MARRONE — Gesture Workshop and Performance (Virgilio Sieni's "L'Inizio" project)

Virgilio Sieni's dance in the hometown of Dino Campana

In the heart of the Mugello, on the slopes of the Tuscan-Romagna Apennines, the town of Marradi (Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany) hosts the "L'Inizio" project, conceived and curated by choreographer Virgilio Sieni, one of the most renowned figures in contemporary Italian dance and director of the Cango National Dance Production Center in Florence. For six days, from June 15 to 20, 2026, the town becomes an open-air laboratory where gesture, memory, and landscape merge into a collective ritual open to all.

"MARRONE": a gesture workshop for the community

The core of the project is the free "MARRONE" workshop, a series of five practical sessions held at the Mercato Coperto in Marradi, on Viale della Repubblica, from June 15 to 19, from 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM. Open to people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities, with no prior dance or performance experience required, the journey explores themes of memory and resistance, inspired by the Canti Orfici of Dino Campana, the poet born right here in Marradi. The marrone — the famous local chestnut — becomes a symbolic and material element around which to build a choreographic action and a sculpture-installation that evokes the morphology of the Mugello valleys and trails.

Performances at the Teatro degli Animosi and Casa Dino Campana

The final weekend transforms Marradi into a widespread stage:

• Friday, June 19, 8:00 PM — "Sognare": a performance directed and interpreted by Virgilio Sieni together with the local community, hosted in the historic spaces of Casa Dino Campana, the poet's home.
• Friday, June 19, 9:00 PM — "Rito": a show by the Compagnia Virgilio Sieni at the Teatro degli Animosi, performed by Jari Boldrini and Maurizio Giunti, with live music by Naomi Berrill. The work explores the relationship between the human and animal condition in the contemporary era.
• Saturday, June 20, 7:30 PM — "Marrone": a collective and participatory choreographic action at the Teatro degli Animosi, bringing together the community, the choreographer, and the company's dancers in a shared gesture that evokes the memory of the territory, forest paths, and water as identity elements of the Marradi landscape.

A community project bridging culture and territory

Alongside the "MARRONE" workshop, "L'Inizio" features a second path dedicated to family relationships, "Madri e figli – Padri e figli" (Mothers and Sons – Fathers and Sons), also free of charge. The entire initiative is produced by the Cango National Dance Production Center / Florence, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Tuscany Region, the Metropolitan City of Florence, the Municipality of Marradi, and the Fondazione Marradi Cultura "Dino Campana". It is a testament to how contemporary dance can become a tool for cohesion, while simultaneously celebrating the poetic memory and identity of a small village in the Tuscan Apennines.