AMANDA DONATO – ABOUT THE ANATOMY OF THOUGHT AND THE BODY AS A PURE EXPRESSION IN DIALOGUE.
Amanda Donato’s visual language feels Berlin. The minimalist monochrome of black, grey and midnight blue in her stage worlds is broken only by beams of light, a red rope detail – and the rawness of a moving body. Though this rawness, which is so instrumental, and the allegory to Berlin resist simple clichés that one might think of. Rather than coldness or darkness, her work insists that life continues to pulse regardless of circumstance. Inscribed into her choreography, it draws us to the granular: muscles articulating, repetition and rhythm conversing, exhaustion pushing the body forward. In our conversation, Donato reflects on her trajectory from Toronto to Berlin and on two seminal works, CUSP and A WAKE, considering a human condition suspended between states that feels highly topical. From personal lineage to a collective sensing of the present, she translates humanness into motion and tells us what performance can offer beyond the stage – leading us to our own bodily awareness to make space for community.
NISHA MERIT Your work explores cognitive patterns, migration histories, the relationship with the environment, and the contradictions of human experience – could you please put this in the context of yourself and your work?
AMANDA DONATO I’m the daughter of two immigrants from Argentina, with grandparents from Italy, and I’m an immigrant in Germany from Canada. Honouring this uprooting and bravery in my lineage is important to me. Migration can be so disturbing for the inner world and totally disrupt identity … or form it. My move was symbolic: a conscious dedication to my body of work. I’ve always been interested in the anatomy of thought, human behaviour and relationships – especially in performance where the body is pure expression in dialogue with its environment. I think it all intertwines in my work. It is this big web that forms my engine for creation and spans from my identity into proposing questions through choreography. In that, I am creating circumstances for performance without the pressure to answer or educate anyone on anything.
NM CUSP, 2024, feels eerily urgent in our current time: a moment of teetering on the precipice, a suspense in which the world is heading towards something that we don’t understand how it might turn out. What is the essence of this piece?
AD CUSP had a lot to do with this period in my life where I was trying to climb towards or out of something. There’s this palpable fear right now and, at the same time, there seems to be a desire to persevere. CUSP was quite personal because somehow I am always at the precipice of something or teetering – I never quite feel like I’m existing in stability. A lot of the visuals were inspired by mountain climbing, including the costumes styled by Nastya Klychkova using Shibari tying with climbing rope and double-sided clothing symbolising transition. The work ended up living on its own and unveiling itself. CUSP was about a feeling – an inevitable human state the performers tapped into. How can we continue to elevate ourselves with uncertainty?
NM A WAKE is dedicated to your grandmother – how do you translate memories, personal relationship, loss into movement?
AD A WAKE needed to be a continuation of her legacy. She was the matriarch of the family and she’s still living with very advanced Alzheimer’s. It’s complicated to watch someone you love disappear. She was such a powerful, strong woman. Creating it was intense, I wrote a lot and did a lot of research. I went to Italy and visited her hometown of Teggiano to feel the soil. I learned how to make fresh pasta like she did, and translated working with dough into the final act of the solo on a wooden board that I carried like a casket. The choreography was used as an entry point, and as I kept develop- ing the piece, I had to shed the layers of the structure to embody it. How do I tell this story? How do I give myself the room to process this grief and escape into specific memories or situations? How do I get as close as possible to her with this work?
I like classical research, perception, and cognitive behavioural theory in psychology. With my performance work, I see it as a collection of data.
NM Your aesthetic is minimalist; it focuses on the source of the movement – the body, the muscles, the rhythm and repetition. What are your reference points?
AD It’s interesting because I try not to consciously curate the aesthetic. Inevitably, it’s going to be factored in, but the priority is that it feels authentic. The anchor and the point of reference is the body. I’m such a dance purist. I love classical movement and foundation, and I love articulation and detail and muscular control and rhythm. I’m so obsessed with dance as an art form. So inevitably, that’s always the starting point. My movement style stems from personal experiences, interactions, different genres of dance, and observations fused together – as well as music, films, fashion and literature. I think this is why the body is so incredible, because it’s its own universe and it has its own pockets of memory: the perfect holder of these residues. My aesthetic is intuitive, where I am usually deducting rather than adding. It might start maximalist and then it goes razor-sharp.
NM You studied psychology and you work with the method of bodily awareness. How does it influence your performance work? Are there specific overlaps or intersections?
AD I like classical research, perception, and cognitive behavioural theory in psychology. With my performance work, I see it as a collection of data, processing with my analytical mind, and allowing things to drop back down into the intelligent body or intuition. It’s also an imperfect science, acknowledging room for error and challenging its own theories. I would consider myself a very sensitive per- son, so I feel a lot of energy. I can tell when I’m in a space where my body reacts – especially as a woman – by subconsciously shrinking. I’m always aware of the composition and hierarchies of bodies in a space – who’s shrinking, who’s expanding, who feels like they have more permission to say something or to insert themselves? When I work with performers, I have a responsibility to be receptive to energies and take care of what I’m proposing.
All Photography by Michel Comte.
NM What can performance teach us in such an uncertain time?
AD What comes to mind first is this absolute presence. Performance is constantly teaching me that everything we need is right here. It’s with each other. There’s a certain vulnerability and expression in the work that I’m interested in – especially in a world that aims to numb. Right now, it feels vital to stay connected and to keep listening to each other as individuals and as collective entities.
AMANDA DONATO and MICHEL COMTE are further collaborating on a continuously evolving performance CHAOS, which premieres in April 2026 and is based on Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Inspired by a work by Brandon Oliver Comte, who lost his battle with a rare illness, each iteration is shaped through pure emotion and sound, performed by Donato. This also marks the first time Comte explores live performance within his oeuvre.
CREDITS
Creative Production HANNES AECHTER, JOHANNA ERDL
Photography Assistant DAVID JÄGER
Photography MICHEL COMTE
Styling SARAH MASCHE
Hair and Makeup DARJA CRAINIUCENCO using BYREDO, ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS & ORIBE
Production Assistant AMINA ZEROUROU
Videographer DAVID VOSS
Equipment 711RENT BERLIN
Dress NICOLE KIESEL
Dress ANTONIA HORENBURG
Dress BLUMARINE
Top and Skirt ANTONIA HORENBURGSLEEK
Rings PILGRIM RIGHT
Jacket LAURA OBST