Performance: Save the Last Dance for Me

Knees bent low. Arms locked tight. Two bodies spinning faster, faster, faster. This is the polka chinata, a breathtaking dance ritual almost lost to history. Dating back to the early 1900s, it was once a courtship display performed only by men at a time when strict rules forbade unmarried men and women from dancing together. The result? A polka unlike any other – a passionate acrobatic whirl designed to dazzle those looking for love from the edge of the dance floor.    

By 2018, few still remembered the steps, but when Alessandro Sciarroni – one of Europe’s most daring contemporary artists – was alerted to this endangered form, he fell under its spell. With the help of dance master Giancarlo Stagni, he began a project that would both preserve and renew it. 

Performed with astonishing physical and emotional intensity by Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini, the work honours the polka chinata’s origins while transforming it into something contemporary, a thrilling exploration of strength, tenderness and trust. What was once a show of masculine virility becomes, in these dancers’ hands, a celebration of intimacy between men, of endurance, of love.

Keen to learn the Polka Chinata? Join the workshop.