When did you decide to make dance your professional career?

I started studying dance at the age of 6 and fell in love with it. I know it may sound strange but it was love at first sight, at that moment I had already decided that I would dedicate myself body and soul to dance. I have always had great determination mixed with stubbornness and this has given me the ability to always go forward, even in the most difficult moments.

How do you balance your various projects since you are both an artist and a professor ?

It’s not easy, I admit. Sometimes I would need 48-hour days to get everything done! Over time, I have become very good at organising my days in order to carry on each thing in parallel. Normally my weeks are planned in this way: afternoons and evenings are dedicated to my students’ classes, mornings and weekends are for my art projects.
I believe it is essential to keep up to date, to work on my own or with other artists to continue to explore the contemporary scene. It’s the only way I really can give my students the best because everything I teach is the result of my current artistic research.

What was the first work of art that really mattered to you? Did it influence your approach to your work?

It was 2005 and I was approached by a young German dancer and choreographer . She was in Rome to study and was looking for dancers to develop a dance/theatre project of her own. I accepted immediately, even though I already knew that I would have to work on myself, on new artistic aspects, sometimes strong and embarrassing: she asked me to put myself on the line, to bare my most intimate side and to work in a different way.

I challenged myself and discovered that I had other skills besides those of a dancer: even though I never spoke on stage, I began to work on my interpretative, almost acting skills. It was difficult and intense but beautiful, I am so grateful to have had this opportunity!
Certainly this work has left a strong impact on me and a desire to continue working on myself as fully as possible.

How do you create your dance expression? Is there a particular process to it?

The creative process does not always start in the same way. Sometimes I have been inspired by real-life characters who particularly intrigued me, sometimes by concrete concepts observing reality around me and sometimes by strong changes I have faced that have generated emotional upheaval.

In all these situations I always analyze what I feel inside and try to slowly translate my emotions into movement. A first phase is therefore dedicated to improvisation and exploration, then I try to fix the most interesting moments and from those start again to structure the actual choreography.

The choice of music is not always primary, sometimes it comes after an initial creative phase.

It is also very important for me to refer to any kind of documentation on the topic I intend to develop: interviews, videos, readings, biographies, pictures and so on…

To what extent does the pandemic influence your depiction of art? Does it generate new inspiration?

 

Certainly the pandemic has disrupted the way many people work, especially artists.

At the beginning, I confess I experienced it badly, I felt displaced, isolated, without any certainty: everything I had built up over many years with a lot of patience and sacrifice was wiped out in a few days.

At first I felt only frustration… but then I started to perceive everything as a great opportunity, even if with many difficulties.

New ways of working, new approaches, new ideas, new exchanges, a new big “flow” to enter and create in.
The big news for me was to deepen and develop IT and technology skills so as not to fall behind, a field where I had never invested too much time and interest. Surprisingly, I found out that I don’t handle it too badly, I like working that way too.

I also re-evaluated the importance of social media to share work content faster.

How do you feel about being involved in an online residency program?

How important is it to stay connected with the international art community?

 An online art residency is a great opportunity because it allows many artists from all over the world to get to know each other faster.

Technology should be used to connect new forms of art, exchange and dialogue. To stay in touch with as many artists as possible is important and I consider it a privilege, I always feel enriched when I have the opportunity to engage with others and listen to their point of view, their experience, their artistic-creative process.

Already after the first online meetings I felt new ideas and new stimulation coming, I needed suggestion and feedback.

What are your thoughts about the theme ‘artist on standby’?

Tell us a bit more about your project…

 I find the theme of the residency really pertinent to my state of mind over the past year and a half, I have been living in a perpetual feeling of hovering, suspended… but living suspended can be a beautiful feeling, only if you are not on the edge of a precipice.
Suspended time is that time which frightens, which immobilises, but it is also the time necessary for healing.

Standby has not always a negative meaning, it might be time for reflection on what is important, on what is essential. A pause to look inside ourselves and unblock the stopped gear, a stasis that can actually be renewal.
I intend to proceed with the creation of my performance based on the concepts of ‘play and pause’, working on key words that have profoundly marked my life and on the material that the other artists in residence will provide me to get new input and points of view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you want to achieve before things return to normal if it is to happen? 

Any future plans/projects?

 

I sincerely think that after the pandemic, things will never be the same again and if I have to be honest, it doesn’t scare me; on the contrary, the new has always fascinated me.

I always have a lot of ideas in my head and I want to realise them all, as they are both performance and teaching projects.

I would like to address the theme of this online residency also in dedicated workshops.
I hope this residency is the starting point for a wider project where I can also involve other artists.