Perhaps because, by the end of 2024, his role at IterCulture is changing. After logistics, backstage work, looking after the companies and handling a thousand emergencies, he begins to work on programming and international guests as well. He had even considered sound and lighting: he had spoken about it with Selina Bassini, whom he met through the dance world.

It is him, a few years earlier. You should see old photographs of Dario: without the red hair, you would scarcely recognise him. But to understand Orazio’s expression, we need to wind the year back.

In 2024 IterCulture joins the Network Anticorpi XL, a network devoted to emerging contemporary dance artists. At its first plenary meeting, in Pesaro, the team meets professionals from other regions. It takes part in the selection processes for the Vetrina della giovane danza d’autore, di ResiDance e di Danza Urbana XL. These relationships and decisions occupy the team throughout the year, alongside activities in several Sicilian municipalities.

Exactly. One of those arrows points towards Viagrande Studios. In partnership with Mariella Cirillo SSD, IterCulture hosts a ResiDance residency for the first time: Giulio Petrucci and Jari Boldrini, the Giulio and Jari Collective, work on NUBLA, a project conceived by Fabrizio Favale.

Only just. Keep that photograph: later you’ll understand how much room residencies will occupy in our story.

She first arrived in 2021. By 2024, Robertavenera Gambino is working with increasing independence on the competition and relations with the companies. She will later become a key figure in programming and organisational administration. You know how confidently she speaks today; here you can see the experience behind it.

That same year, Giuliana Trovato, a dancer at Viagrande Studios, tentatively asks to see how the festival works behind the scenes. Her teacher, Claudia Migliori, director of Viagrande Studios, which is run by Mariella Cirillo SSD, suggests that she join the office as a volunteer. Giuliana helps at the information point, the Support Teatri Riflessi area, guest reception and elsewhere. She cannot yet know that her interests in dance, education and caring for others will later find a place in the Risuonare.

She needed time to try things out. Claudia, too, grows closer to the association: she initially collaborates through Viagrande Studios and sits on the advisory committee selecting the short works; later she becomes a member and an active part of the festival. In the years to come, she will share technical direction with Valerio Santi, actor and director at Teatro L’Istrione. Their work together will lead to further projects and a close friendship.

It is. Dario, Valerio and Sofia Fasone help Robertavenera revise her dissertation, while Bianca and Biagio exchange cuddles with her. The team subsequently invites Sofia to undertake an internship in translation and interpreting. At the festival, she has her first official experience as an interpreter, working in both simultaneous and consecutive interpreting. Consecutive interpreting is her passion; even with just one microphone, she shows remarkable talent.

Simona Trovato finds the courage to follow her passion for social media. She also works in marketing and communications; the path she is choosing will lead her to manage the channels of IterCulture and other organisations.

We gain a Simona who is happy in her work. And her reels.

In the afternoons, Emanuela Di Grigoli coordinates a great deal: the volunteers, the installations, workshops for children and young people, book presentations and discussions. She works on Testi Riflessi with Grazia Calanna. Another important presence is Ilaria Mirenna , who leads the festival’s communications in 2023 and 2024 before choosing another path and completing her university studies.

They are in the Council Chamber of Zafferana Etnea for the press conference. From the left: Deputy Mayor Salvo Coco, Ilaria, Emanuela, Dario, Valerio, Robertavenera, Claudia and Giuliana. Shortly afterwards, the juries will meet in the same room to decide the category awards, accompanied by granita, brioche, graffe and other Sicilian pastries.

Of course. Ilaria Mirenna welcomes jurors at the Information Point, while Giuliana works behind her. During the afternoons, staff, artists, audiences and jurors stop to talk: some of those encounters will help nourish the Comizi community, also inspired by Pasolini’s Comizi d’amore .

Meanwhile, the TRWorkCamp extends to twenty days. Robertavenera coordinates it with an international volunteer; in 2024 that person is Blandine, who leaves the team with many memories and much laughter. Together with Ada Baran and the other volunteers, she makes installations, castles and signs to guide people through the park, using reclaimed materials. Emanuela supports them, while Dario and Giuliana contribute a few improvised creations of their own.

First, look at the people who built them. In 2024 the Lunaria workcamp brings together sixteen international volunteers: a group IterCulture still remembers with great affection. Blandine Duchemin and Maria Duñó Puig also take to the stage to speak about their experiences at TRWorkCamp.

We can say that, for those who took part, it was truly special. And that those people have stayed in the team’s hearts.

Now follow this photograph into the square. During Swan by Gaetano Palermo, with Rita Di Leo performing, people gather around the work: some stand, some watch from benches, others from café tables. It is one of the moments that prompts IterCulture to bring more performances beyond the park and the Falcone and Borsellino Theatre. In later years, some of the short works in competition will meet their audiences in the square as well.

Very well. In 2024, we could not yet know that she and Gaetano, both originally from Adrano, would each become part of our story in different ways. Rita now works with us as a juror, shares the artistic direction of the Federico Cornoni Foundation and organises the Canile Drammatico festival in Parma. But look at the square again: see how many people stop because the art is there, in a place they pass through every day.

The festival also hosts a residency by Jacopo Giacomoni for È solo un lungo tramonto, along with literary activities, video works and an evening devoted to emerging artists in the Anticorpi XL network. Alongside Swan , there are Cuma by Michele Ifigenia Colturi and A Solo in the Spotlights by Vittorio Pagani. It is an edition of stages, pathways, screens, words and encounters.

Headphones could be useful for a party, too. Here they help with interpreting, while screens and headsets open up other ways of experiencing dance. In 2024, Visioni Contemporanee is the edition’s theme . From 2025 it will become the name of a strand devoted to dance on screen and multimedia forms, growing with new partners. We will open that part of the box in later chapters.

Yes. Rosanna La Malfa has been part of Teatri Riflessi since its years at the Benedictine Monastery and also presents an award. The Mood team is with her. Look at her daughter Giulia: as a child she would fall asleep on the chairs during festival evenings; today she works in communications, and her organisation collaborates with IterCulture.

They are interpreting. It is one of the ways the festival enables people who speak different languages to take part in the same conversation.

Babak Safari, an Iranian graphic designer living in Poland, approaches the team with a proposal to collaborate in 2024. From then on, he will shape the visual identity of IterCulture’s projects. It is an artistic and human connection that grows across the distance.

You’re asking me? Later, we’ll also talk about how to support people who need their voices to be heard. That belongs in another box, though.

I don’t think that flag exists, but we could design it. As for those other stories, we’ll tell them when the time comes.

You could begin with the one Dario is wearing: it is one of the Teatri Riflessi T-shirts available in various colours, featuring a design by Sofia Rana. Since 2026 there have also been T-shirts for individual editions: two colours for each, with Babak Safari ’s designs for the editions from 2024 onwards. You can choose the Teatri Riflessi faces on the front, or wear a particular year’s artwork on your back.

Meanwhile, the International Short Performance Competition receives more than 370 applications and selects 13 works. Companies arrive from many countries, as do professionals who can meet them, discuss their work and offer awards, residencies and touring opportunities. The Best Short Performance award goes to Matomari No Nai, by Catarina Casqueiro e Tiago Coelho, which also wins the directing award and earns recognition from audiences, fellow companies and critics.

By now, many artists choose Zafferana for the conversations, audiences, fellow artists and professional opportunities they find here. An article in UnictMagazine describes Mount Etna becoming a destination for the international contemporary performance scene: some people and institutions recognise what is taking shape.

Not all of them yet, even after the recognition the project will receive in later years. But there are also people and organisations who support this work and understand its value. The story is still unfolding, Bruno. We’ll be here to see whether things change.

He still looks after IterCulture’s technology and platforms; outside the association, he works in cybersecurity. Within it, he devotes time and resources to the project alongside Dario. Programming and international relations add another direction to what he already knows how to do. You needn’t give up one interest to explore another.

Sometimes. Dario and Valerio care deeply about training because learning to organise, translate, communicate or select a performance also helps people understand the working life they want. This is one of the roots of Futuri Possibili: the tools to choose whether to work with IterCulture, remain in Sicily or take what they have learnt elsewhere. In 2025 that path will take clearer shape, and some people will begin working for the association on a stable basis.

You make room for it. For those who stay, those who leave, and those who do not yet know that one day they will knock at the door. The more than fifty free activities and over three thousand attendees in 2024 speak to the project’s growth. But the photographs may show more clearly what you, Bruno, found in the box: a community that keeps expanding as people gain the freedom to become themselves.

That’s a lovely way to prepare for the next chapter.

There are: the trailer and a film looking back at the edition. Now you can see the park, the people and the performances we’ve talked about.