Two men spinning and whirling, their breath rising,
faster and faster, a never-ending dance

Alessandro Sciarroni, winner of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance at the Venice Biennale, encountered the polka chinata (crouched polka) when it was on the verge of disappearing altogether.

A dance performed only by men, the polka chinata emerged in Bologna in the early 1900s, when unmarried men and women were not permitted to dance together in public. The acrobatic dance, in which men compete to see who can spin the fastest to attract the attention of women, gradually fell out of fashion as times changed and men and women dancing became more acceptable as well as due to the difficulty of the dance itself. When Sciarroni began his research, prompted by a video posted online, there were only a few dancers left. Enthralled by this dance on the brink of extinction, Sciarroni launched a performance and workshop project to revive the polka chinata.

Two dancers bend at the knees, lower their hips, and rotate while staring intently at one another. Feeling the thrill of knowing that they will surely collapse if the grip on each other’s arm loosens even a little, their smiles reveal the joy of trusting your partner, relinquishing the weight of your body to them, and dancing.