Alchimia

A site specific project for Collezione Maramotti
Commissioned and coproduced by Festival Aperto/Fondazione I Teatri - Reggio Emilia in collaboration with Collezione Maramotti and Max Mara

1 – 4 October, 2026

Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia

Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite has been a defining voice in contemporary dance for over 35 years. She is renowned for creating works that courageously address themes such as trauma, addiction, conflict, consciousness and mortality. Her bold and original vision has earned her widespread international acclaim and inspired an entire generation of dance artists.

Her new project – part of the Festival Aperto 2026 programme – is a collaboration between Fondazione I Teatri / Festival Aperto, Collezione Maramotti, Pite’s dance company, Kidd Pivot, and leading contemporary dance company Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT), of which she has been Associate Choreographer since 2008. This project intersects paths that have helped shape contemporary dance over the last twenty years: the creation will take shape in dialogue with the architecture, history and works of the Collezione Maramotti and its collection and will be performed by dancers from NDT 1 and Kidd Pivot, continuing the collaboration begun in 2009 between Fondazione I Teatri, Collezione Maramotti and Max Mara aimed at creating a dialogue between choreography and visual arts.

For Crystal Pite, craft is a vessel through which she moves towards coreographic art. Approaching creation from the identity of the craftsperson, choreography becomes expression of manual labour: to build, assemble, trim, tinker, revise and polish a work is to expose its shiniest insights.

This attention to craft is the starting point for her new creation. Pite reflects on the Collezione Maramotti’s original function as the Max Mara factory, and on the artisans who once worked there for decades.