Co-creating a space and an artistic path among people who, at a first glance, are very different from each other. This was one of the first challenges that Gender Bender / Il Cassero LGBTI+ Center took on with the project Performing Gender – Dancing In Your Shoes, in which Simona Bertozzi and Aristide Rontini | Nexus Factory were involved between November 2021 and September 2022. The experience in weaving relationships inside a community – that has been gained in many years of activism and cultural policies – faces the ultimate test: the challenge is giving birth to a group of people without identity labels that is able to create for themselves the glue that sticks them together. Therefore, in the first stage of the project the ambitious goal was to question ourselves on identities – those that are personal to each participant and the social ones that some of us shared – asking ourselves what really brings us closer – is it “identicalities” or common visions, enriched and not limited by the diversity within the group. In order to nourish this debate, in the first few months the door was open for anybody to enrol in the workshops, that were hosted in different spaces throughout the city of Bologna and in collaboration with many associations, so that people from the most diverse backgrounds could participate. An open space in which one could experiment physical practices, dances, and – say – a longer prospective on sharing without being productive. In time, a group of people has bonded, one that was always open to welcome new participants and share how it is possible to stay together in a safe space. The language of dance, the physical practices that were proposed, and the attention to any specificity within the group were the common ground in which everyone could be free and aware of their body and self-expression. The workshops in this process were led by Simona Bertozzi, Daniele Ninarello and Aristide Rontini, who over the months led the participants in refining a way of listening that was sensitive to themselves, the others, and the group as a community. Other pivotal moments of this journey were also the opportunities for meeting up outside the workshops, such as watching shows together, the group’s participating in the Pride parade in Bologna, and, in September 2022, attending on a regular basis the performances of Gender Bender Festival and participating in the Performing Gender – Dancing In Your Shoes Summer Camp. The latter was also a chance to meet the other international artists of the project, and get to know through them the experiences the other involved communities had gained – also by living the space of the festival and sharing physical practices, group performances, dinners and parties.