redrum by the highly interesting gruppo nanou is the show that opens the doors to Körper-National Dance Production Center‘s 2026 season. The title redrum – the first chapter of the multi-year Overlook Hotel project – refers to a word that exists only through a reversal: “murder” read backwards, as it appears in the novel The Shining by Stephen King and, especially, in Stanley Kubrick‘s film, where the term does not announce an action but signals a condition of perceptual and mental disorientation.

Through careful performative choice, Redrum - choreographed by Marco Valerio Amico and Rhuena Bracci - emerges as a deconstructed language and manifests itself as "an invitation to dinner" that does not follow traditional modes, surfacing according to a logic closer to dream or memory than to narrative. The strength of the references on which the production is based does not lie in direct quotations, but in the idea of a space that holds traces - lived and danced - of an almost suspended time, of a meaning that has to be searched for by observing several times from different angles.

The nanou group thus declares its intentions already through its title and goes on to opt for the staging of a choreographic installation for five dancers and one performer. No dominant point of view emerges, the piece does not follow a linear progression, and meanings are not unfolded because they ask to be traversed. In fact, the audience is welcomed into a constantly changing atmosphere, both because of the spaces that host the group and because of the very nature of the piece, in an attempt to challenge the viewer. It is one of those works that also invites freedom: the audience that enjoys it can enter and exit, watch while standing or sitting in one spot of the space. To enter it is to accept also to be disoriented, to not know and to remain in theexpectation of discovery. Movement coexists with the audience, the dancers maintain an impeccable level of concentration that makes them seem part of the environment in which they act. The bodies seem to move within the mental space before the stage space. The actions do not advance a narrative but produce emotional impulses that remain suspended, even as the gaze moves elsewhere. The dominant environment is delineated by the large red carpets, the chairs used by the group, and the long, shimmering cloth that first rediscovers one body then reveals another, until it becomes a huge canvas that also touches the audience. Marco Valerio Amico 's light play is captivating, intimate and intriguing. Movements are often restrained, while bodies appear as if traversed by states of mind, manifested with a remarkable degree of imperturbability. The piece alternates between virtuosity - through, for example, impeccable renditions of floorwork - and moments of stasis.

The highly interesting element lies in the musical choices: original songs by Bruno Dorella do not serve as accompaniment but are an active part of the stage experience. Electronic sounds and deep beats predominate, mixed with inserts of acoustic instruments that create suspended atmospheres. Rhythms crescendo and retract in tune with the action: thus the play is even more of an all-encompassingsensory experience. The music guides the viewer through estrangement and suspension, amplifying the feeling that the dance should be felt with the whole body.

One of the most interesting aspects is the relationship with time. Redrum does not impose a duration, and this shifts the value of the experience: what remains afterwards matters. Each viewer constructs his or her own constellation of images, fragmentary, inevitably incomplete. In this sense the work renounces any idea of totality and accepts loss as part of its form.

An ex-aequo winner of the UBU 2024 prize for best dance performance, Redrum opens up a broad and generous field of experience in which the spectator is called upon to negotiate his or her role over and over again: to watch, to approach, to move away, to stay. Perhaps the most important question to ask yourself once you emerge from that magical plastic time is not about what is happening onstage, but what kind of attention you are willing to exercise.

So starting from the intensity ofredrum, the Körper Center presents its season by presenting itself as a place of crossing and encounter, building a mosaic of proposals from essential concepts and recurring symbols. The intention also appears to bring the arts into dialogue and to present itself as a place for meeting and sharing distinct languages. The playbill offers a wide selection of contemporary dance performances, choreographic installations and experimental performances, with a focus on innovative and site-specific projects. The novelty lies in the new format DUET-meetings on Fridays, dedicated to the dialogue between music and dance. The season also enhances, as always, young talents and emerging companies, alternating experiences that directly involve the audience. In this way, Spazio Körper confirms being a point of reference for contemporary dance on the national scene.