De rerum natura
year: 2017

concept, choreography and costumes: Nicola Galli
cast 2018: Sofia Barilli, Laura Beschi, Riccardo De Simone, Margherita Dotta, Silvia Remigio, Paolo Soloperto
original cast: Beatrice Ciattini, Gianluca Formica, Angelica Mattiazzi, Marianna Miglio, Silvia Remigio, Antonio Saitta
music: Banchieri, Henry, Ligeti, Penderecki, Radigue, Xenakis
passacaglia for viola and cello: Giacomo Gaudenzi
technician: Giovanni Garbo
production: TIR Danza, stereopsis, in collaboration with Compagnia Junior Balletto di Toscana directed by Cristina Bozzolini
in collaboration with: Civitanova Danza Festival & AMAT
with the support of: Fondazione Fabbrica Europa, Cantieri Danza
developed by the project Prove d'Autore XL - promoted by Network Anticorpi XL
length: 50 minutes

Danza&Danza Prize 2018 - category best young choreographer
selected work NID Platform 2019


The poet and philosopher Lucrezio describes the Nature of Things with a surprising attention for the explanation of phenomena.
His Latin poem discloses the reality of the cosmos and humanity with precursory contents of the modern science.
De rerum natura is a work devoted to the union and disunity of atoms, the vastness of the space, the temporal development, the intellect, the human core from birth to decline. The work gives a vibrant and vivide glaze on natural things in order to describe the infinite mutation of the world and the cyclical regeneration.
This orbital revolution stokes the desire for movement of six bodies, connected by a hidden and hot blooded thought.
An anatomical draw flows from the articulation of the gesture and spreads throughout the thinnest parts of the body, penetrating from the epitelium to the bones. The bodies are connected in a scenic composition where the construction, the distribution of the elements and the relation between correlation and interdependence create an organic and breathable totality.

Nicola Galli

"The last show starts at midnight. It's inevitable: the eyes begin to close but the pièce De Rerum Natura signed by Nicola Galli, a young choreographer from Ferrara (Italy), is the most substantial show of the first day of Festival Civitanova Danza 2017.
[...] Elegance and charm emerge in the youth bodies of the Junior Tuscany Ballet. Nicola Galli guides six interpreters with a strong synthesis presenting the phenomena described in Lurezio's De Rerum Natura.
The bodies feel like insects crawling on the ground, water, wind that shakes and disrupts, and then part of a cosmos in constant evolution (beautiful duets with great suppleness) and finally observers of the transformation of the body in light through the use of rotating neon lights dancing in the darkness."

Marinella Guatterini [ Il Sole 24 ore - 30/07/2017 ]



"In the 2017 edition of Festival Civitanova Danza has excelled for compositional grace, clarity of exposure and interpretative quality De rerum natura, first pièce for six dancers - Ballet of Toscana Junior - signed by Nicola Galli."

Silvia Poletti [ Danza&Danza Magazine - 09/2017 ]



"The pièce De rerum natura signed by Nicola Galli (seen at Teatro Petrarca, Arezzo) it's a proof of maturity, sensitivity, temperament and quality of language.
[...] An atlas of flora and fauna, of organic and breathing substance, materializes in the fluid and powerful bodies of the performers, in harmony with a musical beating. In the anatomical articulation of their bodies, the dancers show a continuous mutation in progress: from the amorphous insects and creeping reptiles born from a backdrop to the upright position; from the liquid gestures to the winged one, to the shapeless forms shaken by breezes and vibrations, while waves of sounds and natural noises shape the abstract bodies.
The dancers swing in various directions, explore the space creating postures and extending the arms and legs like trees in the rural playfulness of short runs, hops and rolling. Those young bodies still observe their changes and the surrounding landscape when the backdrop collapses showing the nudity of the stage. An unexplored world.
The sidereal sounds followed by a crackling of burning matter, give way to the vocal purity of the 'Madrigale to a sweet nightingale' by Adriano Banchieri while the bodies observe the 'dance' of three neon bar that, falling from above, in the dark, create geometries up to become a mystical enchanting monolith."

Giuseppe Distefano [ Danza&Danza Magazine - 05/2018 ]


"De rerum natura is a fluid interpenetration of narration and choreography, in which Nicola Galli translates suggestions and reflections drawn from Lucretius’ work into a refined, rigorous, concentrated and captivating choreography."

Laura Bevione [ Hystrio Magazine - 01/2020 ]


Nicola Galli

Nicola Galli