Have you ever tried to blindfold your eyes and do, this way, what you usually do while seeing (e.g. eating, walking, etc.)? I experienced this sensation some years ago, for a few hours, and, after the initial discomfort and disorientation, I can say I lived a truly unique experience. But, at that time, I didn’t tried to dance “in the dark”. I remembered by chance that experience reading on a magazine the story of Elena Travaini and of the “blindly dancing”, the method she invented to nurture her strong passion for dance beyond the limits that, according to most people, she would be supposed to suffer due to the retina cancer she’s been living with since her birth and that has made her almost blind. Probably, many of us saw her performing, together with her companion, Anthony Carollo, in the last season of “Ballando con le stelle” (“Dancing with the stars”, ndt), the show broadcasted by Rai1 and dedicated, precisely, to dance. Elena and Anthony, furthermore, will be starring in the short film “Blurred”, which will be presented at the next cinema festival in Berlin.

What is, exactly, the “blindly dancing”? The answer is easy: as the word itself suggests, is a dance in the dark, where dancers are blindfolded, so that they can focus, while dancing, on their own bodies, feelings and emotions. This way, visually impaired and sighted dancers can dance together and fully share the dancing experience. Through this method, in addition to discover themselves and connect with their deepest emotions and feelings, they also learn to rely on the one they’re dancing with and “listen” to him. That’s why the “blindly dancing” is often used also to raise awareness towards bullying, that, after all, arises precisely from the inability to empathize with the others, with who lives situations or conditions we don’t know.

Elena and Anthony have founded a non-profit organization, in order to let blindly dancing be known all over Italy and Europe, together with its deeper message: there are no insuperable borders, if you let your sensations and passions guide you, opening up to the others.