Francesco Vezzoli and David Hallberg “Fortuna Desperata” performance at St. Bart’s Church, New York

To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Performa and the beginning of three weeks of performances across New York City for the biennial’s sixth edition, founder and director RoseLee Goldberg presented the premiere of “Fortuna Desperata”, a Performa Commission conceived by Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli and acclaimed dancer David Hallberg. Transforming the iconic St Bart’s Church into an intimate Renaissance court, the custom set designed by Stefan Beckman featured a geometric black and white floor pattern surrounded by intimate tiered pews and the costumes were designed by Fabio Zambernardi of Prada. “Fortuna Desperata” opened the biennial with a dramatic illumination of the birth of ballet, exploring the form’s earliest incarnations in the royal courts of the Italian Renaissance. Conceived by Vezzoli in collaboration with classical ballet dancer Hallberg, principal dancer for the Bolshoi Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, the performance revived and translated ballet’s beginnings and the period’s pageantry for a contemporary audience, bringing the past into dialogue with the present.

Photo Samantha Casolari