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Fragile Incanto

On fleeting, restless beauty

"Fragile Incanto" is the second chapter of Francesca Lettieri’s trilogy dedicated to contemporary myths. The performance investigates the relationship between power and transience, life and death, weaving together dance, images, and symbols in an intense, poetic language of the body. At the heart of the creative journey lies beauty—understood not only as a myth, but as the very substance of the human being. An ambivalent force, capable of generating joy and harmony, but also a sense of inadequacy and loss. Through a physical dramaturgy that brings together contemporary dance and dance-theatre, Fragile Enchantment explores this subtle tension between light and shadow, perfection and fragility. The narrative structure draws inspiration from the language of the fairy tale, where white and black emerge as opposing yet complementary forces, embodying moods and inner landscapes in constant transformation. The choreographic writing is dense with ethnographic references to Southern Italy and to Greek tragedy, giving the performance an archaic breath suspended between myth and memory. In "Fragile Incanto", beauty thus becomes a place of confrontation and metamorphosis: an enchantment that fascinates and wounds, reminding us of the human being’s ephemeral yet powerful nature. “Dance is the most complex form of expression of human experience that I know of. It is an act of rebellion against the formalism of social conventions and against the dominion of disruptive human emotions.” — Francesca Lettieri