Save the Last Dance for Me

In Save the Last Dance for Me, Alessandro Sciarroni creates a rare and engaging encounter with the polka chinata — a Bolognese courtship dance from the early 20th century. Performed by Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini, Save the Last Dance for Me is an intimate duet that unfolds in a continuous spiral of tension and trust: intertwined bodies, spinning, descending and rising, in a demanding, almost acrobatic choreography. Once danced exclusively by men, the Polka Chinata survives today thanks to the meticulous work of Giancarlo Stagni, who reconstructed it from archival images. When Sciarroni discovered it in 2018, only five practitioners remained. Between performance and gesture of preservation, Save the Last Dance for Me is simultaneously a celebration and a reunion — an invitation to witness, share and keep alive a tradition on the brink of disappearance.