship and embody ideas about the future.

Her works (The Game We Play; INVISIBILIA – 2021; electrica/ecosi'stɛma/ - 2023) has been presented in theaters and festivals around Italy. In 2024 she was among the shortlisted artists for FONDO - support network for emerging creativity. Her last research, Placebo Dances, was selected for Boarding Pass Plus Dance 2023 mobility grant and it premeried at Santarcangelo Festival 2025.

www.flaviazaganelli.com