Rocco Mangieri
ESIT

Dance · Theatre · Performance · Music

Performing Arts

Some twenty years of workshops, teaching and research in what he calls the performing arts — theatre, dance, performance and music — selected from his Performing Arts dossier.

Performing Arts dossier PDF · 61 pages, in Italian

Synopsis

Architect, musician and semiotician, trained at DAMS (University of Bologna) and professor at the Universidad de los Andes, he has attended stages and seminars at the International Centre of Semiotics and Linguistics of the University of Urbino. He holds a PhD in Philology and Semiotics (University of Murcia, Spain) and pursued postgraduate studies in social sciences at the Central University of Venezuela. He studied theatre and dance anthropology at the Odin Teatret laboratory with Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley.

Director of the Laboratory of Semiotics and Socio-anthropology at the Faculty of Arts of the Universidad de los Andes (Venezuela), he has been a visiting professor at the Universidad Nacional de las Artes (Argentina), the Master in Arts Vivants of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, the Faculty of Arts of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (Mexico) and Movimento Centrale, a centre for dance and performing arts (Rimini, Italy). He currently coordinates a research project on intermedial environments in the arts of the body and performance, and is conducting research on the rhythm of the city as visiting professor at Sapienza University of Rome.

Original text in Italian.

In his own words

This selection gathers about twenty years of workshop practice, teaching and research in what I call the field of the Performing Arts (theatre, dance, performance and musical practices). The order is not strictly chronological but arranged around the aspects I wished to bring to the fore across the body of work.

My most recent research and creations, while integrating the fundamental traits of my earlier professional and artistic training, have largely focused on the concept of atmosphere and environment (proprioceptive and exteroceptive), with particular attention to the acousmatic dimension of the perception and generation of movement and action. This framework is what I first called ecoperformance and bioperformance.

The approach is transdisciplinary, but corporeality remains the integrating axis of all the other elements. In this sense, what we call corporeality goes well beyond the somatic dimension: it includes the sphere of sensibility, of desire and, above all, of memory — the memory of the body.

Alongside these explorations stands the theme of rhythm, to which I devoted the field research carried out in Rome in 2025 as a visiting researcher at the Department of Sociology of Communication of Sapienza. I consider the category of rhythm a transdisciplinary and articulating order of almost all cultural practices, especially those regarded as artistic; in this sense I have even returned, metaphorically, to the “ancient glottology of the body”.

The “spatio-temporal unit” has been walking (Michel de Certeau’s primordial walking), a semiotic magnitude shared by the researcher and the field of study and, finally, a silent and probably safer territory from which to elaborate progressive working hypotheses. The link with dance and musicology is unavoidable if we are to perceive, and dare to frame, the polyrhythmic dimension of a city like Rome.

Workshops in the socio-anthropology of the body

Training workshops based on the principles of Eugenio Barba and Victor Fuenmayor and on my own theory of bodily training, with no substantial difference between actor, performer and dancer. Shared workshops between Venezuela and Belgium, within the Master in Arts Vivants ULB-ULA, 2005–2011.

Two photographs side by side: a dancer in black with a blue blindfold moving across a studio floor, and a close-up of bare feet and wide black trousers on a wooden floor.

Sensorium

Faculty of Arts, ULA

Sensorium, theatre-anthropology workshop, 2009–2011: training based on the principles of Barba and Fuenmayor and on my own theory of bodily training.

Low-angle view of dancers’ legs in the foreground, with a long line of participants walking in a studio with a blue mat floor behind them.

Percussion for dance and theatre

Odin festival, Denmark

Workshop of percussion for dance and theatre at the Odin festival, Denmark, 2011: training with no substantial difference between actor, performer and dancer.

Five participants in a sunlit studio with brick walls, standing with bent knees and arms raised or extended, inside squares marked with tape on the wooden floor.

The extraordinary body

Training based on the concept of the extraordinary body of Odin Teatret (Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley), 2011–2015: concentrating energy in a small space of movement.

On a dark stage, one man crouches at the left while another, in an orange T-shirt, leans far forward with his arms stretched out.

Contact and imprinting

Training of contact and imprinting to teach the forces of opposition and to create body zones of energy concentration, 2007–2012.

In a yellow-lit classroom, a man in a white shirt walks with outstretched arms in the distance while a blurred dark silhouette in the foreground also spreads both arms wide.

The Funambulist, after Peter Brook

Exercise based on Peter Brook’s “Funambulist”, alongside the contact and imprinting training, 2007–2012.

The double body: puppets, Butoh, shadows and the gaze

Exercises on the double body and on energy shared through contact and flow, explored through puppets, Butoh, Meyerhold’s biomechanics, shadows and the “dance of the eyes”.

A woman in black with glasses leans over and holds the arms of a second performer, who wears a white mask and dark clothes, in a wood-panelled hall.

The double body, Brussels

ULB, Brussels (Belgium)

Belgium, 2011. Exercises on the Double Body and on energy shared through contact and flow, with Erasmus students of the Master in Arts Vivants, ULB Brussels. The concept of impulse draws in part on Thomas Richard’s technique of physical actions and on Barba’s dynamics of oppositions.

Two photographs side by side: a man in a decorated mask balancing on one leg with one arm raised, and hands manipulating a red marionette above bare feet on a blue mat.

Puppets: the extended body

Master in Arts Vivants, ULB, Brussels

Training of the double and expanded body through Hindu and Balinese puppets, seen as embodied extensions of the acting body and endowed with the power of mutual teaching.

On a dark stage lit in red, a performer with a bare torso and a long fringed red skirt stands with both hands pressed to the chest.

Butoh

Festival del Movimiento, Faculty of Arts, ULA

Dance-performance with Juliana Mendonça (LiquidDANCE). Butoh technique helped me study the construction of a bodily space and time wholly other than the chronology of actions in twentieth-century dramaturgy.

A performer lit in blue stands at the left of a large blue screen, next to the tall black shadow of a figure with arms hanging out at the sides.

Shadows and biomechanics

Practices and demonstrations based on Meyerhold’s Biomechanics (workshops 2008, 2009, 2010). Shadows are almost indispensable in my work: besides Meyerhold’s use of them for the otkaz effect, I add the self-observation of the microgesture and awareness of the permanent dialogue with that other body, which suggests further lines of flight.

Close-up of a woman with dark bangs and wide-open eyes looking straight at the camera, with another woman standing behind her against a brick wall.

The dance of the eyes

Training of the “dance of the eyes”, or technique of the “dilation of the gaze”, closely tied to the Balinese concept of seledet.

Site-specific performance and dance-theatre

Performances conceived for specific places and gatherings, from the intercultural BORDES seminars between Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela to the national dance festival in Mérida and a dance-theatre seminar at UNAM in 2022.

Night view of a large circle of flames burning on a bed of straw, with a standing figure at the back and onlookers gathered around.

Circle of Fire (2012)

BORDES intercultural seminar, Colombia–Mexico–Venezuela

Circle of Fire, intercultural seminar BORDES, Colombia–Mexico–Venezuela, 2012.

A man in a long dark coat stands on a stone staircase beside a carved balustrade, looking toward the camera in low light.

Ascenso/Descenso

UNAM, Mexico

Ascenso/Descenso, site-specific performance: a bodily transposition of the song “Georgia on My Mind” (1930) by Hoagy Carmichael, lyrics by Stuart Gorrell. Dance-theatre seminar, UNAM, Mexico, 2022.

Black-and-white stage photograph: a seated woman in a knitted white hat, a young man leaning back with his head raised and an older man bent forward around a small café table with teacups.

TARANTAcaffé

Festival Nacional de Danza, Mérida

TARANTAcaffé, dance-theatre, National Dance Festival, Mérida, 2010. With Juliana Mendonça and Eric Urriola. An experiment on the ritual of the Taranta (Sicily).

In total darkness, a performer in dark clothes raises one hand toward a glowing sphere of light while the other arm is held out to the side.

Fight&Clean

BORDES intercultural seminar, Colombia–Venezuela

Fight&Clean, theatre-performance, intercultural seminar BORDES, Colombia–Venezuela, 2009.

Extreme close-up of a man’s face lying on his side among tall blades of dry grass that cross in front of his eyes.

Circle of Fire (2008)

BORDES intercultural symposium, Colombia–Venezuela

Circle of Fire, site-specific performance, intercultural symposium BORDES, Colombia–Venezuela, 2008.

A hand and forearm painted bright green with dark stripes, resting among large dark-green leaves with pale veins.

MIMETICSsomatics

Nanjing University, China

MIMETICSsomatics, body art workshop, International Congress of Semiotics, Nanjing University, China, 2008.

Ecoperformance, atmosphere and sonic environments

My most recent research focuses on atmosphere and environment, with particular attention to the acousmatic dimension of perception and of the generation of movement and action: what I first called ecoperformance and bioperformance.

Poster for the workshop “Corpi anfibi e spazi liminali”: a coastal watchtower at sunset above the sea, with a pale vertical band of light and text over the image.

Amphibious bodies and liminal spaces

Torre del Cerrano, Pineto (Pescara), Italy

Recent workshop at Torre del Cerrano (Pescara), within the “Blue & Green TEK” programme, by invitation of Emilio Cocco (University of Teramo), 2026. The focus is the ecological concept of ECOTONE, the area of transition and exchange between land and sea, with groups of Erasmus Mundus students.

Poster collage: bare feet on wooden boards, a man’s face seen through a water-like layer, and a woman with an accordion beside a moss-covered tree trunk.

Biosemiotics of the body

Schwarzwald

Poster of a bioperformance workshop on immersion and deep listening in a natural atmosphere, with movement, sound, bilocation and live percussion, Schwarzwald, March 2025.

Video still: a man’s face with closed eyes seen through a rippling, water-like layer over green foliage.

Listening to the forest

Still from the video “Escuchar el bosque: estados de flujo, escucha profunda e interacción” (Listening to the forest: states of flow, deep listening and interaction).

Poster over a photograph of three people walking through a green forest, one in a yellow padded jacket and one in a bright pink coat, with the programme text in yellow and white.

In-betweenness

UNIMORE, Reggio Emilia, Italy

BIP (Blended Intensive Program) “Exploring Urban Spaces: Movement Methodologies for Understanding the City”. Session “In-betweenness: nature and city sonic atmospheres, ethnosemiotic experiences and performing arts”, with Rocco Mangieri, Giulio Conti and Federico Montanari, UNIMORE, Department of Communication and Economics, Reggio Emilia.

Body memory: video-performance in Naples

One of my most recent experimental laboratories, as visiting professor at Suor Orsola Benincasa University, explored the relation between digital memories (still algorithmic) and the memories of the body (deeply analogue, embodied in a phenomenological sense). A first experimental product is a video-performance born of an ethnographic exploration of the Quartieri Spagnoli in Naples through Sensory Ethnography, 2026.

Wide-angle shot up a narrow Naples alley crossed by coloured threads, with a pink panel held in the foreground and a person walking at the right.

Video-performance in the Quartieri Spagnoli

Quartieri Spagnoli, Naples

Sequence from the process of the video-performance created from an ethnographic exploration of the Quartieri Spagnoli of Naples through the method of Sensory Ethnography, 2026.

Pink, green and orange clothespins fasten many coloured threads to a stone wall; the threads run across a narrow street lined with old buildings and hanging laundry.

Threads across the alley

Quartieri Spagnoli, Naples

Another sequence from the process: coloured threads fixed with clothespins to a wall and stretched across a street of the Quartieri Spagnoli, 2026.

Rhythm, walking and polyrhythm

Between 2022 and 2026, research on POLYRHYTHM as the theoretical axis of Caribbean cultural expressions; in 2025, field research in Rome on the rhythms of the city, with walking as its spatio-temporal unit.

Black-and-white photograph of a bare foot and leg in mid-step on a concrete floor, with a grid of small silhouette frames and Italian text about walking as a unit of measure.

Walking as a unit of measure

Rome

Field research in Rome, 2025, as visiting researcher at the Department of Sociology of Communication, Sapienza: walking (Michel de Certeau’s primordial walking) as the spatio-temporal unit shared by researcher and field of study. Slide from the research.

Slide with a photograph of feet walking over a marble floor inlaid with bronze medallions, plus three close-ups of the medallions, on a black background with Italian text.

Choices in the field

Rome

Field research in Rome, 2025: the choices made in the course of the fieldwork, from its spatio-temporal dimensions and intersubjective relations to the framing of the shot.

Slide with two photographs of escalators seen from above, with people riding them, next to Italian text on paths through everyday life.

Paths through everyday life

Rome

Field research in Rome, 2025: paths within everyday life, interactions between the body, devices and architectural space, and reconfigurations of the experience of rhythmic involvement.

Blue and orange poster titled “Incontri in biblioteca”, with a small portrait at the right and a photograph of a library reading room with a long wooden table.

Rhythms and polyrhythms of Caribbean culture

Poster of a library meeting, “El cine que se repite: Ritmos y poliritmos de la cultura del Caribe”, curated by Rocco Mangieri, within the research on polyrhythm as the articulating axis of Caribbean cultural expressions.

Stage design, festivals and the dance degree

Lighting design and stage setting for productions of the School of Performing Arts, events that give visibility to my students’ research and my own, and the project for a BA in Dance and Movement Arts at the University of Los Andes.

A large grey metal box-like set with small square windows and recessed panels fills the stage; two small figures sit embracing on top of it and a person stands at the right.

ANDROGINOS

School of Performing Arts, ULA

Lighting design and stage setting for ANDROGINOS by Gabriel Torres (2008–2010–2014), School of Performing Arts, ULA.

Warmly lit detail of the set: a hand and a leg in a black high-heeled shoe emerge from a small hinged door in a wooden wall.

ANDROGINOS, detail

School of Performing Arts, ULA

ANDROGINOS by Gabriel Torres: detail of the stage device, with lighting and set design by Rocco Mangieri.

Image from the Diálogos Mérida poster: a dancer in a black dress with a red ruffled underskirt caught mid-movement, beside the vertical lettering “Diálogos Mérida”.

Diálogos and Festival del Movimiento

Mérida

“Diálogos” and “Festival del Movimiento”: two of the events where I give visibility to my students’ research and my own, 2006–2015. Pictured: Diálogos Mérida, Latin American meeting of contemporary dance creators, 2006.

Yellow project poster with a stylised blue, white and black drawing of two dancers and the title “Proyecto para la creación de la Licenciatura en Danza y Artes del Movimiento”, Universidad de los Andes.

BA in Dance and Movement Arts

Faculty of Arts, ULA

Project for establishing the BA in Dance and Movement Arts (promoter and coordinator, 2006–2010), now active in synergy with the schools of visual arts and music. The curriculum articulates dance, music, theatre and audiovisual arts around a continuous axis, the “Laboratory of intermedial practices”. Evaluated internationally and approved in 2010.

Genderfull and Cuerpos en riesgo

Two collaborative projects on identity and the confined body: Genderfull (2021), which uses dance and movement art against discrimination, social violence and inequality, and Cuerpos en riesgo, which explores creation from the body confined during the global pandemic.

Poster for Genderful: a black-and-white photograph of a figure in black leaning back with a long veil blown by the wind on a beach with a Ferris wheel behind, next to the event programme.

Genderfull: bodies and identities

Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy

GENDERFULL, bodies-identities, Collettivo MC, Danza Teatro Movimento Centrale, 2021. A project developed progressively from this initial phase, based on the practice of dance and movement art as an effective tool against current forms of discrimination, social violence and inequality.

Video still: a dancer in a light dress arches backward against a weathered concrete wall, with two potted ferns hanging at either side.

Cuerpos en riesgo

“Cuerpos en riesgo” (Bodies at risk), a transdisciplinary project with MovimentoCentrale.org, the Laboratory of Semiotics and Socioanthropology of the University of the Andes, the Italian Cultural Institutes of Córdoba and Buenos Aires and the Teatro Libertador of Buenos Aires. Its generating core is the possibility of creating from the body confined during the global pandemic.

Black-and-white video still of a dancer in draped white fabric lying on rough ground among bricks and dry stalks.

Creations from Cuerpos en riesgo

Still from one of the video creations of the project, which involved groups of musicians, theatre actors and dance students from several Latin American countries.

Pratica della D(ist)anza

A project with MovimentoCentrale.org, the Laboratory of Semiotics and Socioanthropology of the University of the Andes and the Italian Cultural Institute of Córdoba (Argentina), drawing on the theories of Laban and Gillian Hobart and on virtual, interactive, distance communication. The first edition took place in 2020; a second is under way.

Poster with a large red circle containing the title “Práctica de la D(IST)ANZA” and a dancer in black leaning to one side, with event details and a QR code.

Práctica de la D(ist)anza: virtual dance laboratory

Online (Córdoba, Argentina)

Poster of the virtual dance laboratory “Práctica de la D(ist)anza – Sincronización orgánica”, 3 November 2020, in Italian and Spanish, with Claudio Gasparotto, Rocco Mangieri and Fabio Mina.

Video still: a figure whose body is covered in bands of red, black and yellow, curled in a spiral against a pale cream background.

DUE MA NON DUE

Online

Still from “DUE MA NON DUE”, the collective videodance that closed the first edition (2020): choreography by Claudio Gasparotto, music by Fabio Mina, editing by Dorin Mihai.

Video-call grid showing several participants in their own homes, some standing and moving, others seated at a desk.

An online session

Online

Screenshot of an online session of the project: practice carried out through virtual, interactive, distance communication.

Videos

Performance and dance

Talks and interviews

Recent books

Book cover: a small yellow rowing boat moored on calm blue water below a rocky headland, with the title “Las artes del cuerpo como celebración de la vida y el encuentro” and the names of the editors.

Las artes del cuerpo como celebración de la vida y el encuentro

Edited by Jorge Eduardo Urueña López and Rocco Mangieri. A volume co-edited between Venezuela and Colombia gathering the contributions of the participants in a round table held in 2022 in Thessaloniki (Greece), at the International Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies. Published in 2023.

Black book cover with four tinted fisheye views of a stage interior (white, orange, grey and blue), above the title “Prácticas, entornos, atmósferas” and the author’s name.

Prácticas, entornos, atmósferas: Semiótica de los entornos escénicos y performativos

A recently published book in Latin American Spanish that gathers much of my theoretical and research nuclei from 1995 to the present. Published by the Compañía Nacional de Teatro (CNT), Dirección de Investigaciones.