The Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal presents a special evening featuring two events dedicated to Dewey Dell, an Italian dance and performing arts company active since 2006. Through the language of movement, music and voice, the company explores the relationship between human beings, nature and the supernatural.
The evening features Deriva Traversa, a dance performance choreographed by Teodora Castellucci, and The Metamorphosis of an Idea, an exhibition devoted to the creative process behind The Rite of Spring, the company’s 2023 reinterpretation of Igor Stravinsky’s work.
- Deriva Traversa – Dance Performance
Deriva Traversa explores the relationship between solitude, memory, nature and the supernatural through the language of movement, music and voice.
Solitude is an essential part of a shepherd’s life. It allows for complete introspection and a gradual detachment from the visible world. The sounds that reach the shepherd dissolve into a new silence, while thoughts take shape with absolute clarity. The animals in their care become the only means of stepping outside oneself, of offering care and affection.
When shepherds sing, they find their pitch by imitating the wind or the bleating of sheep and cows. Through sung poetry, they pass down stories from the past, preserving and transmitting culture orally from one generation to the next. This journey back in time, however, does not abandon present reality; it simply moves beyond the visible world. The stories sung by shepherd-poets can be understood as an attempt to decipher the invisible through an inward journey, a veritable geography of the supernatural.
- The Metamorphosis of an Idea – Exhibition
The exhibition invites visitors to discover the creative process behind The Rite of Spring, one of the company’s recent productions, created in 2023 to the original music of Igor Stravinsky.
Dewey Dell’s work draws inspiration from the behaviours of the animal kingdom and imagery from art history. Its choreography combines natural movements, presented in abstract form, with the expressive qualities and compositional principles of painting and sculpture. The body thus becomes an instrument for developing a language that moves between human and animal, culture and instinct, stylized forms and an understanding of the wild.
In its creations, the company engages with archetypes and narrative structures rooted in antiquity, transforming original models into frameworks through which new and contemporary forms can emerge. Following Hamlet (2021), The Rite of Spring (2023) and Dido and Aeneas (2026), Dewey Dell continues to explore the relationship between myth, nature and transformation.
In every metamorphosis and profound change in life, death accompanies life, appearing as a rite of passage or an inner revolution. In the animal and plant kingdoms, this coexistence becomes even more tangible: death is often part of the process of fertilization, and life flourishes on decomposing carcasses. Among insects, seeds and moulds, death is a welcoming presence, an invitation to life.
Dewey Dell’s reinterpretation of The Rite of Spring stems precisely from the desire to restore to nature the earth-shaking power of Stravinsky’s music. The sacrifice of a human life, at the heart of the ancient pagan ritual evoked in the original work to ensure the fertility of the earth, finds numerous parallels in the natural world: a flower releasing its pollen, a fungus dispersing its spores or a decomposing carcass all become equivalents of the chosen victim. What initially belonged to the cultural sphere thus becomes a matter of nature. The celebration of the mystery of spring and the violent eruption of life into the world cannot be separated from a cataclysm or from a reflection that also embraces death.
For the first time, the public will have the opportunity to see sketches of the costumes and stage design, alongside the visual references that inspired the production, drawn from the natural world – plant, animal and microscopic life, including insects and moulds – as well as photographs of the costumes and sets in their final form.
The exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to follow the metamorphosis of an idea, from its earliest inspirations and visual references to its realization on stage.
Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 5:00 p.m.
Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal
1200 avenue du Docteur-Penfield, Montreal
Free admission – RSVP required
Deriva Traversa – Artistic Credits
- Choreography and performance: Teodora Castellucci
- Music: Demetrio Castellucci
- Choreographic assistance: Agata Castellucci
- Choral composition and voices: Adam Sherry and Sam Sherry / A Dead Forest Index
- Dramaturgy: Vito Matera
- Costumes: Guoda Jaruseviciute
Supported by progetto MUSE / compagnia B, in collaboration with Festival Danza Urbana and Festival Città delle Cento Scale.
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