Vertical Dance Routes © Wanda Moretti 2020
Vertical Dance Routes
by Wanda Moretti
Vertical Dance Routes is a research project on vertical dance that draws on my life and interests as an artist and choreographer.
It presents and documents the evolution of vertical dance from its beginnings to the present day. Tracing the history of this unique art form at a time of incredible invention is a commitment to present and future generations. The research is divided into three parts: History | Moon and Movement | Reason.
Reason
Pioneer
Gravity
Vertical dance was born out of the extreme need to bring spaces, artists and audiences together in a new way of seeing the universe as a unified whole of body and space.
How did each artist's movement/dance/choreography develop? What was the motivation for the artists to develop vertical dance, even though they did not yet call it that?
How did the history of perpendicular movement to the wall begin? Learning to walk and move on the vertical plane at different angles. What did the moon landing leave us with?
Lectures 2018 - 2026
Vertical Dance Routes
The presentation explores the origins and development of vertical dance from the 1960s onward. Through the screening of rare video clips, it documents the unique practices of pioneering artists.
Dancers are shown performing site-specific movements in urban, industrial, and natural spaces. These vertical journeys reveal unique artistic visions that fundamentally shaped this new dance form.
To the moon and back
From evolutionary history to space travel, our relationship with gravity continues to transform. We first experience this unique force in the womb, a feeling we later seek to repeat as children.
As adults, we find new ways to rediscover and reinterpret this experience through art and science. Movement and its forms of expression become a way to play with gravity and dance with it.
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Irish Aerial Dance Festival
L'ascension de la Danse Verticale
San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival
Vertical Dance Origin, First Generation
12th August 2018
directed by Joanna Haigood
Fort Mason
Centre for Arts and Culture
Festival Pavillon
San Francisco, California, USA
Vertical Dance Origin, Trisha Brown
15th May 2019
directed by Fabrice Guillot
Bibliotéque National de France BNF - Mitterand
co-founded by Creative Europe,
Paris, France, EU
Vertical Dance Origin, First Generation
10th July 2018
An Griánan Theater
directed by Chantal McCormick
co-founded by Creative Europe Programme of the EU Union
Letterkenny, Ireland, EU
Vertical Dance Fusion
To the moon and back
Routes of Vertical Dance
To the Moon and back
15th - 17th August 2022
Buchannan Center Performing Arts
Wyoming University
Vertical Dance Connections
Buchannan Center Performing Arts
Skip Harper Fund
Laramie, USA
Vertical Dance Origin, First Generation
12th August 2022
Berry Biodiversity Center
Department of Theatre and Dance
Vertical Dance Connections
Wyoming University
Skip Harper Fund
Laramie, USA
Vertical Dance Origin, First Generation
17th Sept 2021
Company Vola Stage Art
directed by Anett Simmen
Teufelsberg Berlin
Berlin, Germany, EU
Vertical Dance Days (online)
III° Encuentro de Danza Vertical
Nei suoni dei luoghi
To the moon and back
8th June 2024
Festival internazionale di musica e territori XXVI Edizione
Directed by Valentina Danelon,
Gloria Campaner
Castello di Udine, Italy EU
To the moon and back
19th September 2025
III Encuentro de Danza Vertical
Directed by La Glo Circo
Centro Municipal de Rekalde
City Hall Bilbao
Bilbao, Spain EU
To the Moon and back
6th February 2022
Sparrow Dance Company
directed by Esther Wrobel
Copenaghen, Denmark EU
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next?
TEDx Genova
Via Flaminia Festival
Da Vitruvio alla luna passando per la danza verticale
13 september 2026
Via Flaminia Festival
directed by Francesca Bernardi, Filippo Mantoni
Università di Urbino
Sala San Michele
Fano, Italy EU
Architetture di corpi
16th November 2025
PO_LI
Teatro Nazionale Ivo Chiesa
Genova, Italy EU
Where?
The beauty and power of vertical dance lie in its ability to bring bodies and places together,
dancing anywhere and creating relationships.
Here are some places that engage with IL POSTO DANZA VERTICALE
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Thinking Dance
In all the equipment pieces the choreographic decisions, time, place, order of movements, kinds of movements, the nature of the sound (for example, dialogue) are strictly governed by the choice of equipment. The movement and language are generated in terms of the most economical use of the equipment. It is hard to imagine anyone choosing or inventing those particular movements or that language outside of the chosen equipment situation.
Trisha Brown, September 1972
TEDx Genova
PO_LI
16th November 2025
Teatro Nazionale Ivo CHiesa
Genova, IT
TEDx Genova
PO_LI
16th November 2025
Teatro Nazionale Ivo CHiesa
Genova, IT
photo courtesy of NASA/Langley Research Center LaRC
contact
wandamoretti@ ilposto.org
VDC
Vertical Dance Center
Via Lazzarini 12
Marghera-Venezia
30175
Italia
consultation is possible only by written request: interviews, articles, letters, videos, photos, dissertation and thesis
© Wanda Moretti 2020