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Springback Academy is a mentored programme for upcoming dance writers at Aerowaves’ Spring Forward festival. These texts are the outcome of those workshops.

UN/DRESS Moving painting – Masako Matsushita

Person sitting on black and white striped floor.

Masako Matsushita, Undress. © Paolo Paggi

If there’s one thing that Masako Matsushita’s UN/DRESS Moving painting proves, it’s the potential resonance of the specificity of the dancer’s body onstage. Matsushita, who originally created this solo for herself, left it in the care of Elena Sgarbossa this weekend. Gorgeous, lithe and statuesque, Sgarbossa gestures meticulously, layering and shedding undergarments: colourful bras and panties constituting an iridescent exoskeleton, like an insect slowly relenting to its inevitable metamorphosis. Emerging, released from the entrapments of spandex and underwire, Sgarbossa writhes and weaves long strips of black fabric around her nude body before disappearing into the light.

Sgarbossa’s invulnerable presence defies specificity. Uncomplicated and non-confrontational, perhaps devoid of cultural nuance, it lets us clearly attend to the dressing and undressing. As the environment transforms to more exotic soundscapes, the portrait of this woman remains intact, never faltering, never uncontrolled.