A post-apocalyptic duet between a humanoid and a bird-puppet. A physical performance about identity, vulnerability, and transformation
Roberta Maimone
Location: De Sloot, Grote Zaal
- GENRE: Dance, Puppetry, Theatre
- THEME: More than human, Speaking Bodies
- LANGUAGE: English
- ACCESSIBILITY: Assistance dogs welcome, Genderneutral toilets, Toilet for wheelchair users, Wheelchair accessible
info
A strange human is born from an egg into an empty space. In her arms she holds the severed head of her twin: a bird, somewhere between vulture and raven.
At first, it cannot survive without her. The human feeds it breath, movement, and attention to keep it alive. But as her care grows, the creature’s eyes begin to look back. Premonitions from the past begin to transform the new world around them, and soon they cannot outrun their fate.
It’s About Time combines physical theater, puppetry, projection and live sound to offer a glimpse into a near future, where the fundamental binaries of life on Earth have dissolved. Human vs. machine, human vs. animal, and Self vs. Other – everything must be re-created in this world. This immersive piece is both tender and grotesque, and explores questions of identity, vulnerability, and transformation.
Biography
Roberta Maimone is an Italian choreographer, dancer, performer, and movement director based in Amsterdam. Working across dance, mime, puppetry and lights, her practice explores how identity, autonomy, and transformation are shaped through dynamics of control, care, and dependency. Trained in multiple dance styles from an early age, she continued her development at DAF Rome before moving to Amsterdam, where she shaped her choreographic voice and developed her method, MEM, an evolving practice focused on physical articulation, energetic precision, posture, and gesture as carriers of layered meaning.
Her works Enfants, ALEX, and Wonder, Love, selected for Vetrina della Giovane Danza d’Autore eXtra (2023–2024), reveal a humorous yet introspective language rooted in mimicry, cartoon-like physicality, and visual storytelling, with music functioning as an operating dramaturgical force. ALEX was also presented at Nederlands Dans Dagen 2023 and the International Choreographic Competition Hannover (ICCH) 2024.
Her recent solo work marks a shift toward puppetry and mask-play as tools for transformation. Influenced by Bunraku and contemporary performance, she explores dependence as a choreographic condition, using human–object relationships to probe the boundaries between human and non-human, body and system, control and surrender. Her practice is deeply collaborative and continues to evolve through research, performance, and international touring across Europe.