Choreographer Luca Silvestrini – Artistic Director of Protein Dance – left Italy in 1995 for London to complete his dance training at the Laban Centre (now Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance) and never looked back.
Well, just occasionally.
He was in Italy recently for a weekend workshop hosted by the well-respected Proscaenium school of dance in Gallarate, a 40-minute drive out of Milan towards Malpensa Airport. He is also a regular for similar events in Bologna and Turin, because of his passion for Community Dance Practice. Silvestrini has created large-scale intergenerational dance events from London’s Trafalgar Square to Athens, Barcelona, and Japan, and his Protein company has been nominated several times for the UK’s National Dance Awards, winning in 2011.
The Chairman of the dance section of the Critics’ Circle, which manages the awards, is Graham Watts, who also writes for gramilano, and in last year’s review for Silvestrini’s The Little Prince, he wrote:
Over almost three decades, Silvestrini has developed an impressive reputation as a choreographer, having built an outstanding collection of pioneering works about pressing societal issues embellished by the knack of creating memorable visual spectacle from limited resources.
Proscaenium organises many events outside its remit as a dance school, working with people with disabilities and neurodegenerative disorders, communities, and the elderly. I attended Proscaenium’s inspiring Dance Without Limits weekend in 2024 with Adam Benjamin, the founder of the CandoCo Dance Company.
I talked with Luca Silvestrini about his experience at this year’s Dance Without Limits, organised by Proscaenium’s enterprising director, Cincia Puricelli.
I was saddened not to be able to attend this year’s events, Luca. How did it go?
It was my honour to be invited to Gallarate for a wonderful and inspiring weekend. I thank Proscaenium for the kind invitation and for holding a space where practitioners and participants danced together and reflected on community dance practice.
Somehow, that title, Dance Without Limits, represents everything I’ve always believed in and made. Dance has the power to transform lives; it has transformed mine, and I have seen it happen over and over again. At any point in life, with or without any previous experience, approaching dance can mean so much in terms of confidence, discovery, mental and physical health, a sense of belonging, socialising, and creativity.
Can you tell me what your London-based company has done in this field?
For over two decades, Protein has developed ways of bringing people closer to dance and performance, breaking down barriers and raising the profile of community dance. Our main projects in this field include intergenerational performances, mass/participatory choreography, performance projects with refugees and people seeking sanctuary, and vulnerable young people.
You said that dance can transform lives, but what changes do you see during just a weekend?
You see changes in the way participants progressively open up, smile, increase their self-esteem, and their trust in others. You notice a sense of ease in the way they hold their bodies and in their postures, a general sense of letting go to music and of joy in interacting with others.
What techniques do you use during a workshop?
For me, it’s fundamental to create and hold a space where everyone can be themselves and discover their own personal ways to journey towards dancing. If a sense of group is important for feeling safe and supported to begin with, each participant’s uniqueness is equally important and must be celebrated and nurtured. This way, everyone will feel accepted, empowered, relevant and part of a co-creation process.
Can you say something about Protein’s Real Life Real Dance programme?
Real Life Real Dance is that part of our Inclusion programme that involves co-creation, performance projects with the most vulnerable and disengaged. We mainly work with young people excluded from mainstream education, and in alternative education, and with refugees, asylum seekers and people seeking sanctuary.
The two projects have been running for years now; over the course of three weeks, we embark on a creative project that focuses on connecting or reconnecting people with themselves and others. We use a trauma-informed practice that enables participants to improve their self-esteem, confidence and overall well-being by being part of a creative process that leads towards an empowering live performance or film.
It’s so rewarding and humbling to see people change in such a short time, and we make sure a signposting process is in place when the project terminates, allowing them to continue dancing and performing.
Have you seen greater awareness of the importance of this work in recent years?
Absolutely yes. I see more and more dance companies, artists and organisations collaborating and facilitating amazing projects that aim to make dance an accessible and transformative creative and socially relevant instrument, empowering people and communities of any age, abilities and walks of life.
Why did you establish Protein Dance?
Well, Protein came from an experiment, an idea that Bettina Strickler and I had whilst studying dance and choreography at the Laban Centre (now Trinity Laban). That happened in 1997, with a duet called Duel, and of course, we did not expect all that happened afterwards.
At some point, Bettina left, and I continued as the company’s sole Artistic Director. What still amazes me is that our initial vision is still there – we wanted to make work that was accessible and connected to the everyday, work that was scratching the surface of the ordinary to reveal the extraordinary, even the less pleasant and uncomfortable parts. I’ve certainly changed and progressed, but on reflection, I believe my work is still rooted there.
Graham Watts wrote that you have built “an outstanding collection of pioneering works”. Can you say something about your work, who it is for, and how it has changed over the years?
Over the years, I think I have just listened to what moved, interested and challenged my existence and values, knowing that these were widely shared feelings and challenges.
My deep interest in and connection with people and the everyday have prompted me towards existential themes and questions that were, or became, topical and relevant to many.
This closeness to life has brought me to investigate ahead of the making process, a practice that has involved all sorts of different people in action research workshops, producing rich personal and societal backgrounds in which to move and create with the cast and the creatives. At the same time, I have been responsive and curious about commissioned work, which has expanded my horizons and enriched both my choreography and my life.
What are the new challenges for the company?
The sector is facing numerous challenges at the moment. Protein is no exception, but we are still going and determined to continue our journey.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.