ATERBALLETTO - FONDAZIONE NAZIONALE DELLA DANZA

BIOGRAPHIES

FONDAZIONE NAZIONALE DELLA DANZA
COMPAGNIA ATERBALLETTO

ATERBALLETTO is the principal producing and touring dance company in Italy. It is also the first permanent ballet-producing organisation apart from Opera House companies.

For ten years, from 1997 to 2007, the Company was under the artistic direction of MAURO BIGONZETTI. He started and developed his career as a performer and choreographer with Aterballetto. From 1982 to 1993, he stood out as one of the main soloists and accomplished his first choreographic works, which later led him to develop collaborations with prominent international companies. In February 2008 Mauro Bigonzetti became Aterballetto’s principal choreographer and Cristina Bozzolini succeeded Bigonzetti as artistic director.

At present, Aterballetto’s repertoire is composed of choreographies by Mauro Bigonzetti, Michele Abbondanza and Antonella Bertoni, Itzik Galili, and young European choreographers. It also includes ballets by international choreographers including William Forsythe and Jiri Kylian.

In 1991, Aterballetto became the Company of the Centro Regionale della Danza, the official association formed by the City of Reggio Emilia, the Region of Emilia-Romagna and ATER (Association of Theatres of Emilia Romagna). Centro Regionale della Danza developed its producing activity under the name Aterballetto, becoming a resource centre for the world of dance under every aspect: productions, promotions, tours, professional trainings, studies and researches. The centre became Centro della Danza in 2001 and Fondazione Nazionale della Danza in April 2003.

The foundation offers some of the most significant dance projects both regionally and nationally, making it unique in Italy. The most meaningful projects include the Professional Training Course for Young Dancers, ballet performances and a variety of projects promoting wider public interest and awareness of the world of dance.

Founded in 1979, the company was under the artistic direction of Amedeo Amodio for almost twenty years. During this period, Aterballetto built a comprehensive repertoire with works by Amedeo Amodio and major international choreographers including Glen Tetley, Alvin Ailey and Lucinda Childs. The company also owns the performing rights for major productions from the heritage of XX Century Dance History signed by George Balanchine, Kenneth McMillan, Antony Tudor, José Limon, Hans Van Manen, Leonide Massine, David Parsons, and Maurice Béjart.

Over the years, Aterballetto has collaborated with major choreographers, composers, set and costume designers, artists and actors. These associations have reinforced the quality of its repertoire. Aterballetto is mainly composed of solo dancers. All have been trained at an extremely high technical level and are capable of performing demanding roles in various dance styles. Aterballetto has gained wide recognition both nationally and internationally.

MAURO BIGONZETTI principal choreographer
Mauro Bigonzetti was born in Rome. He graduated at the Opera School in Rome and entered directly into the city’s company.
After ten years in Rome’s Opera, he joined Compagnia Aterballetto, in 1982-83, under the artistic direction of Amedeo Amodio. He performed in all the choreographies of the company’s repertoire and danced in many works by George Balanchine and Leonide Massine. His most significant collaborations were with Alvin Ailey, Glen Tetley, William Forsythe and Jennifer Muller.
In 1990, he created his first work Sei in movimento, set to the music by J.S. Bach, which made its debut at the Teatro Sociale in Grassina.
In 1992-93, he left Aterballetto and became a free lance choreographer. During this period, he developed a partnership with the Balletto di Toscana, which formed many Italian choreographers at the time.
He also worked with international companies including English National Ballet (London), Ballet National (Marseille), Stuttgarter Ballett, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Dresden, Ballet Teatro Argentino, Balè da Cidade de Sao Paulo (Brazil), Ballet Gulbenkian (Lisbon), New York City Ballet, State Ballet Ankara, Ballet du Capitole (Toulouse).
He also created ballets for Italian companies including the Ballets of Teatro alla Scala Milan, Opera Rome, Arena Verona, Teatro San Carlo Naples.
He worked with various artists including Claudio Parmiggiani, Fabrizio Plessi, Bruno Moretti, Elvis Costello, Danilo Grassi, Guglielmo Capone, Millar & Swandale, Roberto Tirelli, Fabrizio Montecchi, Nicola Lusuardi, Paride Bonetta, Helena Medeiros, Paolo Calafiore, Carlo Cerri, Beni Montresor, Massimo Castri, Lucia Socci.
From 1997 to 2007, he was Artistic Director of Compagnia Aterballetto under the chairmanship of Federico Grilli, with whom he collaborated to build a new repertoire and a new company. In 2008 he left the artistic direction to Cristina Bozzolini and became Aterballetto’s principal choreographer.
His most significant works for Aterballetto are Songs, Persephassa, Furia Corporis, Comoedia Canti, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cantata, Rossini Cards, Vespro, Les Noces, Psappha, WAM, Romeo and Juliet, InCanto dall’Orlando Furioso and Terra which are performed in the main theatres around the world.



Cristina Bozzolini artistic director

Born in Florence in 1943, she began studying dance at a very young age. She trained with Daria Collin, a prestigious Dutch teacher, who formed the first qualified generation of professional dancers in Florence.
In the 1960s, she refined her preparation at the Wacher Studios in Paris and at the International School in Cannes. At age sixteen she began working professionally at the main Italian theatres. She subsequently entered into the corps de ballet of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where she interpreted soloist roles and, in 1971, she became a prima ballerina.
From the mid 1970s, she established a long term relationship - based on an intense collaboration and common artistic aims - with the Maestro Eugène Polyakov, Director of the corps de ballet.
In 1969, she participated in the Spoleto Festival, in the famous Gala of the Teatrino delle Sei, organized by Alberto Testa, and she received the Positano Prize for Dance.
During her career as prima ballerina she performed important roles of the classical and modern repertoire, and often appeared with famous dancers including Nureyev, Barishnikov, Godunov, Bortoluzzi, Vassiliev, Russillo and Amodio.
Strongly committed to cultural politics and organization in her city, she founded in 1970, along with qualified Florentine cultural promoters, the Centro Studi Danza, which is today the Scuola del Balletto di Toscana. She devoted herself to the promotion and renewal of the teaching of dance emphasizing its importance from a social and cultural point of view.
In 1975, she formed the Collettivo Danza Contemporanea in Florence. In 10 years of activity, she increased both its production and quality through the participation of a qualified group of dancers from the corps de ballet of the Maggio Musicale Fiornetino and with the collaboration, from this moment onwards, of Riccardo Donnini, her partner in life and work.
In 1983, at age 40, she left the Teatro Comunale in Florence and devoted herself more intensely to teaching and choreography.
After ten years of important experiences with the Collettivo, she founded in 1985, the Balletto di Toscana, of which she was always artistic director.
Owing to the immediate and growing success of this ensemble and its high professional value, she received the Tersicore Prize from the Accademia Internazionale delle Muse in May 1987 and, once again, the Positano Prize for Dance. In 1989 and in 1993, the ensemble also received the Danza & Danza Prize, assigned by the homonymous specilized magazine.
From 1985 to 2000, the Balletto di Toscana was composed of solist dancers of the highest technical and expressive level. Its remarkable international repertoire included choreographies by Hans Van Manen, Nils Christe, Ed Wubbe, Cristopher Bruce, Angelin Preljocaj, and Cesc Gelabert along with works by the new generation of talented Italian choreographers including Fabrizio Monteverde, Mauro Bigonzetti, Virgilio Sieni, and Eugenio Scigliano.

With this notable artistic production the BdT appeared in the most prestigious Italian theatres and in numerous tours throughout Europe and around the world, and became reknown internationally.
At the end of the experience with the BdT, Cristina Bozzolini began a fusion with the Balletto di Roma and, in spring 2002, she accepted the co-direction of this historic Company. She rapidly lead this group of talented dancers to the highest standards in Italy. Along with this new role, she continued directing the School of the Balletto di Toscana in Florence, a prestigious center - of national importance - for professional training. She created qualified producion and professional training through the “Junior Balletto di Toscana” a Company for young dancers. After only three years of programming in major Italian Festivals and Theaters, this Company is appreciated and considered, both by critics and by the public, the new “feather in the cap” of Italian dance.
Thanks to her extensive teaching experience and her competence in highly specialized dance didactic, she is continuosly invited by various Dance School Directions - connected with the Federazione Nazionale delle Scuole di Danza (National Federation of Dance Schools) of AGIS, Associazione Generale Italiana dello Spettacolo (Italian Association for Performing Arts) - to teach in courses and masterclasses for teachers in numerous Italian regions.
Due to her high level of experience and of competence she was conferred the role of Didactic Director of the new specializing professional programs started in 2008 by the Fondazione Nazionale della Danza/Aterballetto. In February 2008 she assumed the Artistic direction of Compagnia Aterballetto.

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