Lara Dâmaso dreamed of dancing since she was three years old. But she was dismayed that dancers were condemned to silence. She invented a new kind of dance that captures this missing dimension: one that shouts, murmurs, rumbles or laments, acting like a sounding board for the movements of her body and the space in which it moves. She likes to dramatise this space with curtains and drapes that hide and reveal her in a repeating pattern. Through her movements and her voice, she explores socio-political issues of identity, belonging, feminism and the vulnerability of the future.
Dâmaso, who is of Swiss and Portuguese descent, almost saw her career end when she broke her feet in a car accident. But following her rehabilitation, she invented new ways of moving, reclaiming her body in the process. Sound is an integral part of her improvised performances: she combines the expressive power of dance with vocalisations that are at once cathartic and politically charged – and, in this case, amount to an exercise in spatial echolocation.

Lara Dâmaso (b. 1996, Biel/Bienne) has always danced. After completing intensive ballet training at a young age, she turned her talents to contemporary dance, studying at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig and Zurich University of the Arts. A dancer and performer, she uses body movements and vocalisations in equal measure to convey her thoughts and emotions. She splits her time between Zurich and Milan.

Practical info

Postbus arrives in Ferpècle: 1:01pm. Car parking spaces along the road after Ferpècle.

Walk to the dam: 30 min, meet at the dam and continue (easy) to the retention lake: 30 min.

Total 1h walk to the performance site at the foot of the Ferpècle and Mont Miné glaciers. Car access to the dam authorized only for people with reduced mobility.

Lara Dâmaso, performance at the Ferpècle glacier. © Alexis Feuillet