Can Can was born out of a collaboration between the author Giovanni Ortoleva and the performer Irene Mantova, who, in 2023 at the age of twenty-five, was diagnosed with epilepsy, after a life marked by unexplained “seizures.” The work intertwines Irene’s story with that of Jane Avril, the famous can-can dancer immortalized by Toulouse-Lautrec, who transformed her epilepsy into a form of self-expression, parodying it in her dance.
Can Can
Giovanni Ortoleva
Advance Sales
50'
LAC+ members have first refusal starting December 1.
Sales open to the general public starting December 8.
Teatrostudio
CHF 25
Thu 18.02
20:00
Fri 19.02
20:00
Can Can
Giovanni Ortoleva
Advance Sales
50'
LAC+ members have first refusal starting December 1.
Sales open to the general public starting December 8.
Teatrostudio
CHF 25
Thu 18.02
20:00
Fri 19.02
20:00
Drawing inspiration from the biographies of the two artists and recalling the profound impact that epilepsy had in the late 19th century on actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt, who incorporated its poses into her performances, Can Can plays with the performative aspect of epileptic seizures, transforming them into choreographies that can be treated with varying degrees of realism and identification. The project brings together movement and documentation, drawing on diverse materials such as photographs of patients at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris taken by Charcot and YouTube channels where people recount their own seizures, questioning the very nature of these representations of the “sacred evil.” Irene Mantova interprets epileptic seizures—her own and those of others—through a blend of dance and parody, pathos and irony: a playful meditation on suffering and interpretation.