Illness & Healing
Developing and directing research at the crossroads of arts and health
Transforming Illness Experience
a co-creative dance practice for young cancer survivors
The project investigates how co-creative dance practices can transform the lived experience of young cancer survivors.
By bridging medical humanities, dance and performance studies, and participatory research, the project explores embodiment, presence, and movement as pathways to healing and awareness.
The project is sponsored by The Danish Cancer Society (KBVU-MS) with DKK 1,290,000 and
Helsefonden with DKK 300,000
Resisting the Patient Body
A decade of illness transformed through the language of dance
Cinematic version of the video essay Resisting the ‘Patient’ Body: A Phenomenological Account published in the Journal of Embodied Research
Can a creative, embodied approach help us cope with the trauma of illness? This visual exploration applies a phenomenological lens and autoethnographic analysis to the lived experience of cancer, reimagining the “cancer event” through a performative perspective. Drawing on ten years of onco-hematological treatments and video dance performances, the video essay weaves together images and footage to show how dance and performative practices can open pathways for transformation.
Written, Performed and Narrated by Sarah Pini
Filmed and Edited by Ruggero Pini
Pini, S., & Pini, R. (2019). Resisting the ‘Patient’ Body: A Phenomenological Account. Journal of Embodied Research, 2(1), 2 (20:05). DOI: http://doi.org/10.16995/jer.11
INFINITO
The Art of Living Through Illness
A series of dance short films created by siblings Sarah and Ruggero Pini, blending movement, cinema, and memory.
Born from a cancer diagnosis, Infinito transforms pain into poetry — each episode is a visual metaphor of Sarah’s experience of living with illness over ten years.
An intimate story of resilience, love, and the healing power of art.
Abisso
An underwater journey through illness and rebirth.
Abisso is an experimental short film co-directed with Sarah Pini.
Through underwater videodance, it explores the relationship between body, illness, and transformation — turning fragility into movement and silence into presence.
The film was selected in international festivals across Europe, Asia, and Australia, and awarded the CHASS Australia Prize.
Corpi in Cucina
Kitchen Bodies
From the intimacy of the kitchen emerges Kitchen Bodies — a visual and performative exploration of gesture, memory, and presence around food.
A multidisciplinary project blending video, movement, and culinary rituals to reflect on the body as both tool and storyteller.
Co-created with Sarah Pini — performer, researcher, and sibling collaborator.