Martina Parenti

I was born in Lugano on June 21, 2001, the summer solstice. A bright day, yet I've always lived somewhat in the shadows, between two poles: Gemini and Cancer, Switzerland and Italy, body and word. Always on the edge, never with a precise definition.

As a child, letters were mountains to me, books were labyrinths: I'm dyslexic, and I've always struggled with words. I'm not flexible, I'm not strong, and I've never been good at "doing like the others." But I had a body, and that body spoke. Grimaces, dance steps, even the dripping of a faucet could become rhythm. My mother would play Michael Jackson videos for me, my father Aldo, Giovanni, and Giacomo sketches: there I understood that dancing and making people laugh could be a universal language. After a forced interlude with ballet, at ten I found refuge in street dance: hip-hop, popping, locking. With various crews, I toured Italy, competing and performing on stages, learning that a step can say more than a thousand words and that the strength of a group can support even the weakest bodies.

In middle school, I began with musicals ( Romeo and Juliet , Fame ), then came the cinema, with small roles as an actress and dancer in short films and music videos. During my years at the Giuditta Pasta dance school in Como, I encountered contemporary dance: finally, a home. Here, I began creating choreographies, such as in the Como d'autore project, a traveling show through the city's historic sites.

After high school, I continued to cultivate dance, theater, and cinema, as well as games and workshops with children, where I rediscovered that laughing together is as much an art as being on stage.

Words, even today, aren't enough for me. That's where my dance begins.