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Spring of a Dancer

In his short film, Spring of a Dancer, Damiano Fina invites the audience to embark on a poetic and philosophical journey in which dance becomes the language of the invisible. Today, dancing in the face of wars, the perpetuation of violence and the questioning of acquired freedoms is an act of defiance. Damiano Fina reminds us that “even concrete can be conquered by flowers.” The central question of Damiano Fina’s film Spring of a Dancer proposes a search for meaning with respect to dance. The short film offers no easy answers, but immerses us in the sacred and transformative power of dance, seeking a taste for questioning rather than answering. Spring of a Dancer is not a film to watch, but a ritual to experience. At the heart of the short film resides a reflection that connects the questions humanity has been asking since the moment it turned its gaze to the stars and the eternal motions of the heavens.

  • Damiano Fina
    Director
  • Damiano Fina
    Writer
  • Damiano Fina
    Producer
  • Mirco Ferrazzi
    Producer
  • Damiano Fina
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Genres:
    Dance, Queer
  • Runtime:
    28 minutes 56 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 5, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    5,500 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Damiano Fina

Damiano Fina investigates the original meaning of eternity through philosophy and butoh dance. His academic and artistic research is influenced by the philosophy of Emanuele Severino, the philosophers of ancient Greece and butoh dance. His publications include: Spring of a Dancer (2025), Letters to My Mom: Grieving with Philosophy and Dance(2024) and The Dance of Eros and Thanatos: Butoh and Queer Pedagogy (2018). Listen to his podcasts on Spotify WADING and Spring of a Dancer.

Damiano Fina has performed in Paris, Berlin, London, New York, Japan, at various Italian festivals and regularly conducts dance workshops, during which he applies his philosophical research and artistic practice to the creation of workshops to cross the ridge that separates the world of “before” and the world of “after” with respect to mourning and trauma. Adopting an approach that can unite theoretical reflection with research through the body and movement, Damiano Fina involves in the experience of dance even people who have never danced, without limits of age or mobility.

In 2024 he teaches at the Master in Creative Arts Therapies at the University of Padua and participates in international conferences with his research on butoh dance and death education. He studied butoh dance with Atsushi Takenouchi and Yoshito Ohno. In 2023 he received his Master's degree in Death Studies & The End of Life from the University of Padua; in 2017 his Master's degree in Pedagogy of Expression from the University of Roma Tre; and in 2014 he completed his Master's degree in Economics and Management of the Arts from Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

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Director Statement

Spring of a Dancer is a hymn to the timeless rhythm that pulses through all things: the fire that gives birth to the stars. Invoking his prayer to the Sun, indifferent to our questions, the dancer sheds the skin of the mundane, echoing the ancient wisdom of the serpent: “If you remain under your skin, you miss most of what moves the heavens”.