© Sjoerd Derine

Disambiguation

Elisa Zuppini
Tue 20 May ’25 and Wed 21 May ’25
A self-perpetuating choreographic engine.
Tue 20 May ’25
and
Wed 21 May ’25

Disambiguation probes the libidinal drive and the sensorial overload linked to the diversified milieus of nocturnal life in it's most alluring, enigmatic, and shadowed dimensions.

In Disambiguation choreographer and dancer Elisa Zuppini crafts a system where human perception converges with the presence of other-than-human agencies. The sixteen dancers form a pulsing structure in which they extend toward and withdraw from the audience's perceptual field. Like chtonic waves a hybrid circuit of sensation is generated.

The dancers explore an insomniac framework, particularly that of 'post-clubbing' in which the stimulating effects and aftereffects of hedonistic nocturnal life is examined. They perform in a dissociative state of depersonalization, allowing them to resource from something other than conditioned subjectivity. Instead, they take charge of wandering intensities. The identifiable traits of these affects disperse, giving rise to erratic moods across perceptual spectrums. By inhabiting liminal and viscous spaces, the performers explore multiple sensibilities, navigating within the condition of metathreshold (a ceaseless transition, where boundaries dissolve and transformation occurs), where ambiguity itself sculpts tangible states.

Accompanied by deconstructed melodies and industrial rhythms, a haunting gothic trend emerges. Navigating a world erratically attempting to understand itself, Disambiguation reflects on collective agency and how this distributed cognition gives rise to a dramaturgy of affect. 

Credits

concept and choreography Elisa Zuppini performers Hannah Badura, Harvey Burke-Hamilton, Clémence Masakidi, Esteban Alejandro Obregon Moriano, Maren Weertman, Jieon Ko, Tim Brügger, Lola Dupriez, Mandisa Gramelsberger, Hope Landu, Rowan van den Boomen, Ditte Toppet artistic advice Bruno Listopad
Supervisor Sound Editor: Fabian Reichle costumes Elisa Zuppini, Bruno Listopad lighting design Martijn Smolders production Charlot van den Meer for WhyNot festival produced and supported by WhyNot festival, Expanded Contemporary Dance thanks to Bojana Bauer, Bruno Listopad, Marjolein Vogels, Maria Ines Villasmiels Preto, Tamara Beudeker, Belle de Wit, WhyNot Festival photography Sjoerd Derine

Others about Disambiguation

“How the sense of agency of the performers arrives in the complexity (and the sense of humour) of the choreography, and then is transferred to those looking on and listening in, very impressive.” Fransien van den Put, dramaturg, author and critic

“In Disambiguation Zuppini masterfully crafts a complex ensemble piece." Bojana Bauer, theorist, dramaturg, and artistic director of ECD Expanded Contemporary Dance, and CND responsable de formation et de pédagogie, Paris 

About the maker

Elisa Zuppini is an Italian-born choreographer and dancer based in Amsterdam, who graduated from the SNDO School for New Dance Development in 2018. Her practice explores the intersection of movement, systems thinking, and contemporary philosophy. She views choreography as a form of relational and affective architecture, a system where spatial and temporal elements interact dynamically to generate meaning.

Since 2019 she is part of Jacuzzi, a convergence of Amsterdam-based choreographers.