KOMOCO / SOFIA NAPPI
BIOGRAPHIES
Komoco is a young Italian dance company, initially created by the collaboration between two sisters linked by a passion for art: Sofia Nappi, choreographer and dancer, and Alice Nappi, violinist and composer. The name derives from the crasis of two terms: “Komorebi”, a Japanese term which means “the sunlight that filters through the leaves of the trees” - an image that expresses a state of mind, a fleeting sensation, like the rays of the sun filter through the leaves of the trees of a forest, like the pleasure of a dance that overwhelms and, once finished, leaves a feeling of inebriation and warmth - and "Collaboration", on which the company project is based, in fact the dancers are involved in a dialogue of co-creation and continuous research, where the different backgrounds enrich the work making it peculiar and unique.
In 2022 Komoco was established as an association based in Florence by Sofia Nappi, artistic director, with her closest dancers and collaborators: Paolo Piancastelli and Adriano Popolo Rubbio. It is precisely the meeting with the two dancers in 2020, and the beginning of the collaboration with the Sosta Palmizi Association (historic production reality linked to contemporary art dance based in Cortona directed by Raffaella Giordano and Giorgio Rossi) that give the start of the artistic/productive and educational activity of the company: the productions and workshops organized in Italy and abroad immediately received a great following and recognition. The company first short works won important international awards, soon followed by the first international co-productions. Komoco is now on tour with choreographic projects signed by Nappi (quintet IMA and PUPO, a work for 7 dancers), and continues to grow on a qualitative and structural level, performing in the most important theaters and festivals of the world contemporary dance scene.
The company's production activity, aimed at the creation and international circulation of contemporary dance shows, is also accompanied by training activity, carried out by Nappi for several years throughout the world (Italy, Holland, France, Spain, Belgium, Israel, Mexico, Serbia...) together with its dancers and closest collaborators, open to professional dancers but also to non-movers and amateurs who want to get involved and approach movement. Komoco's mission is in fact to generously share its art with a vast and heterogeneous audience to bring people closer to contemporary dance through shows, training and entertainment activities open to all. Since 2022 Komoco has also been organizing its intensive workshops in Florence (Winter Intensive and Summer Intensive) open to professional dancers.
Sofia Nappi is choreographer and artistic director of KOMOCO, a contemporary dance company based in Italy and active internationally, that she co-founded alongside her first muses, Adriano Popolo Rubbio and Paolo Piancastelli.
Right from the start, Sofia's early creations with KOMOCO have won prestigious awards: the Partner Introdans Award (Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition 2021) and the 1st Prize, Critics Award, and Production Award at the 35th International Choreography Competition Hannover from the Tanja Liedtke Foundation and Marco Goecke (2021).
Currently KOMOCO's works, choreographed by Sofia, are presented in Italy and internationally, with tours across Europe as well as Mexico, Canada, and Serbia, hosted by international institutions and festivals such as: La Biennale di Venezia, The Albania Meeting Dance Festival, RomaEuropa Festival, MASDANZA, Colours International Dance Festival, Teatros del Canal and Madrid en Danza, Danse Danse (Montreal), Belgrade Dance Festival, to name a few.
As an independent choreographer, Sofia also creates new works for internationally renowned dance companies and theaters: in 2021, she re-staged Holelah with the National Theatre Mannheim, originally created for the 2019 Venice Biennale; in 2023, Tagadà at Staatsoper Hannover, Moving Cloud for Scottish Dance Theatre, premiered as part of Celtic Connections 2023, and the inclusive project Kemet commissioned by the Dutch national company Introdans as part of the HubClub'23 project. In 2024, she choreographed the stage movements for the opera Platée at Göteborg Opera and presented the creation Hara for Nederlands Dans Theater 2 as part of the Up & Coming Choreographers project. In 2025, Sofia will create new works for Leipzig Ballet, Gauthier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart, and Ballet BC in Vancouver. In 2026 she will restage Tagadà with Introdans and create a new evening for KOMOCO.
In parallel, Sofia Nappi’s work extends into research and professional training at an international level (including Tisch - New York University, Micadanses at Carreau du Temple in Paris, Henny Jurriëns Studio in Amsterdam, b12 and Share Intensive in Berlin, Elephant and the Black Box in Madrid, Tanzpunkt Hannover, Ecole de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal, Opus Ballet in Florence, etc.), in close collaboration with the dancers of KOMOCO. Since 2022, she has organized the “Komoco Intensive” workshop in Florence twice a year, attended by professional dancers from all over the world.
Sofia graduated from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York; her training has also been strongly influenced by close contact with Hofesh Shechter Dance Company and her study of Gaga, the movement language developed by renowned choreographer Ohad Naharin.