L.A.V.A. BOOK
Diary of a Creative Process

“SAVE AS”.
Exercises in Collective Memory
by Stefania Rimini

Within the contemporary performance circuit, Compagnia Zappalà Danza stands out for its hybrid approach to artistic creation, made up of essences and situations that often coalesce around a key word or theme and then radiate into multiple forms. This approach, so rich in resonances and means of expression, finds in the production of L.A.V.A. a further step towards the crystallisation of the work’s guiding ideas, through the practice of a plural form of writing shaped by shifting perspectives, entrusted not only to choreographers and dancers, but also to scholars and students, amateurs and, ultimately, spectators (this being the most challenging wager). The pieces gathered in this unusual book belong to the work’s incubation phase; they record all its tremors, its movements to and from the bodies, according to supple, visceral, ever-evolving consistencies. The plastic tension of the page, through Maurizio Leonardi’s attentive and hyperconnected layout and graphic design, seeks to recover the full significance of the project, that concept of the “rear area” that Sofia Bordieri reads and reconstructs with maturity and care.

This is not merely a matter of making the genesis of the performance accessible, of recording the stages of the ideational process in a sort of public diary, but of transferring into the dimension of text—and therefore into an apparently inert horizontality—the flow of the compositional magma, the encounter and clash between different theories and practices of the stage, which reach synthesis only through a dialectic pushed to the point of friction between thoughts and gestures. The shaping of L.A.V.A.’s journey mimics the material consistency of the volcano’s lifeblood, moving beyond the dated logic of the “director’s book” to instead create a kind of moodboard, a landscape with figures that disarticulates discourses while simultaneously recomposing the tableaux, in a montage of attractions punctuated by conversations in the rehearsal room as filtered through Bordieri’s gaze.

One of the most significant elements of this new editorial challenge is the point of convergence between discourses and images, the internal dynamics of the sections, and the close interplay between scientific and visual documentation. The iconographic apparatus does not serve to display choreographic evidence, but rather aims to bridge the interval between before and after, to delineate the boundary of creation, to describe what in every respect appears as the “absent original”, namely, the blueprint of invention. Bordieri’s notes are situated along the path that led to the development of the idea and proceed through leaps, accumulation and settling, following a movement that is both centripetal and centrifugal. All the witnesses invited to contribute express the urgency of a shared elaboration, the ruptures and sutures of a modus operandi that is renewed at every step and always entails the effort to deconstruct the geometry of bodies and sequences.

Making the operation even more fascinating is the ghost of Mount Etna—or rather, the expanded red of L.A.V.A.—at the heart of the inspiration as an emblem of a visceral force that shakes and regenerates, in the unceasing encounter between human beings and the environment, nature and culture. Far from invoking rhetorical patterns that have already been explored, the terms of the question open onto a research process that is not merely artistic but is bound to the very essence of the island territory, to the breathing of the earth, to the forces of erosion and accumulation. It is no coincidence that the graphic design insists on a veritable vertigo of reds, a plastic manifestation of the volcano’s kinetic energy, a compositional line connecting choreographic passages and fragments of text in a visual atlas that superimposes different typefaces and shifting, at times even divergent, page layouts, imposing upon readers an effort to recompose and remediate axes and surfaces.

To save the intermittencies of the process of invention therefore means experimenting with new practices, bringing the compositional methods of the two companies back into broader memory-training practices, capable of recovering the “different ways of remaining” of which Rebecca Schneider speaks, because, ultimately, every performance—even in the face of its inevitable vocation towards ephemerality—preserves intact the promise of a possible eternity. Or rather, the ambition to challenge time in order to come to terms with a present continuous. The dance of Roberto Zappalà, Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten reminds us that what reverberates on stage is the foresight of bodies, the transparency of gestures as metaphors, embedded in figures that transcend the measure of things. Among these is the form of the snake, a preparatory pose that is highlighted in the book through the purity of the lines of the drawing: beyond the sparkle of graphs, diagrams and vectors—necessary to make the project’s scientific matrix visible—it is the dancers’ curves that reveal an unprecedented correspondence with a maxim by Giordano Bruno, not by chance chosen as the motto of the journal Engramma: “Nothing binds by itself unless it is predisposed to the best form of binding.” The future memory of the L.A.V.A. project settles precisely around this aspiration…

Introduction to the text
by Sofia Bordieri

In 2023, I began working at Scenario Pubblico as a writer.

My task was to keep a logbook documenting the activities of an interesting project entitled I Linguaggi del Corpo/oltre le barriere per raccontare l’umanità. On that occasion, many new ideas emerged and important collaborations were consolidated, including the partnership with the Milan-based association Cro.Me (Cronaca e Memoria dello Spettacolo), the launch of Marta Greco and Silvia Oteri’s movement course for amateurs, and the production of a short documentary video with Eros Brancaleon.
At the conclusion of the project, I began digitising the Compagnia Zappalà Danza’s analogue video archive and, at the same time, the blog Humus was born: a space conceived for the dancers in training at MoDem Atelier and dedicated to critical writing, interviews and the documentation of artistic residencies. Like a chain, each of these activities is a stage in a journey that, slowly, like lava flowing beneath the surface, has brought us here and attests to the meaning of this collection of writings on L.A.V.A., the new creation by Roberto Zappalà, Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten, produced in co-production with Teatro Stabile di Catania.

It was October 2025 when Roberto told me about an upcoming new production, special because it would be shared with another company, ICK Dans Amsterdam. The two groups would work in parallel, in Catania and Amsterdam, and would then meet to bring their choreographic writings together with the aim of creating a single performance.
In preparation for the beginning of the process, Roberto proposed opening the first phase of work to three different groups of people, in order to engage with the theme from different perspectives. He therefore asked whether I would be interested in being present in the studio and taking notes. I immediately accepted, happy to undertake a new observational practice based on being there and documenting.
As will become clear, Compagnia Zappalà Danza welcomed into the research MoDem Pro (autumn 2025 session), a group of amateur dancers, and a group of students from the Department of Humanities at the University of Catania.
These groups constitute the original nucleus of the documentation, which today consists of a collection of voices, all situated within different moments of the creative process carried out in Catania.
The volume is therefore independent from the performance and, at the same time, intrinsically connected to it, because it originates from the performance itself. L.A.V.A. Book is based on a linguistic system composed of texts, images and other contents organised through a graphic design that offers a journey into the inaccessible zone of the creative phase. The decision to bring together multiple perspectives thus stems from the awareness of wanting to leave traces of a time that will inevitably be returned to us as partial.

The volume is neither a logbook, a blog, nor an archival file, and yet some of their characteristics linger within it.
The logbook was used by sailors as a kind of register for recording the features of a voyage: an essential report containing information about sailing speed, weather conditions, the state of the ship and crew, provisions, and so on.
In English, the term log book derives from log—a “line”, a wooden float attached to a rope, which constituted the ancient model of the “log line”, the instrument used to measure a ship’s speed in knots. Not entirely coincidentally, the word blog is also connected to the concept of a ship’s logbook, since the first Internet, the World Wide Web, was conceived as a virtual space to be navigated.
My interest in the blog stems from its being not only a container but also an incubator of words, images and external links. What most interests me is its malleable structure, which makes room for fluid forms of expression that are organised yet capable of being reshaped. I am drawn to its ability to be both comprehensible and, at times, incomprehensible, and precisely for this reason effective.
In Jill Walker Rettberg’s insightful monograph Blogging. Digital Media and Society Series (2014), engaging with a blog is described as a process of getting to know someone. One approaches another person at one’s own pace, entering into a different personal rhythm: that of the author’s publication, which expresses intermedial content through the combination of words, images, external references and layout. No longer lists of speeds or links—as blogs were in their early days—but pages more akin to travel diaries, conveying thoughts, sensations, expectations and memories through words, visual inserts and, at times, external elements pasted among the pages.
The blog can therefore become not merely a virtual space for recommending cities, recipes to cook, phones to buy, and so on, as it is today, but a complex medium with defining characteristics, some of which can also be traced in this documentary notebook:

written orality,
as in the direct speech found in the documentation of the groups;

stylistic promiscuity,
of textual genres and tones of voice: notes, streams of consciousness from a trek on Mount Etna, and a scientific essay on volcanology;

a form of social writing,
namely the thoughts of those who participated;

cabinet of curiosities,
that is, a portal providing access to a vanished and marginalised time, through and alongside the staging of the performance.

As in the song I Came to Your Party Dressed As a Shadow by Piano Magic, suggested by my companion Maurizio Leonardi, I went into the Lab dressed as a shadow, “holding” my notebook-computer in my arms; somewhat like The Log Lady from Twin Peaks.

Alongside, yet at a distance from, those who worked in the studio and elsewhere, the documentation led to L.A.V.A. Book, which is an experiment in research devoted to finding ways of tracing the creation of a dance work.
Thinking about my working experiences—from the logbook to the blog, from critical writing to interviewing and academic research—I can identify a constellation of practices that generate questions and problematise ways of collecting, organising and sharing information originating from day zero of the birth of a choreographic work. What matters is to outline and bring to the surface the context: the places, the times, the encounters, the people involved.
What emerges is a collection of information, a special (an)archive that escapes fixed rules and must necessarily be reconsidered each time according to the nature of what produces it. If it is true that the materiality of a performance is ephemeral and elusive, it is equally true that the series of “documents” that immediately comes into being sets an act of preservation in motion from the outset.

According to Rebecca Schneider, it is precisely the definition of performance as an evanescent and elusive “object” that makes it unarchivable:

in privileging an understanding of performance as a refusal to remain, do we ignore other ways of knowing, other modes of remembering, that might be situated precisely in the ways in which performance remains, but remains differently?

These words constitute a crucial passage in Performance Remains: Art and War in Times of Theatrical Reenactment(2011). In L.A.V.A. Book, the different way of remaining to which Schneider refers takes shape in the traces left by the people involved.
This object therefore contains not all, but many different perspectives of people who, in one way or another, contributed to the research.
Archives transcend the boundaries of specialisations, disciplines and social groups; they shape our identities and the way we conceive of history; they are often the accidental outcome of individual life stories, while at the same time contributing to the shaping of the collective layers of culture. This means that the phenomenon requires constant critical examination. Archives also pose a challenge to institutions, whose task is to adopt the best archival practices in order to ensure their proper preservation and presentation, while at the same time taking contemporary sensibilities into account.
This volume bears witness to the commitment and interest of Scenario Pubblico/Compagnia Zappalà Danza in documentation, dissemination and presence within the local territory. The opportunity, then, is to make the best possible use of this space, which seeks to bring to the surface what moves in the “rear areas” of “traditional” documentation—that is, documentation relating to the object in the strict sense: the costume, the director’s notebook, the poster, the programme, the video, and so on.
In the “rear areas” lie affective archives, which constitute a horizon, a limit, a possibility always ready to be enacted and released within every archive.
Understood as a process of memory-making in which everyone participates—shaping the space of our common, yet also divided, dwelling—the affective archive oscillates between materiality and immateriality, between preservation and transformation.
As part of a modular structure, each contribution recounts something with a beginning and an end, in a self-contained manner. Yet together, they tell a story that has a beginning but not yet an ending.
Inevitably, in keeping with the content, the mode of writing and its visual rendering have explored possible forms that might become documentation in dialogue with the research. In other words, the texts are not an exercise in visually creative writing because the form itself seeks to take on the shape of its content.
The text was conceived as a kind of navigation through multiple voices touching upon different moments of the same process, in different places and at different times. The horizon, however, is shared, as is the object of investigation: volcanic lava, which, as will be seen, has been considered both in its specific characteristics and in its transformative—and therefore generative—nature.
As one navigates, the horizon stretches, fades and becomes clearer: the hope behind the graphic design is that it may fulfil its purpose of both accompanying and disorienting the reader.
The white spaces are intended as fissures. In some way, they are the gaps left by what has been repressed, which not even obsessive documentation can record.

It is, for example, the time each dancer spends estranged from the others, engaged in searching for a quality of movement.
It is the choreographer thinking while bodies move before him.
It is the idea, arriving during a lunch break, of using a red mouthguard as part of the costume.
It is a minute of dissociation or distraction.
It is the time spent searching for images of rope-like lava flows, and therefore looking at the screen, while the process nevertheless continues.
These pages, too, therefore seek to remain porous. They are the time of thought and can also become, for those who wish, a space in which to write notes. Thus, for example, each copy could become different and carry a new archive: that of a person who was part of the audience and who will preserve this memory at home.
Rather than being a Log Book, then, this object seeks to be both the heart and the satellite of the performance with which it shares its birth while maintaining a life of its own.

Description of the Sections

“Save As” and this Introduction
these constitute the main point of entry.

The Creative Process

The polyphony of this section of the documentation follows a chronological order.
The first period of studio work by Compagnia Zappalà Danza in Catania took place with the opening of the process to three groups at different moments: MoDem Pro (winter 2025 session), amateur dancers of different ages united by an interest in dance, and finally students from the University of Catania, invited to reflect on more philosophical and sociological aspects of lava.

This grouping is a collection of notes that returns the time of those days in fragmented form, with minimal subsequent “refinement”. It is a diary of notes composed of dialogues, directions from Zappalà, and exchanges between the members of the company and the people involved. Following these meetings, which took place between November and December 2025, a trek on Mount Etna was organised and documented by Nello Calabrò.
The Faithful Mountain returns that day as experienced from within the group, with personal perceptions, precious distractions and cinematic suggestions emerging from the surrounding landscape. Calabrò’s contribution is an affective testimony from which the temperatures, sounds and scents experienced together reverberate.
After three months of sedimentation, I returned to Scenario Pubblico for Catania Contemporanea/7th FIC Fest, which saw the first public open rehearsal by Compagnia Zappalà Danza and two days of joint rehearsal with ICK Dans Amsterdam: the first encounter between the two groups.
The brief pages, similar in structure to the documentation of the work with the groups, mark a transitional moment towards immersion in some pages of the director’s diary kept by Fernando Roldán Ferrer, Zappalà’s choreographic assistant. With the order and meticulousness of a script supervisor, Fernando’s notes, timings and drawings offer an immersion into one of the most important tools of his work.

Given the subject matter that inspired the performance, I considered the involvement of INGV – the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Catania Section – essential. The institute met with Compagnia Zappalà Danza and several members of ICK, both in the studio and at its headquarters in Piazza Roma in Catania, during the preliminary phase of the work.
The seismologist Elisabetta Giampiccolo prepared a glossary for this notebook containing definitions of some of the words that emerged during the studio work. Phenomena, compositions and dynamics related to volcanic lava are explored in a scientific text written together with Alessandro Bonaccorso, Research Director at INGV.

Beginning with Mount Etna and its breathing, observed as a privileged natural laboratory for understanding volcanic dynamics, the contribution takes us on a journey through the physical and chemical processes governing the formation, evolution and ascent of magma, up to its transformation into lava. The text also illustrates the principal monitoring techniques employed by INGV to interpret the signals that precede and accompany eruptive activity.
The specialist perspective on volcanology offered by this text will be useful for approaching the movement research initiated from an understanding of these phenomena.

Finally, a photographic gallery featuring images by Serena Nicoletti and Alex Avgud will extend L.A.V.A. visually, as it appears in its “final” morphology.

This documentary work concludes by incorporating the documentary film made by Eros Brancaleon, an audiovisual testimony of the entire process, which can be viewed by scanning the dedicated QR code on page 169.

The creative process
Compagnia Zappalà Danza and the sharing research with three groups

By Sofia Bordieri

The proposal to follow the creative process of L.A.V.A. was particularly interesting to me because three different groups would be involved in the very first days of work:

19, 20, 21 November with the MoDem PRO group (autumn 2025 session)
25, 26 November with a group of amateurs
3, 4 December with a group of students from the University of Catania

Once in the studio, my task was to be present discreetly and to take notes of moments and passages that I considered important to capture, such as dialogues, observations, actions and references, taking into account what I perceived.

“I came to your lab dressed as a shadow”

How do you decide what is important?
What is the criterion of relevance?
Will it be a comprehensible language?

My listening was not receptive in relation to the choreographic writing, that is, to the final configuration of the sequences of gestures and movements. What I considered important to capture was the verbal and non-verbal exchange. The word that expressed a memory, the imaginative or material characteristics of a sensation, connections internal and external to seeing, hearing, smelling, touching the lava; in other words, all those words that became inputs for constructing bones, muscles and organs of movement.

What makes up the following pages is a brief diary of notes and conversations by people identified by name, in order to avoid considering the groups as three indistinct entities without faces. The words are not transcriptions of recordings, but come from that shared time in the studio.

Images that emerged during our days together, along with frames from the video recordings by Eros Brancaleon, accompany the words. Empty spaces, repetitions, pauses and fragments attempt to translate the rhythm that marked the research, as well as that something that will always remain somewhat secret, elusive, incommunicable and personal. It is the non-visualisable experience of encountering one another through movement. It is the shared exploration that enters, exits, returns and disappears within the composition.

My thoughts have been aligned in the right-hand column, while all the other notes appear on the left. At the end of the text there will be the thoughts of the participants that emerged during these days. These are voices that I asked for, and that some people chose to write down and give.

CZD and MoDem Pro

Black Box, 19 November 2025, 12:30 p.m.

CDZ: Samuele Arisci, Loïc Ayme, Faile Sol Bakker, Anna Forzutti, Silvia Rossi, Alessandra Verona.

MoDem Pro: Francesco Adamo, Stefano Cavagnini, Ester Cavallaro, Giada Di Gennaro, Francesca Di Mauro, Marianna La Spada, Federica Lombardo, Iolanda Longo, Marta Luzzu, Alessia Macchiarella, Veronica Manzo, Giovanna Milianti, Carlotta Milié, Ester Perantoni, Silvia Purgino, Sara Reali, Chiara Rubino, Noemi Sordi, Noemi Trapani, Francesca Zullo.

We enter the studio. The company’s male and female dancers and those of MoDem Pro are on the linoleum. I sit next to Fernando Roldán Ferrer and Maurizio Leonardi in the first row of seats. Roberto welcomes them and provides some information about the context of the three days. Then he introduces me, and Maurizio, keeping the documentation project in mind, asks whether anyone knows how to draw. Fernando then distributes the sheets with the outline of the project, allowing time to read it calmly.

After fifteen minutes, Roberto breaks the silence and begins a reflection on a word in bold type: generativity.

He asks:

Roberto Zappalà: Why, in your opinion?

He explains that the project’s focus lies precisely in the nature of relationships. The intention would be to try to create an unwritten manifesto that carries, or at least signals and represents, a change in the paradigm of collaboration. One of the objectives is to demonstrate that co-creation is possible even in the face of major linguistic differences.

RZ: We have just returned from L’Aquila, and what did we see? A very beautiful city. And, echo, the other side of destruction. On Etna, where the lava once passed, trees now grow that nobody planted.

The first physical stage of lava, then, will be linked to earth.

Starting from that generative capacity of lava, in the choreographic project of L.A.V.A. we are not referring only to a thematic component, but also (and above all) to a collaborative and relational openness with another company.

 

It is the instinctive action of nature that knows what to do and how to do it.

We also speak of friction which is not only resistance, a relational contrast. It obstructs but allows one to drag, engulf and transform, thus becoming a generative action. The images evoked by lava are always linked to an action and its consequence.

RZ: This moment must start from your curiosity. Destructive and generative: what do you think of this ambivalence linked to lava? How aesthetically fascinating is it?

Federica: A documentary on eruptive activities came to mind, particularly the image of the concrete blocks that are installed to stop the lava. I imagined bodies that split between explosiveness and stasis.

Matilde B.: I think of the contrast between natural and artificial. Lava after its eruption becomes rock and is used. I then think of the contrast between the lava that remains in its natural context and the one that is later used by man.

 

RZ: Yes, like the black architecture of the city of Catania, made of lava stone.

Anna: Since I live in Catania I think about lava at least once a day. What struck me most about the discourse was the comparison with human relationships; that is, the use of lava as a metaphor for relationships. In particular, the relationship between clogs and flow, like the underground in relation to a two: the life of the fire below the earth that seems extinguished but is not really.

RZ: The image of the underground is interesting. When lava slows down it happens because the earth above hardens while the one below continues to flow, even if more slowly. It is a question of heat. Then, little by little, as it travels, the path encounters obstacles, other earth, it wraps around itself but continues to have access to or in any case hot. Even after years, in some points, some smoke remains.

Faile: I also think of the intrusion into the cave.

RZ: This is the job: making that movement become a root difficult to uproot. On stage every dancer must have solid roots with respect to the mental project. Lava is also lavare [to wash], as in Lava Flowing. In the first phase, we must work on the earth, or on what happens when lava flows out: union of a prepotent and quiet rhythm. We will work on a supplied rhythm.

Alessandra: Friction presupposes a contrast. In the common imagination this term tends to have a negative meaning, whereas the concept of friction in physics presupposes a contact. Friction can also be a force in favor, which generates motion.

The other agentive aspect of lava concerns movement and its research. The action immediately associated with lava is that of destroying, or something that approaches the imaginary of disaster.

When an eruption is about to arrive, does it gush out from the earth? Lapilli, power, flow, rock, fluidity, incandescent, still air inside the rock.

RZ: Friction is an integral part of the concept read earlier. There is a negative friction between us, a different way of thinking, but in this moment it is positive, that is, we are dialoguing, thinking and creating together. We want to demonstrate that it is possible to collaborate in friction.

Maurizio: This observation is apt because common sense brings out the semantics of the contrast, on the contrary, friction is interesting not expanded in a moral but physical sense. From here the number two comes out; it is necessary. It is creative and not a revealer of conflict.

RZ: Obviously even this small word — lava — which is very large as an explosion of sensations, is born from the friction that is generated by the eruption from the crater. The friction of lava is multiple: its flowing, its finding obstacles like the contrasting action of man to preserve an environment.

Maurizio: In imagining lava, a proliferation of metaphors happens. We associate it with so many things that grow towards the outside. Friction has brought it to a sort of reduction, to its almost mathematical logic. The two is very important and is already, in dance, a suggestion. Beyond the expansive direction of metaphors, this other aspect is also an excellent starting point.

RZ: We must try to build a movement and sustain it through these thoughts. The forms we have thought of can create, but we can also do the opposite, to make the movement arise after the awareness that that body can have assumed a form, a dynamic that is based on that thought.

Federica: In my city, Trapani, there is a point where the currents of two seas meet. There is a small portion in which energy is delicately shared.

RZ: There is something new in the two.

Eros: The first thing that struck me when I moved to Catania is that you could see the lava descending slowly from very far away, from the city; instead, when you see it up close it is very fast. Lava flows and its dynamics, its rhythm, slow or fast, depends on the distance from the observers.

RZ: We must position all these reflections in relation to dance. Rhythm and its opposite: silence, pause. These concepts also exist in nature, so it is not a great effort. Sometimes I realize how in reality we always talk about the same thing. In the deep, not on a conceptual and dramaturgical level, the soul of the work is the writing of rhythm and pause.

Anna: With MoDem language we use three different dynamics of lava that we bring to the stage; in this case it will be interesting because we ourselves will be the lava, it will be a further generative level to enter into.

RZ: It is important for me that each person in the company finds pleasure in what they dance. I believe it is indispensable to ensure that one experiences happiness in making that journey “to the center of the earth,” that is, into one’s own feeling, which happens every time one takes the stage.

Alessia: Within the concept of collaboration, the objective of not erasing the differences between dances, between peoples, is interesting. This made me think of something introspective; I thought of the differences present within my own self and in particular of those personalities that have internal nuances that are sometimes opposite.

Maurizio: The recognized internal duality is due to the fact that you know the world through language. But the words you use, to describe and describe yourself, do not come from you. Each of us is always immersed in an activity of commission with what comes from outside; we feel a radical otherness with respect to the outside, but we are indissolubly mixed with it. And again, continuously, the two returns; a two that is incompatible and that cannot become one, and that seems to be our main theme.

Francesco: This aspect also emerges in the MoDem language. You wrote Omnia Corpora, a book made of words and concepts that return during the classes, like that of thinking about moving within contradictions.

RZ: Words often do not have a single meaning. Over time, concepts also change, for example that of ethics is a principle on which Nello and I are returning to reason again. The conformation of concepts changes. The important thing is that contradiction does not become conflict.

 

Let’s return to the studio, Roberto talks with Fernando about two ideas for stage makeup: flesh-colored eyebrows and red tails.

RZ: Let’s focus our attention on the earth. One of the first actions that happens is the telluric one: the departure. Lava generates through its flowing and solidifying. I would like to see the rhythmic change between flow and solidification. Let’s try to do a work in twos: rhythm, therefore fluidity, and the earth, that is, the fracture. They are just tasks, let’s see what happens.

RZ: For example, there can be jolts but also undulations of the column within a movement system. Let’s concretize the frictions or the metaphor of the trap in movement; consider that lava when it arrives disintegrates. Do you remember that limpet at Linguaglossa where the lava, touching the wall structure, crossed it and then stopped? Here is the sense of imprisonment, of capture.

Little by little I will put on sound layers.

 

[Roberto walks among the bodies]

RZ: Do not fixate on the music, use your face a lot because you will often have your mouth open.

RZ: Remember not to move only the periphery, but, for example, also the cervical area. Try to use as a starting point the explorations of small electric, almost epileptic movements, as if they were micro-sutures that reset the bodily organization in movement.

After the session in pairs, another one begins in small groups started by some indications:

RZ: Generativity implies exploration, the discovery of expressive forms and the creation of relationships between the body, space and an idea of environment. The exploration of space is linked for me to an absolute principle: the explosion phase is slow but moves, spreads. We must be able to suggest the body so that it moves in a certain way, only in this way can it generate towards the audience a more or less profound stimulation. If we do not believe in what we do, if we do not make it true and intense, it cannot be transmitted.

What happens in the passage from dialogue, where attention is turned to the choice of words, to movement? How to try to retain imaginative visualizations and translate them into kinetic translations? I see jolts and fluid continuous trajectories, each imagines a different element with its own qualities; overall, in the studio the telluric movement that we can imagine as happens in the subsoil is visible.

What I see in the studio is like a vision under the microscope. The show Anticorpi (2013) later renamed Patria (2017) had this principle, bringing to the stage a movement similar to the observation of viruses under the microscope.

Rap God by Eminem is the soundtrack that supports the exploration of the eruptive part, the intent then is to replace it with a completely different composition, antagonistic in dynamics and in agogics, that is probably the prelude by Debussy. Roberto walks among the dancers and dancers, sometimes he moves with small improvisations.

Matilde B.: We thought of a story of the lava but shortly after nothing was generated, so we went in search of a quality.

Roberto asks to position themselves in a circle to observe the movement research done. He asks to try to explain what was done, what was felt.

[Margin note, top right]: I observe everyone’s research, someone starts from small actions like games. In my mind the image of a seismograph concretizes which I immediately try to report in my notes.

FIRST GROUP

Eleonora: The sensation I felt is a constriction of not exploding, I am inside a sort of membrane, I tend to hold back, like a cage;

Francesca: I thought of the moment when lava descends, beyond the crater and then, finally, to the constriction of the movement of the material given by cooling;

Iolanda: The attention was placed on the image of the lava that flows and slowly cools, solidifying on the surface;

Federica: I thought of a denser dimension of the lava to be inside, in the constriction I perceived the creation of an “arrogant” space; then towards a fluidity; finally we created some joints and experienced the sensation of petrification.

 

SECOND GROUP

Loic: I was focused on being earth, feeling the friction before the rupture, staying in that thin border of holding back that then lets go;

Faile: I tried to feel different intensities in the body, soft and resistant, in search of porosity in the earth.

RZ: The position of the body is important, to make the audience understand from a horizontal point of view the rupture not visible from above.

Ana Rita: Lava that destroys considering the control that exists in that movement of the magma.

RZ: There is also another sensation that is given by contact with water.

Matilde B.: Together we did a work on the density of the lava stone and we found a geometry in the construction of the body.

RZ: Geometry makes me think of something that cannot be full of air; lava is rough, it becomes smooth if worked. Like the cobblestones of the streets that are pointed when they become smooth, thus making erosion evident. Lava on Etna is rough, that texture is interesting. It has volume and creates it: the more it cools, the more it compacts and the more volume it creates. Then there is also lava powder, the black sand of San Giovanni Li Cuti, on Etna there are enormous expanses of it. Sand makes me think of an element that changes, it crumbles.

 

THIRD GROUP

Sara: We started from the explosion to then lower the energy; one towards solidification, the other in the slow flowing;

Stefano: and we worked thinking about fracture, friction and alternation between solidification and flow.

RZ: Remember to move away from the mimetic dimension and go towards the generative through the conviction of the body.

Bettina: I worked on birth and death of lava and on the action of passing into the capillaries of the subsoil;

Carlotta: Crackling, pre-eruptive tremor that creates a feeling of fear. How to represent the flow? Contact – no contact.

RZ: You have grasped the whole essence of Lava Flowing. It will be more difficult to manage it in the composition.

 

FOURTH GROUP

Francesco, Ester: We started from the image of earth and lava but separately: we decided that in contact the sliding occurs per sediment as a “sensation” of the subsoil.

Sara: We thought of the sensation of pre-eruption crackling and the reaction of the earth, then of the lava that prepares for the eruption.

Giovanna: We started from the question: how can we embody the movement of the eruptive fury of lava with two bodies? So we worked with contact and non-contact.

 

FIFTH GROUP

Marta: We started with the idea of earth and lava, together we worked separately but we decided to unite in contact for the sliding of the lava onto the earth. The sensation was deep, internal, more restrained and muscular.

Alessia: Free lava that crackles: approaching and flowing.

Rebecca, Martina: We thought of the lava that moves the earth. We experimented with forms, therefore the cracks of the earth and the lava that inserts itself inside.

RZ: In reality it is the gas produced that moves the earth and creates the explosion. There is always lava but it depends on the depth. It is the aspect of form that must be cared for most, the form must have a specific imposing weight.

 

SIXTH GROUP

Alessia: We divided the roles, I interpreted the earth which initially we intended as a sort of custody of the lava, as if it wanted to protect and cradle it, almost a form of care. When it heats up more and more and tries to come out and the earth trembles;

Francesca: I started from a sense of constriction, from seeking space and trying to erupt with less density.

RZ: I have to ask INGV, what determines the eruptive fury? Does lava erupt because it finds a weaker point in the earth?

Marianna, Chiara: Eruption so strong that it creates cracks, the cut of the volcano, and the lava that flows and inserts itself fluidly.

Ester, Livia: I thought of the chronological phases. At the beginning a constriction as a first phase, with a movement towards the bottom, dense but little expanded in space; then the moment of the eruption therefore an ascent and a centrifugal explosion, then the eruptive fury and the descent towards the bottom. She was my earth-support with moments of contact that I interpreted as moments of flow in descending.

 

SEVENTH GROUP

Anna: We worked on the inputs that Roberto gave us. Tasks to add to what I was thinking about the telluric.

RZ: Yes, which are not strictly conceptual inputs on the theme but it is that research methodology that determines a necessity, and that starting from the concept then leads to going beyond the concept. Let’s do this now to find starting points, directions.

Silvia: Yes, there was a stratification, that is, adding qualities especially in the passages, on the basis of movements that we were already exploring;

Alessandra: I started from Lava Flowing very dense which was interrupted in an unpredictable way with fragmented movements, then Roberto’s input was to insert a tremor, something irregular and also to remain in unstable, unbalanced positions.

Samuele: For me too the process was similar, I started from fluidity and density, then I added the task given by Roberto, which was the vibration of the earth on which the lava flows and which is contained, all in demi-plié, to generate a sense of compression.

At 17:30 the working day ends, but before leaving I propose to everyone to write, back in the studio, a thought on this day, with an attention to the perceptions that arose from the movement research.

Roberto, to conclude, reiterates that the show does not have the objective of representing but of embodying the image of lava together with all its stages, movements and pragmatic meanings.

 

Black Box, November 20, 2025, 12:30 PM.

The work begins immediately as if there had not been a break; from the project read yesterday, the concept of generativity is taken up again, which implies the exploration of expressive forms and the creation of relationships between the body, space and the environment.

[Margin note]: We have returned to the studio with a lexicon already commonly shared yesterday.

RZ: The concept of porosity of movement comes from the last work, Brother to Brother – from Etna to Fuji. Let’s try to talk about rockiness, porosity.

RZ: I see porosity as something that enters and exits in a narrow space which makes it difficult to show. We create porosity in the body which continuously disintegrates and recomposes itself. Let’s focus above all on the problem of making this image arrive from the other side, to the gaze of the audience. Try simple movements with this quality, abandoning what you do daily, go towards the definition.

 

In the background the Requiem: V. Lacrimosa by Tigran Mansurian, RIAS Kammerchor.

The physical work begins immediately, heard whispering a lot. Someone works in pairs, someone alone. The whole CZD works starting from the feet which never adhere completely to the floor.

Roberto slowly goes to talk with the pairs. He asks Silvia to redo a movement by modifying it with a very fast oscillation.

Then he observes Anna and joins the exploration of movement by guiding her with vocal tasks. What he suggests is to use the mouth more and to make the movement “detached”, to experiment with the “head shake” and the “monster” quality.

As in an already established order, his gaze passes to Samuele who shows him a phrase.

Faile and Loïc, following, show what they have created together.

Roberto gives indications on the work.

Anna, Samuele, Silvia: Lava that flows and undergoes the directions of the earth.

Faile and Loïc: Thinking of contact as a landslide – gathering the material, engulfing it, to be tried slowly and speed up.

heels, fingers, big toes,
little fingers rise
to make room for others
other parts. The push of
what is leaning on the
floor is transmitted in
segments close but also
very distant – trunk,
head, shoulders, elbows,
neck, shoulder blades, vertebra,
nose – creating torsions,
small movements,
jerky. The
pumice stones
dance.

What I
witness is the
way of creating
of the Company,
what happens
happens
“naturally”
without passages
particular. Roberto
suggests adding
a fast movement of the
hands; then he positions himself
in front to observe,
thinks and furrows his brow.

Thanks to contact
off-balance movements
alternate continuously
(in out of weight), in
a mechanism of concatenation and joints in which the movement of one is always the input of the successive one of the other.

Perhaps even these different qualities must be contrasting, that is, precisely different sections that do not amalgamate – that remain in friction. Thus in the natural event as in the physical and kinetic translation, otherwise the various stages would not exist.

[lunch break]

 

I return to observation. Try with Eminem, then Debussy.

With thirty bodies in movement it already seems to see a volcanic paroxysm. Roberto gives a qualitative indication: the detached gesture (snappy, disjointed, rigid) must contrast an activity present in a constant way, that is that of magmatic energy, to be translated into the body as a movement always in activity. In the instinct of improvisation, the sound of the voice erupts in unison.

RZ: Let’s build something only with the arms.

RZ: Let’s try to do three times eight beats of Lava Flowing giving more space to the movement – not in amplitude – of the arms, abandoning the weight, making steps to draw a circle. Try to keep in mind the image of the pump of the water that flees and moves freely.

A short choreographic phrase has been fixed which is rehearsed, adding at the end the material built singularly by the CZD in canon and with a precise disposition in space. Then each member of the company works with a small group of the MoDem to which he transmits the choreographic phrase composed on the basis of the tasks:

• Anna is the rock
• Silvia is the lava that flows but undergoes impediments of the earth
• Samuele is the telluric movement
• Alessandra is ash, porosity, rupture, crumbling
• Loïc and Faile are together a landslide

[Margin note, top right]: Hands like a spatula rise like mantises. Agglomerations of fingers, fists, releases, explosions, collapses.

 

Black Box, November 21, 2025, 12:30 PM

It is the third day but this morning MoDem Pro is not there. Roberto improvises, the company follows him and little by little some movements are fixed. It is a phase of elaboration of the two previous days, of ordering what has been noted.

After observing, Roberto talks with them and suggests thinking about the alternation between rockiness and flow. He says to exasperate this quality.

RZ: Let’s try to imagine observing Etna erupting. There is a force that hypnotizes you; perhaps the flow that descends is not visible but there is a magnetism that does not make you detach from that vision. We now must be the earth. The earth that opens up, that is penetrated by the sliding. So all the movements you make must be more micro.

[Side note, right column]: The work is passed to the sieve: the intent is to work with the experimented tasks and their dynamics so that they become introjected, absorbed qualities and not “represented”. The main indication, at this moment, is not to do something that begins and ends but to try to prolong the movement and give space to what arrives consequently at the end of the show.

[Side note, continued]: The image to visualize, for the suggestion of the bodies, is that of the earth that crumbles but also burns, collapses, engulfs that of the lava. In slow motion the space is crossed in a quadrupedal position (similar to the position of the downward-facing dog in yoga). The indication is not to lose tension, to try to reach the upright position and then return to that overturning.

RZ: Now let’s do it again, I will give you a signal for the choreographic phrases that we have created, starting with Anna.

During the rehearsal, Roberto speaks:

RZ: The hands slower
Break
A little more rhythmic the ruptures, you should always remain off-balance
Now let’s go back
From here we begin with the improvisations
Fast improvisations in order, then in scattered order
All together still, motionless.

RZ: When we write a dramaturgy we do not tell a story, those are the starting points that must not be something visually recognizable in a pedagogical way, that is didactic.

[Side note, center column]: Or rather, at a certain point of the crossing Roberto gives a signal to start the solos, not yet completely fixed. The indication is also to pay attention to the torso and to think about changing direction, not to move only frontally.

[Side note, center column, continued]: The work works, Roberto asks to lower “the volume” of the movement, almost to mark, to hint, to embody more the idea of the subsoil without renouncing the tension especially of the hands. Then they try to walk laterally always in quadrupedal position and in pairs to make jolts, of the “explosions” of the torso, like brief electric shocks. The flow must always continue without stopping.

 

[Break]

RZ: We are making a feverish consideration. That is, imagining lava autonomously, but lava is also earth and it becomes so little by little until it solidifies. It is material not fire. Why then subdivide the earth from lava?

RZ: Let’s abandon the concept and remain on the physical quality, in the telluric meaning. We are not yet in the choreographic condition of the “finished” state in the suggestion.

 

Considerations

Matilde B.: I saw like a river of lava with tributaries, a calm that was contrasted by small squares. It seems a preparation, the eruption is already alive and from one moment to the next it will happen.

Federica: What I saw made me visualize the lava inside the earth while it creates its own space. Maybe there are small streets inside it.

RZ: It is not well understood what lava is and what earth is considering that one does not exclude the other. Let’s leave it to the audience to decide, let them make up their own story.

Matilde T.: An image arose in me of a rock created from the union of bodies, heads, backs.

RZ: Look at the emotional and not technical part, make this effort. I always try to do it.

Roberto’s words during a new rehearsal:

RZ: More tension, go off balance, be more angular. When you go backwards, less poetic. Roll up slowly and smile. Less poetic.

RZ: It is noticeable when you make a movement just to move, it becomes aesthetic and does not work in this context, it is too poetic.

RZ: Lava flows, seeks its own space while the earth constrains it and then it explodes. That constriction can slowly make the group begin to resemble each other; the more a common position is sought and the less one goes in that direction.

To research movement quality, that suggestion of the body that Roberto speaks of, one works with a brief improvisation session. Rap God by Eminem in this case is also very useful for experimenting with rhythm.

RZ: Regarding porosity, let’s keep our hands open with fingers tense. We must not do the shake only from the center but from the whole body.

 

PAG. 57 – Translation from the directing diary:

Day 3 with Modem Pro.
RZ is already composing more material this time only with the company. Pro will come in the afternoon.
They started with a group improvisation based on all the words that we named and worked on in the previous days. It recalled the group idea of Cultus.
A second idea is the pyramid position of Brotherhood.

CZD and amateur group

Participants of those days: Claudia Bousquet, Caterina Caliendo, Niall Dowling, Stefania Garozzo, Eric Gleizer, Erica La Greca, Francesco Leonardi, Giuditta Leotta, Riccardo Leotta, Francisca Lima, Fabio Maglione, Serena Nicoletti, Francesca Occhipinti, Alessandro Pennisi, Melania Privitera, Angelo Regalbuto, Daniela Angela Riccioli, Ilde Rizzo, Maddalena Rugolo, Marketa Tomesova.

It is the first meeting open to a group of eleven people of different ages.

Roberto gathers the company, with the project sheets in hand he suggests some substantial phrases to highlight, transcribe. He and the “guests” sit in the front rows.

RZ: This is an experiment, I will give you some sheets that I invite you to read. I am happy about the presence of maestro Gianni Salvo, a pillar of the Catania theater, who had the desire to be with us and accompany us. I am starting a somewhat special co-production. The novelty of this relationship is the union of companies and not of choreographers, and it is a very rare event. The project is called L.A.V.A. a title chosen by Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten which you will remember for the show ROCCO. We will work separately, then we will meet and we will build some parts together. The word is accented, we did it for aesthetic reasons for now, there is not yet an acronym.

Discussion

You didn’t expect to have to study, did you?

Serena: Regarding the generativity of lava, caves are also generated. Nearby here there is the Grotta del Gelo, on Monte dei Morti. Maybe it has nothing to do with it but this mountain reminds me of a tangle of bodies, legs, arms huddled together.

RZ: Lava creates destruction and that moment is followed by something else.

Claudia: Regarding this, lava creates new foundations, eliminating the old, redesigns.

Ilde: With respect to collaboration and lava I think that based on what one encounters there will be different destructions and different generations.

RZ: This thing is important because it must be contextualized, the parallelism with the dynamics of collaboration is important.

Fabio: Change is ineluctable, explosive or implosive, slow or fast. There are those who adapt elastically and those who adapt more rigidly.

RZ: I am interested in seeing the translation of your words into gesture, not necessarily into dancing movements.

Fabio: Shouldn’t dance follow music?

RZ: In my work dance comes first and then music. In all our creations we try to suggest the audience, but we must do it first on ourselves so that it can reach you.

Francesca: Is there a space given to improvisation?

RZ: Of course, we will not put it into practice right now but it is a construction tool. We have already created so much material, afterwards I will show you so you can tell me. It is not a representation, sometimes it is complicated, it takes time.

Maddalena: Regarding lava I think of something that is alive as long as it remains underground, imprisoned. Then when it comes out it meets the air and dies, it becomes a rigid thing.

Claudia: She was saying an interesting thing. Lava meets the air but also all the elements.

Riccardo: At the level of material image, I think of coexistence and contrast. There is an area of Monte Po, the most ancient part of sand quarry that is found opposite the part of the gulf and that of lava where there is a chromatic coexistence.

RZ: Think about how a person in Amsterdam is reasoning at this moment with respect to this theme.

Gianni Salvo: The word lava becomes for me, from the semantic point of view, reductive because before lava there is magma, mother of lava, that place in which there is the propulsive force that pushes the material. Lava is ultimately already a consequence, an effect. I am fond of the image of the origin that is the force that pushes. I have stopped at another type of impression, perhaps it can be a similarity, but I think it can also provide some important stimuli. Lava is like clouds because they transform and the main theme of this whole story for me is represented by transforming. I become another or I can re-enter myself and I become myself. Transforming means movement and therefore the good Zappalà arrives to give a codification, like the sea. Lava does not produce death, it transforms and therefore when I find myself in front of a stone, a rock, a conformation that is another life.

RZ: When we mean destructive lava we cannot not consider this aspect of it. The lahar event is generative of something, even the rock then becomes a statue; the faraglioni are an absolute wonder, Etna itself changes its architecture and generates something in the landscape.

Gianni Salvo: So it is a form that becomes another identity.

RZ: Contemporary dance must have this. We do not tell something but we try to generate pulsions, suggestions, entities, so that we can reach you in a different way. It is easy to tell in a certain way. The idea of something that transforms…

RZ: Now come here, calmly.

Claudia: “Music does not support” [reads from the project], but lava brings with it emotions of fear, resistance.

RZ: Music will not tell but will be a further suggestion, a further stratification.

Claudia: Lava how many other emotions does it bring into the human being? How many of us resist change? Even nature or a house does not want to be thrown down…

RZ: We do not enter into this imaginary too personal, “easy” for us who live here.

Ilde: I find that there is often a gap between the presentation sheet and the show. The attempt to present a discourse not always, from my point of view, finds a correspondence. The ability to stimulate sensations. With respect to these juxtapositions there is a harmony in the way of working of the two companies on the concept of generation and destruction?

[Margin note, right]: With Fernando I speak of obsidian, a glass of lava origin that Etna does not produce because it has a more gaseous and therefore porous basaltic magma. In Lipari and Pantelleria instead it is possible that obsidian is created.

RZ: No, at this moment there is no type of alignment. We, with you, are doing this experiment separately. We want to get in contact with different groups that maybe formulate different thoughts.

We go onto the linoleum, that is, onto the stage space, divided by groups each with a dancer from the company.

Samuele Group
I hear talk of the movement of lava and of what dies.

Anna Group
We compare on what is visible with respect to movement. They talk about a body in contact that detaches and stiffens, «this happens in effect to lava» says a girl, «lava therefore before solidifying clings, branches out».

Silvia Group
The image of the steam created by lava emerges.

Faile Group
We discuss the engine of lava which is the piano inclined, of the horizontality of the lava. Roberto joins in and adds the trajectory of verticality, the steep fall for example.

[Margin note, right]: Observing from outside I see, I ask if I can, I listen to brief conversations and the shared research of movement quality. I also feel that sometimes they ask their own curiosities about the work in general and the questions seem to enrich, certainly bring dancers closer to their interior within the working space.

 

Regrouping and sharing:

Group 1
Constant touch of lava in its fluid state, then of its distancing from the source point and of its “death” considering however that it can be reborn or regenerate itself.

Group 2
Tremor, trembling.

Group 3
Bubbles of lava, lapilli that detach.

Group 4
Work with contraction and release, fluid lava that solidifies.

RZ: This image can have a very strong choreographic impact. That is, the minimal movement but very strong.

Fabio: Then in the flowing the engulfing, the adapting.

Gianni Salvo: Starting from what can be the concept of jazz, having a base from which variations can be born, I was thinking of all of you lying on your stomach already to build a serpent… hypothesizing the arrival of the lava as a serpent that descends, with speed and direction. At the moment in which the movement happens there can be fractures… the serpent has a horizontal language.

Group 5
From the idea of leaving a trace was born the perception of some principles: sensation of construction that leads to intensities of temperature and elevation, emptying from the steam that becomes lighter, rain of ash.

RZ: Tomorrow I will show you what we have built and we will talk about it.

 

Black Box, November 26, 2025, 6:00 PM

This evening there are new people and someone present yesterday is not there. Roberto asks the new entries to act as audience and recounts some phases of the project carried out so far.

RZ: Our bodies are mostly made of water, but they are nevertheless solid. The images that we produced yesterday through the groups were interesting. But I made a reflection: it is important and fascinating to transmit even just to a small group the genesis of our works which are based on style, on language. If we abandon this dimension, the fascination, the taste of that artist could be lost. For this reason I am interested in the diversity of the things that happen in the research phase. What remains is what one manages to develop: one must make it effective, practical, imaginative. The frictions between me and the other choreographer will produce something new and we hope that this can happen.

RZ: I want to do an experiment. First we do as I imagined an eruption of lava from the crater and then we put into practice how maestro Gianni Salvo said yesterday which is a very different thing.

 

The company shows the constructed phrase, that is, the diagonal crossing in quadrupedal position, and at the end Roberto gives them some indications on amplitude and quality of movement. Subsequently, the group present yesterday is called back on stage.

Faile explains the “serpent” project that maestro Gianni Salvo suggested yesterday and that Roberto proposes today to do simultaneously in two groups: dancers and amateurs divided.

RZ: It is from execution that ideas then come.

RZ: Let’s try to insert some details that can help: never look sideways or in front, let’s try to stay attached and not pedantically follow what precedes us, what one encounters is destroyed, proceed slowly and work more with the torso.

RZ: What did you feel inside?

I felt myself flowing in a viscous way.
From the head I feel my isolation.

It is redone by changing positions.

RZ: And try to listen to your body, let yourself be dragged here, the weight of those behind will complicate the movement and maybe it will be more interesting.

RZ: A thing came to mind. It is a somewhat complicated thing. It came to you (Samuele) who leaned on the wall. Yesterday we traced a path of superimposition of lava. Once touched the wall to reverse the route, the line twists almost on itself and creates the tangle. Try to practice it among yourselves in a small group.

Roberto asks the listeners who have observed to intervene.

Gianni Salvo: The important thing in movement is the complicity of opposites, this fluid (it is difficult also while walking to feel the complicity of segments) is interesting because it puts in relation head, torso, legs etc.

RZ: This work starts from a vision of Gianni Salvo, he said yesterday “for me lava acts horizontally and not vertically”. My creative vision is always a rupture with respect to an imaginary that might appear more didactic; what I found interesting however is this backward return, as an accumulation of lava.

Gianni Salvo: If one slides backwards and the other forwards, when there is an impediment there can be a lifting.

RZ: That remains in the personal imaginary or an exact indication. But I am very interested in the movement of the amateurs.

 

[Margin note, right]: In a circle everyone compares. They think of certain types of movement and various morphologies of lava. A dialogue is created on what it resembles and on how it transforms into dance.

[Margin note, continued]: Uprooting the division between those who usually watches and who dances creates a single body.

 

Gianni Salvo: Even the three rows could be brought together, to become a single body… what I see delivers an image on memory. This flowing will always encounter a countryside, the stones. I would like this flow to encounter also the men who then remain petrified, seated as in a square.

RZ: But we will be only four on stage!

Meanwhile dancers and amateurs talk and compare. The former talk about movement, about deciding in advance what and how to do. Roberto advises to vent the body, to leave it free, because in practice movement develops. A lady proposes a popular saying: “Seeing by doing”.

The serpent is redone. The company creates an initial accumulation. Now the listeners are also invited to participate.

He has everyone try the quadrupedal position as an “elephant”. Why couldn’t lava be like this?

It is redone: those who were listeners before make the serpent, the company moves with the diagonal crossing and those who were moving before now watch.

RZ: This journey that you have made is what they experience when they perform. Theirs is not a job like any other.

RZ: Do you want to redo it or do you want to reason?

They choose to redo it, so Roberto creates a composite scheme, an impromptu direction: one group goes from left to right, another from the opposite side, the dancers at the center.

RZ: Every movement must have its own specific identification and must also be radical, evaporate. I speak at the imaginative level, otherwise we remain an hour talking about lava and we cannot do this.

THE FAITHFUL MOUNTAIN
Impressions of an excursion with cinematic suggestions.
by Nello Calabró

In June 1923 Etna threatened the town of Linguaglossa. From France, Jean Epstein, one of the greatest directors of the cinematic avant-garde – theorist of “photogénie”, whose influence reaches Luis Buñuel and Chris Marker, and author of films such as La Chute de la maison Usher (1928), Cœur fidèle (1923) – sets out together with the operator Paul Guichard to document the eruption and shoot La Montagne Infidèle (1923); a 24-minute film, considered lost and recently rediscovered in the Catalan film library.

A little more than a hundred years later, another small expedition sets out on the slopes of the volcano. There is no eruption in sight and one of the reasons for the excursion is to let oneself be suggested by the planet Etna (by a very small portion of it). Suggestions that are always present, both for those who have never been to the volcano, and for those who frequent it regularly.
The visitors come from nearby, from Catania, and from far away, Amsterdam; and the specific event that originates the excursion is given by the upcoming creation: L.A.V.A., concept, direction and choreography Emio Greco/Pieter C. Scholten and Roberto Zappalà which the Compagnia Zappalà Danza and ICK Dans Amsterdam will bring to the stage first in Pompeii and then absolutely first in Holland, to then debut at the Teatro Stabile di Catania, co-producer of the show.

There are some stages planned and goals to reach, but the sentiment of the participants is also that of the flâneur ready to let himself be enchanted by everything that the path brings before his cammino [path].
Without respecting a chronological order, and on the basis of Epstein’s cinematic impressionism, I will recall some moments of this small journey.

Image caption: La Montagne Infidèle by Jean Epstein 1923

On the way back one hears only the wind. In the silence someone hears something like a ticking, the voices quiet down and the steps freeze almost timorous. The ticking is now evident. A beep. One does not see the tree and one hears only the slight perceptive rhythm, almost incantatory. It is very rare to be able to listen to a beep in its environment and when the camino [path] resumes one has the sensation of having witnessed a small natural miracle.

A tree up on a path. It seems like a gigantic guardian that protects or threatens those who walk before it. The dimensions are colossal and even the age seems to be lost in the centuries. One cannot help but embrace it. Even if one is a sixty-year-old like Fini Straubinger in The Country of Silence and Darkness by Werner Herzog, embracing a tree, this tree, is a dutiful act.

 

On the edge of the road, the entrance to a grotto. The Grotta del Cassone. One enters: some timorous, others more serene, after a few meters the entrance disappears and so does the natural light; the headlamps on the protective helmets turn on and one proceeds with extreme attention on the unknown terrain.
In the deepest area there is silence and the helmet lights are turned off for a minute. One listens: the drops that fall from the ceiling of the grotto are like music. They are music.

The wind increases in intensity and disperses the clouds. Someone, like the wanderer of Caspar David Friedrich, observes in a collected silence the majesty of the volcano emerging in the sky.

We return to the grotto. At the end, on the back wall, a solitary bat is sleeping waiting for it to get dark so it can go out to hunt and procure its food. Alone it seems small and defenseless, abandoned by its “companions”.
The bat makes me think of the penguin at the end of Encounters at the End of the World (2007) by Herzog and of its extreme solitude.

In 1926, with an unprecedented reel of images of Etna erupting, Epstein wrote Le Cinématographe vu de l’Etna where he uses the metaphor of Etna to underline the power and intensity of cinema. For Epstein, Etna erupting causes the same visual and emotional impact that cinema arouses in the spectator; a metaphor of creation and destruction has the same transformative power of reality that the camera has.

Image caption: Caspar David Friedrich – Wanderer above the Sea of Fog – 1818

L.A.V.A. could also have as a subtitle The choreography seen from Etna.

With the participation of:
Samuele Arisci, Loïc Ayme, Faile Sol Bakker, Eros Brancaleon, Salvador Breed, Nello Calabró, Anna Forzutti, Emio Greco, Maria Inguscio, Serena Nicoletti, Clifford Portier, Fernando Roldán Ferrer, Silvia Rossi, Pieter C. Scholten, Alessandra Verona, Roberto Zappalà.

Photography caption

1. Ph. by Nello Calabrò
2. The Cassone Cave – ph. by Nello Calabrò

Catania Contemporanea/ 7th FIC Fest: open rehearsal of the CZD and the first two days of creation with the companies together

During the afternoon of May 2 for Catania Contemporanea / 7th FIC Fest we attended the first open rehearsal of L.A.V.A.
At the center of the front row in the Scenario Lab room, Emio and Pieter, like the others, see for the first time the work done up to that moment by the Compagnia Zappalà Danza. After a brief introduction to the project and the “subdivision” by episodes

Prologue
Earth
Flight
Counterpoint
Counterpoint
Resonance
Eruption

We saw Earth and Counterpoint.

 

[Side note on the right]
Earth: after five months since the last time in the room, I see something new, or rather, I hear sounds emitted from the throats of the dancers. The suggestion is very clear and concerns the presence of a continuous movement, the deep and visceral boiling. In addition to the “grotto” voice, halfway through, the Requiem and the sudden detachment of Samuele from the group – which acts as a slippage, a collapse – but also the constant showing of teeth and the passage from the “bridge”, that is, the arching of the vertebral column with support on hands and feet.

Counterpoint: on Rap God by Eminem I see a writing of canons where in the fissures of the movements, in a group, alone, in twos, between the breaths, in the pauses, in the shaking, continuous counterpoints emerge. A section capable of crossing the gaze like an electric shock.

 

Grey Studio, May 3, 2026, 10:15 AM

Before the arrival of Roberto, Emio and Pieter, the two companies finally together in the room get to know each other; they tell each other where they come from, how yesterday’s performance went (it was very hot). The appointment is at 10:30 but Fernando announces that rehearsals will begin at 11: the CZD then goes to have a coffee, while ICK (that is, Payton St. John, Ricardo Vasquez Allen, Dennis van Herpen, Emma Shelly, Gabriella Larosa, William Philbert and Fiona Yau) remains in the room to rehearse and review the sequences from memory.

Fernando is close to me (we haven’t seen each other since January) and tells me, «I wrote everything!». He tells me about the costumes inspired by lava as a rope and about the scenes. For these last ones the idea is to create moving backdrops with sequences of very slow partnering, an inspiration born in December during the days with the university group, when in the group with Anna and Silvia they discussed boundaries.

Silvia and Alessandra show me their notes taken during the meeting with the student group and then subsequently resumed in the room and transformed into the work for the background. From there came the image of the hands placed over the mouth: the volcano is silent.

 

Anna and Alessandra – boundary
Samuele and Faile – telluric, earthquake, seism
Loic and Silvia – silence, sealed mouth

Roberto turns to Emio

RZ: Where do we want to start? You know my part but I don’t know yours.

The CZD sits to watch, Emio goes to the center and speaks with the company. Roberto tells his own that perhaps they can show the new parts afterwards, to compare notes. We need to understand what to do at the beginning.
Emio recounts that in 2021 he had already created a work with Rap God and that the idea is to extrapolate some parts to reprise for the section following Counterpoint, that is Resonance, to make it echo, in fact.

We begin to think about how to start and finish each episode, we try out moments of transition and resonance, “invisible exchanges” between the two groups.

A sharing of ideas takes place.
Roberto asks Loic to show a movement, a dynamic pose together with Silvia. Then, Emio shows some material not yet codified that should be the Flight, then Earth.
They talk, they compare notes, they show the work.
So they dance the Earth moment which will probably be done together. But first let’s see the two pieces together in sequence: Earth and Flight.

They speak slowly, about the seven parts, about the type of presence, about the costumes and about the sense of their blending and/or alternation. They try to dance all the material constructed so far alternating with entrances and simple exits. Emio sits next to Pieter and Roberto and they imagine something silvery for this part.

[break]

In a circle, CZD and ICK learn together to emit the “grotesque voice”. We then move on to the Earth part, on a visual level, says Roberto, it would be nice to unite the two groups because they have different costumes.

RZ: And also because otherwise we immediately give the impression that we are two separate groups.

So Roberto explains the quadrupedal position of the Earth episode,

RZ: it’s a bit like the start before the speed race, an uncomfortable position.

He explains that it is anyway like the walk but with the hands, the chest slightly forward; they try it slowly to find that quality. He suggests details on the touch of the floor of the fingers that rest on it.

The drops are small and sharp without echo.

RZ: Imagine touching a flower when you rest your hands.

Emio has doubts about starting with the two groups together. What impression is generated?
Roberto thinks that they could also enter once the [music] has finished but it would be important to have that stronger initial sound.

[Side note on the right]
For Emio it seems to be a moment of observation and elaboration, it is as if he wanted to keep out for the moment any possible decision.

ICK shows a very complex score of counts that they will teach the CZD tomorrow.

 

Scenario Lab, May 4, 2026, 10:30 AM

I arrived after the warm-up training. The CZD and three of ICK’s dancers from yesterday are present: Payton St. John, Ricardo Vasquez Allen and Fiona Yau.

Together with Fernando, neither Roberto nor Emio are present, they learn and rehearse the sequence shown the day before.

Emio and Pieter arrive.

Emio shows a video from his pc. It is the performance of the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard of Étude No. 13: L’escalier du diable by the Hungarian-Austrian composer György Ligeti. Shots from different perspectives show the musician’s hands on the piano performing the complex score; Emio has elaborated a numerical structure for a sequence of movement by transforming the rhythmic beats of the composition.

The movement of the arms has a correspondence on the trunk which collaborates in the quality of the movement: a tension to push. They first study the movement of the upper part of the body, then those of the legs and feet.

Emio explains to Fernando that the trunk must not move but stay as erect as possible, during the movement of the feet. One must almost “suspend” the trunk which must not weigh on the support base and leave greater space to move.

The sequence is very mechanical and the rhythmicity, gradually, becomes more and more sustained and concentrated, one speaks of an organization of the dynamics.

RZ: Should we consider the use of the microphone?

After the lunch break.

Roberto explains the resonance of Rap God in Counterpoint: there is a sort of overlapping ricochet but also the presence of “different factions” (he cites for example Montecchi and Capuleti, Orient and Occident). In the substrate, the faults that can clash are central in this part.

Pieter works on the music and they continue to talk also about the costumes. In the sound track a sound of boiling is inserted, the Lava Bubble returns.

Again Pieter speaks about the transitions, for the beginning reference is made to Katia and Maurice Krafft, the couple of volcanologists, protagonists of the film Fire of Love (2022) by Sara Dosa. For ICK it is an important reference: from their image a symbol of duality is drawn that they are thinking of bringing on stage during the prologue of L.A.V.A.

The idea that Pieter explains is that of projecting instructions for the audience at the beginning of the show, to then proceed with the loud rumble of an eruption. In the scenic idea there is a crater to be built at the center of the stage and from which smoke will come out.

The audience enters, phones are turned off, there is already a faint sound, blackout, stop sound, light, beginning of grotesque sounds, beginning of Earth.

NOTES
by Fernando Roldán Ferrer

1. 117
   LAVA work with ICK. In the morning they work separately.
   CZD works on the stylization of the Requiem solos, making sure not to be too frontal.
   A. remains in place so she gets engulfed.
   Transfer of suffering from the body to the face, from the face to the body

Gaze towards the others. It must be like a mass that communicates. Otherwise it gives the sensation of being too invasive.

 

1. 119
   CZD rolls when ICK lowers the leg. Glitch moment.
   CZD rolls quickly, disappearing behind. Hands when ICK also begins with the hands to simulate the seismograph

They enter in the clap.

To enter in the Noise part there is a jump.

 

1. 120
   When ICK is in the “swastika” position they dance.
   CZD behind the backdrop.
   ICK does the stomach ache.

CZD Rap God
only the first slow one. then they are in a circle.
ICK does Handel (old Bach)
once ICK is on the ground CZD begins

we work on bloop.
we work on the Handel rallentando.

Dry off and focus on the strength of the body
Modem is based on an aesthetic of care for form
ICK cares for the internal
The outcome of the work Forcing
Abandon form a little more

1. 123
   Filage
   at a certain point they begin with the guttural sound (in the background there is the sound of the Etna landscape)
   When the crater reaches [them], the dancers’ feet go down (L-V begin to walk)
   L-V enter the group. When the Requiem begins there will be a glitch that will make everyone go down.
   A glitch that separates the plates.

 

1. 124
   Earth (Requiem)
   When ICK crosses, CZD reacts. Wave.
   In the last crescendo of the chorus, ICK goes towards the back. Two images. While ICK begins their scene with the bounces, CZD rolls.
   Only A-F pass over.
   ICK remains in balance. Then there are some accents where they move, CZD rolls, gets up and leaves.
   While ICK dances there is the seismograph moment.
2. 126
   Positions: after a turn and a balance.
   Positions: when they head towards the corner.
   Let’s see how to do the transition for counterpoint. Four beats of ICK, on the 4th CZD exit.
   ICK does three odalisques. On the fourth beat they jump towards CZD.
3. 127
   To make the transition from CZD to ICK we cut the simple version of the small group, the waves and the end (cultus).
   NEW! when CZD does the guttural sound ICK exits earlier. Positions.
   CZD is at mid-backdrop when ICK go into swastika.
4. 129
   ICK: they go up with the pelvis, CZD leaves to go behind, to create a mass.
   When ICK goes down CZD are standing and then all on their knees.
   When ICK goes up, CZD goes down. When they do the tarantella CZD goes up.
5. 130
   Last spin! (filage)
   Monday we work on “the floor is lava”.
   Let’s remember that the new group must not be too close.
   Good, they removed the rolls… they separate directly.

THOUGHTS /

CZD
MODEM
AMATEURS
UNIVERSITY

Samuele Arisci: The work begins in a very physical manner, creating structures that slowly add up and stratify, just like lava which, at the end of its path, slowly abandons itself to the earth creating a new layer.
This is how I imagine my personal research towards this new production, a stratification of movement, dynamics and rhythm.
In these days I have been able to experience a soft and dense quality like lava that slowly prepares to stop, but in this case the stop does not happen and it goes on to continue slowly along its path, while the earth with its wrinkles and telluric shocks that never cease to exist goes to add itself to it, coexisting in a single nucleus.
I imagined this path as a set of elements that, even far from each other, can exist simultaneously and undertake a journey together.
I attach an abstract digital drawing that I made thinking precisely of this, using overlaps of different colors, materials and textures to create a cohesive and balanced “world”.

 

Anna Forzutti: There is a word at the center of the earth, which no one utters; an impulse that rises slowly, a tension that increases. Bodies feel it before the mind: they tremble suddenly, they densify under the weight, like air that stops in the rock. They do not seek harmony or equilibrium, they stand on the margin: like plates that brush against each other by force of nature. There, where friction becomes rhythm, where breath breaks and reconnects, something is born that does not explain itself. Layers that rise, gestures that erode gestures, lava beneath the skin. An earth before the eruption, quiet only in appearance, full of compressed life. And in this silent accumulation, something begins to generate itself, to take form, to move within before emerging.

 

Stefano Cavagnini: It was not simple to explore the concept of lava through movement. The first things one thinks of are the qualities; alternating the fluidity of the lava that descends on the slopes of the volcano with its explosiveness/dynamism. As a pair we managed to work on the crackling, like a continuous hissing of Lava Bubbles perceived as something unpredictable and “unstable”, to then slowly reach contact between the bodies, the moment in which the lava solidifies slowly descending down the valley. Finally, one of the two dancers “petrifies” (the lava has concluded its journey) creating a sort of embrace and blocking the other body. The latter, however, continues to move with delicacy as if beneath the rocky surface a lava still hot and “alive” were hiding.
The creative process was interesting, but above all I was enriched by observing the different interpretations of the same concept, based on different images or sensations. Even more interesting was watching Zappalà’s work in proposing a “collective image” of the theme addressed to his dancers.

Ester Cavallaro: Starting from the concept of lava, protagonist of this co-production, I tried specific sensations left on my body. Among them, a sense of interior construction, an accumulation of tension but also of explosive and bursting energy upwards (which reminded me a bit of the moment in which popcorn is prepared, for that unpredictable passage) and a dense descending flow like honey. The viscosity of the flow, which represents resistance and friction against the walls of the Earth, is for me physically equatable to the muscular activation of a body. Conversely, the moment of the eruption, apotheosis of freedom and expansion, recalls release, the snap.
In observing the dancers I saw the putting into practice of the sensations aroused in the first two days and the initial attempt to represent them in a physical manner; not in a narrative and didactic manner, to allow the spectator to interpret in his own way a project that from the title can be very clear but has within itself so many nuances. The dancers interpret Earth and with their slow movements alternating with telluric impulses gave me the sensation of a wall crumbling.

 

Francesco Adamo: The word that best describes the three days of work is fatigue: an intense physical fatigue that traversed both the rehearsals and the performative moment. The concept of porosity, at the center of the research, required total bodily involvement, made of constant effort, construction and liberation, explosions and explosions. In this process the body seems to transform itself: the organs change position and consistency, the heat traverses the joints, a solidification total shatters in the aftermath. One feels like a rock that crumbles, full and empty at the same time, a labyrinth of channels and fissures, magma trapped in the grip of one’s own body.
The research on magma in fact offered me an interesting metaphor: while magma is molten rock beneath the earth’s surface, lava is the same rock once it reaches the surface. Its main characteristic, viscosity, is the measure of resistance to the change of form.
In the same way the body is also fluid matter that opposes resistance, in continuous transformation. Viscosity thus becomes the image of the effort of the force and of the energy necessary to change state, to pass from one form to another.

Iolanda Longo: I imagined being a volcano going through the phases: muscular tension, physical suffering, free explosion, controlled fluidity and petrification.

Carlotta Milié: During the research carried out in these days I tried and traversed different sensations united all by the intensity that I received in my movements. On a practical and more concrete level I felt my muscles stiffen and contract to transmit through my body the sensation of construction of the lava beneath the earth, moreover after a few seconds I felt a lot of heat starting from the center of my body until it arrived quickly at the extremities, particularly in the chest, in the arms until it reached the legs for the last ones. This work required a lot of commitment also mentally to keep concentration high.

 

Francesca Zullo: As regards the work carried out in these three days I would like to start from a phrase read in the text of the project: «in L.A.V.A., the body is not a bearer of meaning, but a generator of sense». This phrase struck me a lot because “meaning” and “sense” can be similar concepts; however the concept and the value in itself of sense cannot be univocal for everyone, especially in a peculiar and difficult work. I believe that the meaning can be found in the sum of every thought and the sense that each person will give to this concept, just as it emerged from each of us in these three days. The passage to the practical was difficult, above all opening the mind, thinking and discovering how much one can go in depth into small things.
The sensations I had were different: constriction led me to have a physical pressure on the shoulders, the explosiveness manifested itself inside the body and led me to move, the concept of porosity immediately connected to the concrete sense of the touch. For the latter I started from the use of the hands and then of the whole body; to recall this sensation I associated it with the image of the rough stone that leads to having so many sensations inside. In conclusion, I believe that with this work, the creation day after day, one gives form to what is the true sense of the show: an embodied journey by the dancers, just as demonstrated during the creation of the last day.

Sara Reali: From the inside, physically involved in the work and in particular in the research in pairs, with my companion I reflected a lot on the tension and the constant tremor that is created in the earth before an eruption; the lava that destroys but regenerates, that repulses and purifies; the porosity of the lava that we associated with the image of the sponge that soaks with water.
We associated this image with the suffering of the body that desperately tries to free itself, as if it were forced and held in a cage but without ever truly succeeding. It amplifies but then returns always to its starting form.
We also worked on the solidification of the lava and on the acquisition of a fixed form and, at the same time, on the liquid, viscous state that still has force and life, which in depth continues to push from below and resists.
I also reflected a lot on the origin of earthquakes and on the clash of two plates: one stays below and resists the other, as if it were a relational dynamic between people.
Observing the outside I found again all the concepts expressed previously and I lingered on the concept of silence, ignored and surprise; on a slow and hypnotic crescendo that then surprises when you least expect it. Finally, I will carry with me the idea that there is effectively no difference between lava and earth that symbiotically become matter in continuous transformation.
Lava is pure instinct and the perfect representation of instinctive nature.

 

Francesca Di Mauro: L.A.V.A. places the accent on the valorization of differences, in which friction and tensions are not considered only as destructive elements but above all as generative of new opportunities; it is in this concept that the pedagogical importance of the project resides. Participating in the creative process of this new creation was illuminating both on a physical and mental level. I could sum up the internal sensations I experienced in three words: rooting, expansion and resistance. Rooting: from the feet to the pavement, like roots to the soil, activation and thrust of an energy that from the center of the body radiates to the upper and lower extremities; all within an imaginary space around me immersed in a resistance of variable intensity that characterizes the movements of my body. I worked on rigidity, tensions and torsions of the body alternating them with moments of release (like air bubbles) thinking about the earth and its porosity and having in mind the image of lava as a rope and of the lava stone; therefore also the preceding stadium, the fluidity of the lava that seeks to make space to emerge before an eruption. As an external observer, during the various improvisations of the CZD dancers, I grasped different images and suggestions. I think of the walk tested up and down, with the use of the four supports (hands and feet), where the task was to advance slowly with resistance. The fascination that the group created in this first moment kept me with my gaze fixed on their bodies and I immediately thought of the image of a black panther that moves cautiously and elegantly over the creaking earth. Later, with the addition of other movement qualities, like the ruptures, the collapses, I immediately thought of the image of the lava that, once on the surface, slowly cooling solidifies, changing state. The sharing of a physical and imaginative space contributed to leaving a trace in that place of observation, listening, experimentation, in a communion of energy that set in motion something that will have an echo in the upcoming meetings and in the final creation.

Matilde Bianchi: IN: I found the generative aspect in porosity. Making a body an idea. Not thinking of feeling like lava but making it flow in the veins.
OUT: I realized how much the tension of a hypnotic body. A tension that must be dissolved in the course of the show if one wants to grant the spectator the experience of pleasure.

Erica La Greca: I participated only in Tuesday’s meeting but I would like, if useful, to share a single thought with you, besides thanking you. I was curious in getting to know you, that curiosity that many have for lava (especially those who do not live near it). On Tuesday I was tired and I felt like the fluid and soft lava that wants only to flow until it stops. So I stopped. Not out of disinterest but out of physical [exhaustion]. So, stopping here, I manifest all my support for your project and I maintain my curiosity in the hope of being able to see what the final result will be.

Agnese Canicattì: Attending a research project means for me entering a field of energy and L.A.V.A. immediately reminds me that knowing is never a neutral act but an encounter between differences that must not coincide, but remain alive, perceptible, productive.

 

Elisabetta Santonocito: On the first day we let Roberto Zappalà tell us about the project L.A.V.A.and show us part of a choreography that he began to create with his company in this first period of gestation. Some ideas emerged that we fully discussed and “applied” the following day to movement.
I started from some suggestions:

• Heterotopia as a place of boundary, in which two or more worlds meet, but there is no assimilation: this can provoke tension and blood (the Mexico-USA border is an example). Differences are not canceled, but oppose and contrast each other.
• A complex and stratified mythological system involves the volcano Etna. The myth that I identified almost immediately concerns the blacksmith of the gods, Hephaestus, who would have his forge right in the heart of the volcano. The project L.A.V.A. is a laboratory in every respect. And even when one researches the unfinished, in the end, one never gives up the laboratory, experimental phase, keeping the creative process in fieri.
• Cinema has also “sung” the volcano (a true cinematic diva). I think of Epstein who immortalized one of the most spectacular and at the same time destructive eruptions: lava destroys, constructs and when cooled down new “architectures”, trajectories, stories can be created. Misterbianco where I live is a foundation that would not exist in its current form and dimension if an eruption had not canceled the original nucleus, Monasterium Album (called Campanarazzu), and forced the inhabitants to flee (some even in the current area of Borgo di Catania) and refound their own city.

To these musings of mine, those of my colleague Lia Figuera were added and together with Anna and Alessandra of the company we contributed to developing them into gestures. Restricting the field to some concepts, we became the ‘directors’ of the two dancers: every word we proposed was translated into gesture, in a never didactic manner, but with true and proper images in movement. Then, we added ourselves and it was a beautiful challenge: we let ourselves be guided in part by them, and then we proposed new ‘forms’.
For the moment of collective restitution we returned as directors: Anna and Alessandra, poetic and true, followed our words, acting at best on the essence and the energy that was created in these days.

FROM THE DEEP GENESIS OF MAGMA TO THE LAVA FLOWS OF ETNA
by Elisabetta Giampiccolo, Alessandro Bonaccorso

INTRODUCTION
The planet Earth is a geologically active thermodynamic organism. Unlike cold celestial bodies such as the Moon or Mars, the Earth preserves a pulsating heart of heat, fueled by the radioactive decay of elements in its mantle and by the primordial heat remaining from its formation. Volcanoes are not simple superficial fractures, but the vent valves of this immense thermal engine.
Understanding an eruptive process means tracing the journey of a rocky mass that changes state, crosses dozens of kilometers of solid crust, defies gravity and finally manifests itself in the atmosphere reshaping the landscape. This text will explore the physics and chemistry of this journey, to then focus on one of the most extraordinary natural laboratories in the world: Etna.

1. How magma is born
   The interior of the Earth is not an ocean of liquid rock on which the continents float. In reality, the Earth’s mantle (which extends up to just below the crust) is solid, behaving plastically on geological time scales. To generate magma, that is, molten rock rich in dissolved gases and suspended crystals, precise physical or chemical factors capable of altering the state of the deep matter must intervene.
   The main mechanisms of partial melting of mantle rocks, which are composed primarily of peridotites, are three:

• Adiabatic decompression: When the hot rocks of the mantle rise rapidly towards the surface (as for example in correspondence with oceanic ridges or hot spots), the surrounding pressure decreases drastically. If the rise is fast enough not to disperse heat (adiabatic process), the rock crosses the curve of its own solidus, that is, the temperature at which fusion begins, and begins to melt, but without a real increase in temperature.
• Injection of fluids: In subduction zones, where a tectonic plate slides beneath another, the sediments and hydrated minerals of the descending plate are subjected to strong pressures and temperatures, releasing enormous quantities of water and carbon dioxide into the overlying mantle. The introduction of these fluids acts as a chemical “flux,” lowering the melting point of the rocks.
• Heat transfer: In some contexts, the rise of very hot magmas of deep origin (plumes or hotspots) can heat the rocks of the surrounding continental crust by thermal conduction, bringing them to fusion and generating new magmas, often richer in silica.

 

2. The magma chamber and chemical evolution
   Once formed, the magma pocket has a lower density than the surrounding solid rock. By Archimedes’ principle, it tends to rise upwards, aggregating with other portions of melt and creating true “channels” or zones of deep permeability.

During the rise, the magma encounters zones of the crust where the density of the host rock is similar to its own. Here the flow slows down and accumulates stationary, giving rise to a magma chamber or a network of interconnected complex reservoirs. This environment is not static, but a chemical reactor in continuous evolution governed by two main processes:

• Fractional crystallization: As the magma slowly cools, minerals with a higher melting point (such as olivine and pyroxenes, rich in iron and magnesium) crystallize first, being denser, and tend to precipitate to the bottom of the chamber. The residual liquid thus becomes poorer in iron and magnesium and richer in silica, aluminum and alkalis (sodium and potassium).
• Crustal assimilation: The magma, due to its very high temperatures, can melt and “digest” the rocks of the walls of the magma chamber, further modifying its chemical composition.

We can imagine this process as a kind of evolutionary process of deep matter: the journey begins with a primitive magma, a fluid and hot basaltic mixture rising from the mantle. However, during its stay in the magma chamber, the progressive cooling forces the iron- and magnesium-rich minerals to crystallize and precipitate to the bottom. This continuous “filtering” process impoverishes the original liquid and changes its nature, guiding it towards the stadium of evolved magma. The latter, typically andesitic or rhyolitic, will present itself to the eyes of geologists profoundly changed: colder, richer in silica and dramatically more viscous.

 

3. The importance of Silica (SiO2) and viscosity
   The chemical composition of magma, and in particular the percentage of silica, determines the behavior of the eruption:

• Basaltic Magmas (Mafic): Low silica content (< 52%). They are fluid, hot (1200 °C and above) and allow gases to escape easily. They give rise to effusive eruptions (lava flows).
• Rhyolitic/Dacitic Magmas (Felsic): High silica content (> 65%). They have a strongly polymerized molecular structure that makes them extremely viscous and cold (700-900 °C). They trap gases, accumulating enormous tensions up to generating catastrophic explosions.

 

4. The rise and the engine of the eruption: the role of gas
   The true engine of a volcanic eruption is not heat, but dissolved gas. Inside the magma chamber, extremely high pressure keeps gases (mainly water vapor, carbon dioxide, acid chloride, anhydride, sulfur dioxide) dissolved in the liquid, much like carbon dioxide dissolved in a sealed bottle of sparkling water.
   When magma begins to rise along the main conduit due to an overpressure in the chamber or the opening of new tectonic fractures, the lithostatic pressure decreases. Once a certain threshold is reached (called saturation pressure), the gas can no longer remain confined in the liquid and begins to separate in the form of micro-bubbles (degassing).
   As the rise continues, the bubbles expand geometrically following the ideal gas law. If the magma is fluid (basaltic) the bubbles manage to move freely: they collide, merge with each other becoming ever larger and rapidly rising towards the top, causing lava fountains or Strombolian eruptive activity.
   If the magma is viscous, the bubbles remain trapped and end up occupying up to 75% of the total volume of the mixture. At this point the fragmentation level is reached: the thin walls of liquid between the bubbles break abruptly. The magma ceases to be a liquid containing bubbles and becomes a gas at very high pressure that transports fragments of rock and fire (ashes, lapilli and bombs). This is the trigger of an explosive eruption (plinian).
5. From Magma to Lava
   At the exact moment in which the fluid mixture crosses the crater and pours onto the Earth’s surface in contact with the atmosphere or water, its name changes: it becomes “lava”.
   The transition from magma to lava is not purely linguistic, it represents a profound chemical-physical change.
   The magma, in fact, is the rock confined in the subsoil, containing all of its original volatile gases. Lava is the degassed molten rock emitted on the surface, deprived of most of the volatile components.
   Once emitted into the atmosphere, the lava encounters a drastic thermal shock. The direct contact with the cold air instantly solidifies the surface of the flow, generating a very insulating rocky crust. Above this cover, the nucleus of the lava remains thermally isolated, a condition that allows the degassed magma to flow for kilometers before dispersing its heat rapidly.
   Depending on the viscosity, the flow velocity and the cooling rate, lavas undergo different morphological destinies, well described by the scientific terms derived from the Hawaiian language:

• Lava Aa: Fragmented, spiky, clastic lava, typical of flows that advance slowly covering themselves with sharp glassy crusts (Figure 1).
• Lava Pahoehoe: Fluid lava, smooth, ropy or pillow-like, where the thin skin is deformed by the movement of the fluid lava underneath (Figure 2).

6. The architecture of large volcanic edifices
   The chemistry of magma and the modalities of rise described not only determine the style of an eruption, but shape the very form of volcanic mountains. The classic volcano shaped like a cone, with more or less steep flanks, takes shape when the rise of magma happens along a well-defined conduit. In this context, the architecture of the profile depends strictly on the type of products emitted.
   When effusive lava flows and deposits of ashes and lapilli alternate, one assists in the growth of edifices with very varied slopes, known as stratovolcanoes. This is the case of global giants such as Fujiyama in Japan or Mayon in the Philippines, but also of famous Italian complexes like Stromboli, Vesuvius and Etna. In these structures, the more or less flattened forms are favored by the emission of lava rich in silica, whose scarce fluidity prevents them from spreading too much and gives rise to a predominantly explosive activity. On the contrary, when magmas are purely basaltic, hot and poor in silica, the lava flows rapidly covering enormous distances and giving life to volcanoes with an extremely gentle profile and low slopes, called shield volcanoes, of which the Hawaiian islands are the iconic example.

Figure 1. Example of Aa lavas, scoriaceous, from Etna.

Figure 2. Example of Pāhoehoe (or ropy) lavas from Etna.

Figure 3. Diagram of the types of volcanic eruptions and the related Etnean feeding systems. (Diagram by M. Neri).

 

THE GIANT OF THE MEDITERRANEAN: ETNA
In this scenario, Etna (locally called Mongibello or simply ‘A Muntagna) occupies a prominent place in the global volcanological panorama, configuring itself as an immense and complex stratovolcano that, however, hides a hybrid soul. Located on the eastern coast of Sicily, with its over 3300 meters in height it is the highest active edifice of the Eurasian plate. Its morphology, while showing the steep flanks typical of stratovolcanoes, reveals that the rise of magma is not limited to a single central conduit, but often occurs along complex systems of crustal fractures. This dynamics generates superficial structures elongated along preferential directions, testifying to an extraordinarily intricate geodynamic context.
The magmas of Etna are generally classified as trachybasalts. These are alkaline magmas, moderately fluid but with a particularity: they possess a quantity of water and fluorine superior compared to the classic basalts of oceanic volcanoes (such as those of Hawaii). This deep hydration means that Etna does not manifest an activity purely effusive, but rather an extremely versatile and spectacular volcanological behavior.
Etna is a volcano with an open conduit. This means that, unlike volcanoes that awaken after centuries of sleep, Etna is in a state of almost perennial breathing and activity.
Its manifestations are fundamentally divided into two large categories: the eruptions at Summit Craters and the lateral or flank eruptions (Figure 3).
The manifestations that concern the summit area of the volcano come to life through its four large historic craters: the Central Crater, subdivided into the deep depressions of Voragine and Bocca Nuova, the North-East Crater and the very dynamic South-East Crater. These eruptions, which can continue with continuity even for years, are expressed mainly through two modalities that are closely connected.
The first is the classic Strombolian activity, characterized by rhythmic and continuous explosions of modest entity that tear through the darkness of the night throwing incandescent lava shreds into the air, which then fall back along the flanks of the summit cones (Figure 4).
To this ordinary activity, however, paroxysms alternate: brief events of unprecedented violence. During these phases, the volcano generates majestic lava fountains, columns of liquid fire capable of rising over one or two kilometers above the mountain’s summit. The energy released feeds imposing eruptive clouds laden with gas and pyroclastic material, which the winds at altitude push far away, causing intense rains of ash and lapilli over entire sectors of Sicily and, in the most extreme cases, up to hundreds of kilometers from the volcano.
The lateral or flank eruptions are geologically more dangerous for the anthropized populations. They occur when the pressure of the magma inside the central conduits is such as to physically fracture the flanks of the volcano. The magma makes its way laterally cutting the mountain with systems of dikes (vertical fractures). When these fractures cut the surface, “bottomiers” open (lines of small aligned craters) from which imposing lava flows erupt that can descend to low altitudes, threatening foothill urban centers, as happened in the historic and devastating eruption of 1669 that reached Catania.


Figure 4. Strombolian activity at the New South-East Crater of Etna and emission of lava flows towards east (left) and towards north (right). (Photo by Boris Behncke).

Figure 5. Eruption of the North-East Rift of 27 October 2002: The image captures the historic eruption that tore open the northern flank of the volcano. Along a deep fissure, the mountain erupted forming a dense bottomier (a line of aligned vents) in full activity.

 

Conclusions: The infinite cycle of matter
From the partial melting of mantle peridotites at depths greater than 60-100 kilometers, passing through the dynamic and thermodynamic evolution in magma chambers, up to the visual spectacle of summit paroxysms and lava flows, the eruptive process describes the very essence of the vital geology of our planet.
Lava, once cooled and solidified, transforms into dark volcanic rock which, with the passing of centuries, is attacked by atmospheric agents and colonized by pioneer plant species. This slow and inexorable degradation process transforms the sterile stone into one of the most fertile, complex and mineral-rich soils in the world.
It is the closing of a perfect circle: what rises from the depths as destructive fire converts, on the surface, into primordial nourishment for the biosphere. The volcano thus reveals itself not as a simple phenomenon of destruction, but as a cosmic pillar for the perennial renewal, evolution and life on our planet.

 

HOW INGV MONITORS THE BREATHING OF ETNA

Etna is a volcano in perennial activity, located in one of the most densely populated and anthropized areas of the Mediterranean. Coexisting with a giant over 3,300 meters high requires not only respect, but above all a profound and constant knowledge of its movements. To carry out this very delicate task of “sentinel” is the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), in particular through the Etnean Observatory of Catania.
Here, an operations room active 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, collects in real time billions of data coming from one of the most technological and cutting-edge monitoring networks on the planet. Here, volcanologists on duty analyze this immense flow of information transforming it into scientific knowledge and, above all, into alert communications for Civil Protection and aeronautical authorities (fundamental for blocking or diverting flights in Catania’s airspace in case of dangerous ash clouds). Thanks to this complex technological network, Etna is no longer an unpredictable monster, but a special monitored giant, whose breathing becomes a decoded instant data to guarantee the safety of the territory.

Monitoring Etna means knowing how to read the “symptoms” that the volcano manifests before, during and after an eruption. These symptoms are divided into invisible signals and visual images, together they compose the identity card of the volcano’s state of health.

1. Invisible signals
   Magma, moving in the bowels of the mountain, deforms rocks, causes micro-fractures and releases gas. INGV intercepts these phenomena through three large categories of geophysical signals: volcanic tremor and seismicity. The most immediate signal is volcanic tremor, a harmonic signal with a typical frequency between 0.5 and 5 Hz (Figure 6).
   
   Figure 6. Temporal trend of the amplitude of volcanic tremor at a summit station according to three levels of amplitude (low=green, medium=yellow, high=red). (from INGV-OE Bulletin Rep. N. 20.3/2022)

It is not a single earthquake, but a continuous and constant vibration of the ground, similar to the roar one hears when touching a pipe in which a fluid flows at high pressure. This “breath” is caused by the bubbles of gas and magma that rise along the conduits. When the amplitude of the tremor suddenly increases, scientists know that an eruption or a paroxysm is imminent.
To this are added the classic fracturing earthquakes, with typical frequencies from 1 to 15 Hz (Figure 7), caused by rocks that break under the hydraulic thrust of magma or by phenomena linked to regional tectonics. In addition to the analysis of vibrations inside the earth, INGV volcanologists pay enormous attention to what travels through the air: the infrasonic signal (Figure 8).

Figure 7. Seismic signals related to fracturing earthquakes recorded in the Etna area.
Figure 8. Infrasonic signal related to an explosive event recorded at a summit station (Rep. INGV-OE, 10/08/2010).

These are acoustic waves at very low frequency (0.1 – 1 Hz), totally inaudible to the human ear but incredibly powerful. Infrasounds are generated every time a bubble of gas bursts on the surface of the magma or when an explosion occurs in a crater, behaving like a series of very small or very large atmospheric “bangs”. Through special microphones arranged in networks around the volcano, INGV manages to intercept these ghostly sounds. This type of monitoring is fundamental for surveillance because it allows us to understand in the instant which of the four summit craters has activated, even in the middle of the night or when the summit of Etna is completely covered by clouds.
Another “sentinel” signal is the one related to soil deformations (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Trend of clinometric signals showing, with millimeter precision, the variations in the inclination of the ground along the X and Y axes (Rep. INGV-OE. 20.3/2022).

Before an eruption, the volcanic edifice behaves like a balloon that swells: it expands under the pressure of the magma. INGV monitors this “swelling” through high-precision GPS receivers and clinometers, sensors capable of measuring variations in the inclination of the ground imperceptible to the human eye. If the sensors located on the flanks of the mountain begin to tilt towards the east, it means that a mass of magma is refilling the superficial reservoirs.
Finally, the last fundamental step in completing this profound control framework is represented by geochemical signals (Figure 10 and 11), a monitoring tool of vital importance because it allows “sniffing” the state of health of the volcano. Volcanoes, in fact, constantly communicate with the outside through their gas emissions. Using stations positioned close to the crater areas, INGV geochemists measure 24 hours a day the quantity and composition of the gases emitted, focusing in particular on carbon dioxide and sulfur anhydride. Monitoring the variations of these quantities is fundamental: an increase in the ratio between these two gases functions as an unmistakable alarm bell. This signal indicates that from the depths the magma is rising “fresh,” that is, a new magma, young and still rich in its original volatile cargo, is rising to re-enter the system and push the volcano towards a new eruptive phase.

Useful images: Eyes fixed on the fire
Etna is surrounded by a network of high-resolution cameras managed by INGV. Alongside normal optical cameras (useful for monitoring ash clouds or wind direction during the day), thermal cameras (Figure 12 and 13) play a fundamental role. These instruments record infrared radiation, translating heat into visible images. Thermal cameras allow you to:

• “See” through the thick smoke of the craters, identifying the exact moment in which the magma surfaces.
• Map the instant of the opening of an eruptive fissure on the flank of the mountain.
• Trace the precise path of lava flows even at night or in conditions of thick fog, measuring the speed of advancement of the front.

Figure 12. Thermal image recorded by the INGV surveillance camera positioned on Montagnola during the eruption of 24 December 2018. On the left a violent Strombolian explosion is noted from the North-East Crater. On the right, the Strombolian activity and emission of lava flows produced by the same eruptive fissure (Source INGV). A sudden and evident thermal variation is noted, a bright white, red and orange spot that tears through the crater. It is the beginning of a more violent explosion with the throwing of incandescent lava shreds at high temperatures (over 1000 °C) that subsequently fall back partially on the flanks of the volcano.

Figure 13. Thermal image recorded by the INGV surveillance camera positioned at Nicolosi during the emission of ash on 6 July 2026 (Source INGV). In the infrared the ash (black powder) and gases appear as a gray cloud and opaque that is in continuous metamorphosis, heated by the atmosphere and dissolved in the air.

2. The digital footprints of fire: The importance of petrographic analysis
   While seismometers listen to Etna’s voice and GPS measure movements, INGV volcanologists have at their disposal another extremely powerful surveillance weapon, definable as a sort of “real-time autopsy” of magma: petrographic analysis. Petrography is the geological discipline that studies the composition, structure and history of crystals trapped inside lava rocks.
   During an eruption, or immediately after a paroxysm, INGV researchers rush to collect fresh lava samples or freshly fallen lapilli. These fragments are immediately taken to the laboratory, cut into thin sections (so thin as to make them transparent) and analyzed under an optical and electron microscope (Figure 13). The crystals present in the lava (such as olivine, pyroxenes or plagioclases) behave like true and proper “black boxes” of the volcano: as they grow within the magma chamber, they record within their microscopic structure chemical variations of temperature, pressure and composition of the surrounding fluid. Thanks to these studies, INGV is able to decode crucial information for surveillance. Petrographic analyses allow in fact to decipher if the lava that is erupting at that moment is a “old” mass, remained for a long time to cool in the superficial reservoirs of the volcano, or if the eruption is fed by a violent rise of new and deep magma, not yet crystallized.

This last scenario, highlighted by the presence of crystals with evident signs of chemical disequilibrium or corrosion, signals to scientists that the driving engine of Etna is pushing with force, suggesting that eruptive activity could intensify or prolong over time.

Figure 14. Thin section of an Etnean lava rock (Source INGV).

GLOSSARY
edited by Elisabetta Giampiccolo

Fenditura: Long crack or linear fracture of the earth’s crust.

Fessura eruttiva: It is a linear crack of the earth’s crust through which magma manages to make its way and reach the surface.

Zona sommitale: Summit of the volcano or the “roof” of the mountain where the main craters are located.

Eruzione di tipo effusivo: Eruption characterized by the tranquil outflow of very hot and fluid lava (poor in silica and gas), which is not fragmented by violent explosions. Once out of the volcanic vent, the fluid matter pours onto the ground generating a lava front that tends to widen in a fan shape, adapting to the shape of the mountain.

Eruzione esplosiva: Violent eruption driven by the high pressure of gases. The magma is literally shattered and violently thrown into the air in the form of black ash, lapilli and volcanic bombs, creating visible clouds kilometers away.

Evento piroclastico: Volcanic phenomenon linked to the throwing or sliding of solid and fragmented material (the “fire stones” like ashes and lapilli) generated by an explosion, and not by the sliding of a liquid flow.

Parossismo: The brief and violent climax of a volcanic activity. It is a true and proper energy crisis of the volcano that manifests itself with very high lava fountains, boats absorbing and imposing rains of ash.

Biforcazione: It is the action of a lava flow which, encountering an obstacle (such as a hill, a house or an old volcanic cone), divides into two separate branches that continue to flow in different directions. It is a diversion intervention.

Deviazione artificiale: The set of engineering techniques (such as the construction of earth and rock barriers or the use of explosives) used by man in the desperate attempt to change the route of an active lava flow to protect inhabited centers.

Viscere del vulcano: Suggestive expression to indicate the remote, hidden and inaccessible depths of the volcanic edifice, where magmas dwell and move under frightful pressures before finding a way out.

Stratificazioni laviche: The “layered” structure of the terrain. Each eruption deposits a new flow or a new layer of ash over the previous one. Observing these superimpositions is like reading the pages of a book on the volcano’s past history.

Plasmazione del sottosuolo: The action with which the continuous eruptions over the millennia have literally designed, dug and modeled the interior of the earth, creating a labyrinth of conduits, galleries and underground chambers.

Crosta isolante: Represents the “skin” of solid rock that forms on the surface of a lava flow at contact with the air. It functions as a perfect thermal shield: beneath this shell, the lava remains liquid and can continue to flow for kilometers without cooling.

Grotta vulcanica o da scorrimento lavico: It is the void that is encountered in the subsoil when a lava flow finishes. If the material of the flow inside an underground conduit manages to flow completely down the valley before solidifying, it leaves behind an empty gallery, that is, a grotto.

Condotti lavici o tunnel di lava: True and proper underground tubes in which lava continues to flow fluidly. They form when the superficial layer of a flow solidifies due to the cold air, creating a roof of rigid rock beneath which the river of fire remains very hot and protected.

Striature sulle pareti rocciose: Lines, furrows and parallel scratches left by the lava on the internal walls of a grotto or conduit. They function like a geological compass: they indicate with precision the direction and the geometric level of the fire flow when it was still moving.

Magma basaltico: Very hot molten rock (over 1100°C), poor in silica and very fluid. The type of magma that feeds Etna and the Hawaii, capable of flowing rapidly like a dense river.

Porosità: Characteristic of some volcanic rocks (such as pumice stone or scoriaceous basalts) full of small holes. These holes are none other than the “imprints” of the gas bubbles that were trapped in the magma and remained frozen in the rock at the moment of cooling.

Cenere: Microscopic fragments of rock and volcanic glass, hard and abrasive, pulverized by the violence of the gas during an eruption.

TERMS ADDED

Assimilazione crostale: It is the process with which the hottest magma, during its rise, “dissolves” and incorporates within itself the rocks of the earth’s crust that it crosses, changing its original chemical composition.

Trachibasalto: The most common type of volcanic rock on Earth (and Etna). Dark, heavy and dense, it derives from the cooling of a very hot and fluid magma, poor in silica.

Bottomiera: A line of small craters aligned along a crack in the ground. They are typical of lateral eruptions.

Camera magmatica: A sort of “reservoir” or network of spaces in the subsoil, located a few kilometers deep, where magma accumulates and stays before an eruption.

Cristallizzazione frazionata: The process of “separation” that occurs when magma cools slowly in the subsoil. The heaviest minerals become solid (crystallize) first and precipitate to the bottom, leaving the remaining liquid lighter and richer in silica.

Dicco: A vertical or inclined fracture inside the mountain that fills with magma. It functions as a kind of “tube” or underground reference wall through which the fluid travels towards the surface.

Degassamento: The phenomenon by which gases dissolved in magma under strong pressure separate from the liquid as the pressure decreases, forming bubbles. It is the same identical principle by which bubbles form when one unscrews the cap of a gassed drink.

Lava Aa: A term of Hawaiian origin to describe a lava which, cooling, breaks into a thousand fragments of cutting, rough and spiky rocks. Walking on it is very difficult.

Lava Pāhoehoe (o a corda): Fluid lava that, while it flows, cools on the surface creating a thin elastic “skin”. The movement of the still liquid lava underneath wrinkles this skin, making it assume the appearance of intertwined ropes.

Magma: Molten rock as long as it is found in the subsoil, still containing all its trapped gases at high pressure.

Lava: Molten rock at the exact moment in which it exits into the open air (on the surface) and loses a large part of its original gases in the form of smoke and vapors.

Livello di frammentazione: The exact point in the volcanic conduit in which the pressure of the gases becomes so strong as to “frenare” [brake] and shatter the liquid magma, transforming it instantly into a violent mixture of gas, ashes and lapilli.

Silice (SiO₂): Chemical compound (the same that forms quartz and glass) whose quantity determines the “viscosity” of magma. Low silica means fluid magma like oil; high silica means dense and sticky magma like cold honey.

Stratovulcano: A cone-shaped volcano with steep flanks, born over the millennia from the alternation (stratification) of solid lava flows and layers of dust, ashes and stones (lapilli) ejected during explosive phases.

Vulcano a scudo: An enormous volcano but with very gentle and almost flat sides, which recalls the shape of a warrior’s shield. It forms because its lavas are so fluid as to flow rapidly for kilometers before stopping, without managing to build steep walls.

ASSEMBLY AND MEANING
a note on the design of this book
by Maurizio Leonardi

The only serious way to approach the conception of a book like this is to imagine oneself in front of an IKEA piece of furniture whose assembly instructions have been lost. The start of the editorial project of L.A.V.A. BOOK – an ungovernable chronicle of the choreographic creation signed by Roberto Zappalà and by the duo Pieter C. Scholten and Emio Greco – resembles that act of blind faith in which pieces of wood fit together without knowing whether they will become a bookcase or a guillotine.

Of this volume, a faithful mirror of the magma that it intends to document, I would not know how to recount either the order or the disorder. I do not recall any al di qua [before] of its materialization. Not even of its making of would I be able to trace a genealogy, since every genealogy presupposes an origin, while here we find ourselves facing an organism that began to breathe before even having a body.

The acronym that gives the work its title – L.A.V.A. (Struggle, Aversion, Void, Abstraction) – is not a key to reading, but a shrewd game of temporal dexterity that is perfectly successful: it is insinuated into a work begun, like one of those epiphanies that arrive when the curtain has already fallen and the audience continues to applaud the invisible. This après-coup of meaning is the true cipher of every artistic operation that merits its name. The choreographic creation and the assembly of this logbook share the same geological destiny: the magma – whether it be that erupted by the volcano or that of the choreographers’ unconscious – is not known what to do with it before its form; one undergoes it, one encounters it only after solidification, when the heat has gone out and the scandal of what has happened has already become ash or dust.

The book, therefore, is not written: it stratifies. It presents itself as an unprejudiced palimpsest in which the page is not a space to be filled, but a collector, a catalyst where materials overlap without permission. The illusion of an editorial architecture gives way to the brutal method of the cut-up, where scissors and glue serve not to recompose a lost meaning, but to demonstrate that meaning has never been in its place. Every sheet is a territory occupied by a chaos that pretends to be calm. In the end, the book form is only the juridical alibi that we give to the abyss of the magma chamber to prevent it from looking us in the eyes.

AUTHORS

Alessandro Bonaccorso is Research Director of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). A geophysicist specialized in Physics of volcanism with theoretical and experimental studies on numerous active volcanoes, he has specialized in the monitoring of volcanoes with development and application of innovative technologies of high precision for the control of deformations. Author of over 100 publications in international journals and over 120 contributions to conferences. Coordinator and scientific referent of numerous national and international research projects, he was Director of the INGV-Osservatorio Etneo (2002-2008). Personal Home page: https://tinyurl.com/yxf62typ

Sofia Bordieri holds a doctorate in Sciences for Cultural Heritage and Production, she works at the Department of Humanistic Sciences of the University of Catania. After coreutical high school studies, in 2018 she obtained the first level academic diploma at the Accademia Nazionale di Danza of Rome. She has frequently attended Modem Atelier and Modem Pro, a Project by Scenario Pubblico/Compagnia Zappalà Danza. In 2023 she obtained her master’s degree in Communication of Culture and Entertainment at the University of Catania and was selected for the Biennale College ASAC – Residenze in residenza – Writing about Dance at the Venice Biennale. Since 2023 she has been editor for PAC – Paneacquaculture for which she conducts critical writing workshops with festivals including Performare Festival (Serradifalco), Prima Onda Festival (Palermo). She is curator of the blog Humus of Scenario Pubblico where she conducts a project on the digitalization of the company’s historical archive. She is part of the editorial committee of «Arabeschi. International journal of literature and visual studies». In 2026 she was part of the critical jury for the Festival Under 30 of the Teatro Sociale of Gualtieri. She is director of the Scenariolibri series.

Nello Calabrò is a playwright and filmmaker. After graduating from D.A.M.S. in Bologna, with a thesis on the History of cinema on the title Il sonoro nel cinema di Sergio Leone, he obtained a diploma in directing at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome. He is a director of short films of fiction and documentaries. Since 2001 he has been the playwright of the Compagnia Zappalà Danza. “MURAGLIE” finalist at the “Riccioneteatro” 2005 and staged in scene at Taormina Arte in 2010. In 2021 he published for the Malcor D’ Passi falsi. Drammaturgia come metodo investigativo. In 2024 he founded the Palpitante-film casa di produzione indipendente with which he made Andare (2024) documentary on the music of Nello Scasso, and his first feature film Un fortissimo Furore (2026).

Elisabetta Giampiccolo graduated in Geological Sciences in 1994, immediately passionate about the study and research in seismic-volcanological in volcanic contexts. In 2000 she obtained the title of Doctor of Research after a study experience at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she dedicated herself to the analysis of seismic processes of Mount St. Helens. Since 2001, she has worked at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and, currently, she covers the role of First Researcher, expert in the study of the mechanisms of attenuation of seismic waves and of the sources of volcano-tectonic earthquakes, continuing to carry out monitoring activities on Etna and on the other active Sicilian volcanoes.

Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten have been collaborating since 1995, building an international artistic path that crosses contemporary dance, theater, opera, music and cinema. In 1996 they founded EG|PC, developing an original language based on the relationship between body, movement and perception. Among their best-known works the dance trilogy Hell, [Purgatorio] in visione and You Para|diso. From 2014 to 2018 they directed the Ballet National de Marseille. Since 2020 they have been developing the WE cycle, dedicated to the relationship between body, individual and society.

Maurizio Leonardi is a visual designer and art director. Active since 1989, he conducts a visual research that crosses over thirty years between Catania, London, Barcelona and Turin, moving at the crossroads between editorial graphics, cinema and visual arts. In 1996 he founded with Federico Silvestro the multimedia group ETHICAL Bros, investigating the manipulation of images and the devices of representation. As director of photography and editor he signs the film Strike a Light (New York, 2000) by Giovanna Brogna Sonnino, premiered at the Brooklyn International Film Festival. Also the guide of mrzDESIGN, since 2013 the identity and visual communication of Scenario Pubblico / Compagnia Zappalà Danza. He has been co-founder and art director of Paginaotto, a publishing house dedicated to psychoanalysis and contemporary culture, for which he directed the collane and designed the graphic and artistic research up to 2025.

Stefania Rimini is a full professor of Cinema, photography and television at the University of Catania, where she teaches Intermediate Communication, History of cinema and audiovisual media, Models of television seriality, cinema, seriality and cultural tourism. Her main research interests concern the relationships between cinema, theater and new media, acting, queer and gender studies. She is part of the scientific committee of CRAD – Centro ricerche su attore e divismo of Turin. She has published, among others, the volumes: Con occhi torbidi e innocenti. Laura Betti nel cinema di Pasolini (Duecredit 2021); Every body needs some body… Figure del desiderio e linguaggi della visione (Kaplan, 2019); L’etica dello sguardo. Introduzione al cinema di Kieslowski(Liguori 2000); La ferita e l’assenza. Performance del sacrificio nella drammaturgia di Pasolini(Bonanno 2006); ImmaginAzioni. Scritture e ibridazioni fra teatro e cinema (Bonanno, 2012); Le maschere non si scelgono a caso. Figure, corpi e voci del teatro-mondo di Vincenzo Pirrotta(Titivillus, 2015). She has curated volumes: Una vernice di fiction. Gli scrittori e la televisione(Duecredit, 2017); Un estratto di vita. Goliarda Sapienza fra teatro e cinema (with M. Rizzarelli, Duecredit, 2018); Universo Gomorra. Da libro a film, da film a serie tv (with M. Guerra and S. Martin, Mimesis, 2018). She is Director of the Department of Humanistic Sciences of the University of Catania.

Roberto Zappalà Choreographer and artistic director of the Compagnia Zappalà Danza founded in 1990 in Catania, he has been for thirty-five years an original voice of Italian dance, with a humanist and philosophical poetics deeply linked to the South. Author of over 85 creations, he has conceived long-term projects with his creations, such as re-mapping sicily and Transiti Humanitatis. He has collaborated with international institutions and artists of importance. In 2002 he is creator and founder of Scenario Pubblico, the first example in Italy of a Choreographic Center. His language, MoDem – Movimento Democratico – gave life to CZD2, the official company’s nursery. Among the first prizes received: at the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition (Atlanta/USA 2011) for the interactive installation MindBox, the Premio dell’Associazione Nazionale Critici di Teatro (2013), the Premio Hystrio Corpo a Corpo (2022) and the Premio Internazionale alla Carriera Città di Foligno (2024).