Juliet´s Dogs is a chamber piece composed for Motocontrario Ensemble and premiered in Festival Contrasti Italy 2024.

The title is inspired by the setting of Romeo and Juliet´s Verona, close to Trento and the rhythm and patterns of the barks of street dogs in Maadi, Cairo, which I heard during my summer in Egypt. If Juliet represents a figure, the dogs are seen as the everyday, indifferent entities witnessing daily events, like gossiping, observing women or gravediggers, witnessing all actions without the ability to intervene, without a voice to influence, only their barking shouts. They embrace peoples suffering without suffering, they are the suffering. They embody the suffering that no one cares about or is comfortable confronting. If Juliet represents the individualistic, the dogs represent the collective observation. In this piece they allude to their own knowledge and frustration, to Juliet and to their continued existence.

The piece explores performativity for the ensemble, through notated movements, voice and the individuals within the collective.