Michele Rizzo

HIGHER xtn., a performance by choreographer Michele Rizzo (Italian, b. 1984), makes its US museum premiere at MoMA PS1. Featuring eight dancers whose minimal gestures coalesce into a unified flow, Rizzo connects collective movement in social spaces to rituals of quasi-religious worship. The artist consecrates PS1 with an open-floor set synchronized to a soundtrack by electronic musician Lorenzo Senni, ushering spiritual transcendence through rhythmic dance. Underscoring nightclubs as spaces for communion and catharsis, the premiere continues PS1’s commitment to dance, performance, and nightlife communities.

Michele Rizzo is a choreographer and visual artist based in Amsterdam. Trained in visual arts as well as dance, Rizzo studied at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam and at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam, where he often teaches choreography and movement research. Rizzo has participated in residencies at the International Choreographic Arts Centre in Amsterdam, Q21 Museum Quarter in Vienna, and Live Works Centrale Fies in Trento. His work has been presented and performed at venues and festivals including URB Festival, Helsinki; Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis; La Briqueterie, Paris; Santarcangelo Festival, Rimini; Short Theater, Rome; Festival DDD, Porto; CAMPO, Ghent; Triennale Teatro dell’Arte, Milan; and Actoral, Montreal.