Director & Choreographer: Silvia Gribaudi
As part of Dublin Dance Festival’s 2026 line-up, Silvia Gribaudi brings her latest solo work Suspended Chorus to Dublin’s Project Arts Centre.
Italian born Gribaudi takes to the stage in arresting attire. The 52 year old wears a white anorak, white football shorts, long white socks and white ballroom dance shoes. Walking to the apron of the stage she addresses the audience directly. Her friendly “sera” sets the tone for the evening. The show will proceed in conversation with us.
One of our number, Samuel, is called upon to read aloud Gribaudi’s mission statement for the performance. She wishes “to renew a dialogue” with her audience so there will be reciprocity on our part.
Housekeeping accomplished, Gribaudi pulls up her hood and takes off spinning and high-kicking her way around the stage. Some arm movements are reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s sharp arm salutes during his ‘92/’93 Dangerous tour. At the end of the sequence, the comically out of breath artist takes the microphone to tell us that she can “feel” her “heart beating”, that she can “see” 152 people breathing, and “hear” her knee singing.
The audience is coaxed to iterate the next combination of steps, naming each movement by turn; “open, close, swing, spin, down, scissors, roll, kick”. And now, we mimic the wave of her arms, experience the touch of our neighbour’s hand on ours and imagine the weight of our head, our pelvis, our whole body.
The lights dim and the costume comes off. Ballroom dance shoes give way to higher-heeled latin dance shoes. Socks are rolled down. In flesh coloured underwear, Gribaudi gyrates and thrusts to throbbing music as if at a disco. Strobe lighting produces a disjointed, intense looking series of motions.
A marvellous special effects video by Matteo Maffesanti projects images of the performer onto a 2D circular piece of white fabric or paper that she twists. Another novel effect sees the artist swing spotlights suspended from the ceiling along the sides of the stage to create shifting angles of light and shade on her body as she moves. Luca Serafini is credited with lighting design. Music compiled by Matteo Franceschini is rich and multifaceted. One arrangement, in particular, which may or may not be French soprano Emma Shaplin, is hauntingly beautiful.
More interactions involve some of us coming on stage to consider the rest of the assemblage. We “look beautiful” from Joe’s perspective but one witty Lady reckons “we’re not as beautiful as we are being made out to be”. Singing along to Gribaudi’s rendition of Schubert’s Ave Maria is good fun and when crew members distribute faux white flowers to those of us in the gallery we throw them down amongst the others who lob them forward onto the stage.
An added tulle net skirt and a grand plie` in second with arms in fifth position is, I think, Gribaudi’s nod to Anna Pavlova, one of her three inspirations for the piece. Her other two, Isadora Duncan and Truda Kaschmann may be represented in the Artist’s freestyle and expressionistic movements.
Suspended Chorus feels, to me, more like a piece of contemporary performance art than dance theatre. Using her body as a medium, Gribauldi utilises a combination of interdisciplinary elements such as social science, movement, music, comedy, song, and digital and visual technology to convey her message.
The word ‘choreographer’ comes from the Greek terms ‘khoreia’ and ‘graphein’ meaning, quite literally, dance-writer. Gribaudi asks the question “Who decides what a dancing body should look like?”. Perhaps we could expand on this and ask who decides how a choreographer should choreograph or a dancer, dance? If all art, especially modern, is subjective, then the value and meaning of something you create need not be dictated by technical rules on skill but rather the successful expression of your own intention.
Dublin Dance Festival always brings it in terms of diversity of creative genres and Suspended Chorus is a good example of some of its ‘out of the box’ presentations. Gribauldi is entertaining and executes her work with energy and enthusiasm. Her show speaks to, and connects with, the child in all of us. Bravissima!
Reviewed 13th May 2026.
The Reviews Hub Star Rating
Entertaining!
