Doctors sure are annoying, as they pretend to know what you need in order to fix a certain ailment. Headache? Aspirin. Toothache? More aspirin. PMS? Sorry, you’re a woman and you’re supposed to suffer. Thankfully, contemporary art -through contemporary ballet, this time- can heal pretty much anything and without any prescription: you just have to walk into a theater and enjoy the show. It will be therapeutic 100% of the times. 

VITAMINAS, by spaniard Maria Casales Gonzalez (choreographer and dancer) and romanian Alexandra Surugiu (costumes), is no snake oil: its mission is to do good, and it does. It’s a carefree, lightweight ballet that prompts the audience to laugh and enjoy themselves without the stigma of being judged: displaying positive emotions in public is not socially acceptable. Especially in the english-speaking universe.

There is something liberating in following Maria and Laureline’s energetic and serene movements, emphasized by loose-fitting clothes which seem designed to take you to the beach in absolute style and comfort. Dressed as such, they play an endless game that comes in many versions and that we all have played back when we were little: it may look childish, however nothing is childish within the walls of a theater, that hidden space in which spectators go in the hope to free their fantasies. And contemporary art is the media that can turn those fantasies into something real.

Maria and Laureline’s space then morphs into a playground, a volume filled by the reenactment of a perennial childhood. Lighted up by the same blinding light that can be found down to Madrid, the time seems to have stopped, stuck into a summer’s midday: it’s a sinister atmosphere as the spectator fells that there isn’t an escape, yet it looks like a shelter from the burden of everyday anxiety. On a brighter note, Maria and Laureline leave the stage with a precise direction in mind, that could take them to adulthood or professional maturity. 

VITAMINAS is sense awakening and is the right med to make everyone smile, nonetheless it shows how clothes can have an impact on our mood; on a subtle level, I can say that this show challenges fashion blogs’ authority, guilty of pushing pretty much everyone to follow a standardized brand of fashion. Alexandra, the stylist, created the collection that includes Maria and Laureline’s pieces, carefree clothes that want to take you to the seaside instead of a catwalk: comfort and simplicity don’t belong to today’s mainstream fashion. Crop top shirts and stretchy trunks painted with pastel shades should be included in everyone’s summer wardrobe, however it should be perfectly fine to wear them even in a grey city like Milano.

VITAMINAS is a medicine and a total work of art, in which any piece of the puzzle belongs to the realm of contemporary art: anything is possible and any means of expression are accepted in the quest of bringing a new harmony and a new sense of well-being on Earth. VITAMINAS then is the right pill to start the week with, but at the same time is the expression of how the Y Generation thinks to heal this ill society: once upon a time doctors used to prescribe direct sunlight, outdoor activities and sports to weakened city kids, which is almost the same prescription dispensed by the creators of VITAMINAS. 

Once again art defeats science, steer into a theater and you’ll feel good again. Especially if  VITAMINAS is playing.

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