Created via online collaboration process between Italy and South Africa, and filmed in March 2021, Des/Aria is one musician and one dancer in conversation. 

Des /Aria features an original composition by Luca Ciarla, with choreography by Louise Coetzer, and is performed by dancer Tania Mteto with videography by Oscar O’Ryan. Made possible through support from the National Lotteries Commission and produced by Luca Ciarla Volipiano & Darkroom Contemporary.

In May 2020 Italian violinist Luca Ciarla was invited by the Melbourne Jazz Festival to perform for “These Digital Times”, the alternative online series which replaced their annual festival. With the support of the Italian Cultural Institute of Melbourne, Luca Ciarla presented his solo act called solOrkestra, in which the violin alchemist creates music with a loop pedal and the support of his voice, a gran piano and electronics. Des/Aria was actually one of the pieces he played, spontaneously and fully improvised. On a simple piano ostinato he created a bass line, altering the violin with an octaver (which lets you play one octave lower), dubbed by his voice, then improvised a solo over it. “I was captured by that simple idea on the piano and the violin improvisation came up naturally. After the concert I immediately imagined a dancer interpreting it and thought about sending it to Louise for her feedback. That’s how Des/Aria had its birth”. Regarding the collaboration with South African dancer and choreographer Louise Coetzer and Darkroom Contemporary, in 2018 both artists where invited to perform and work together in Johannesburg at The Center for the Less Good Idea, an amazing creative space founded by visual artist icon William Kentridge.