International Day of

People with Disabilities

The Ballad of
Romilda
CONTAMINA APS
with
Romina Volpinari

Marco Baldazzi

Directed by: Cecilia Vecchio

Choreography: Marco Baldazzi.
Romilda has been dancing ever since she was born. Because you can dance even if you’ve never set foot on the ground. Romilda doesn’t touch the ground, yet she moves, works, drives, travels and covers great distances – distances that are not imaginary, but real. Who is Romilda? This woman who doesn’t touch the ground but dances through life as few others can? A fairy? A superheroine? A personified deity? No, because she doesn’t fly (apart from when she takes a plane); she’s firmly rooted to the ground; she’s not a surreal, mythical or genetically modified creature. She’s a woman. One who hates stereotypes, which is why it’s easier to define her by saying what she isn’t. She’s not an influencer, she’s not a whinger, she’s not an ‘inspirational’ figure, she’s not someone who says ‘if you want to, you can; if I’ve managed it, so can youuuuuu’… let’s start by saying she’s a psychologist. And yes, you’ll have spotted it from the poster; there’s a wheelchair. We put it there on purpose, because we know it naturally arouses morbid curiosity. ‘What could have happened to her?’ Or perhaps you’re not asking yourselves that and are among the ‘pure-hearted’ who are immune to such questions? Rest assured, no one is immune.

We don’t want to tell an uplifting story of rebirth; we want to tell a story that’s alive.

And we’re giving it a go, on two wheels. In a monologue that meanders, gliding between stand-up comedy and stream of consciousness, occasionally stumbling over architectural barriers. The starting point is the actress’s biography – a concrete hook to hold on to a truth – before moving beyond it, without ever lecturing, but showing with immediacy, sincerity and an open mind what a life can be. On two wheels.

Ah, by the way, Romilda really does dance. At concerts. And when she was a young girl in the discos of Riccione. On two wheels, always.

And on stage, too.