Simone Forti Goes to the Zoo

In 1968, choreographer and dancer Simone Forti moved from the United States back to Italy. During her brief stay in Rome, she spent time observing animals in the zoo, as well as working and performing among Arte Povera sculptures. This article investigates how Forti's encounters in Italy with new methods of movement and materiality, including models of collaboration between animate subjects and inanimate objects, became pivotal to her procedures of constructing dance.