The 18th Cracovia Danza Court Dance Festival

Romana Agnel – dancer, choreographer, art historian, founder of the only professional Court Ballet in Poland – Ardente Sole, currently the Managing and Artistic Director of the Cracovia Danza Court Ballet – the Municipal Institution of Culture.

Romana Agnel is an alumna of the Community Ballet School (studio of Prof. Marta Mirocka) in Krakow. She acquired her skills in the area of character dance as well as historic dance in Paris (Le Ballet Légendaire d’lle de France, Le Bal Paré, 7th Conservatory, Thěâtre Baroque de France). Romana Agnel deepened her interest in dance by becoming acquainted with its Indo-European roots. She first studied Bharata Natyam under Vidya at the Mandapa Centre in Paris to continue her education in India: she spent a year in Madras as a student of the renowned M. K. Saroja’s. She completed a degree in the art history faculty at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Romana Agnel received 2nd prize at the Parisian La Scéne Française competition, in the area of character dance technique and she was honored with the Zofia Rayzacher prize at the 9th Early Music Festival at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

She was the only Polish Bharata Natyam dancer to be invited to the 5th Videshi Kalakar Utsav festival and seminar of music and dance for artists from outside India. She also presented her solo recital at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in New Delhi as part of a celebration of the Republic Day of India, organised by the Indo-Polish Cultural Committee. She has performed extensively all around Europe, including Paris, where she took part in performances by the Indian Ensemble “Tilak”. She has also toured many Polish towns and cities. She starred in “Around the Worlds in Eighty Days” directed by J. Polewka at the Groteska Puppet, Mask and Actor Theatre in Krakow and was the author of the choreography and stage movement. For many years she has been preparing and taking part in performances organised by the Indo-Polish Cultural Committee in Krakow to celebrate Diwali and Holi festivals. She appears in numerous television broadcasts, in which she presents fragments of her Bharata Natyam recitals, thus bringing the Polish audience closer to Indian culture and dance.

As a choreographer and dancer, she collaborates with Krakow theatres, the Warsaw Chamber Opera, the Royal Castle in Warsaw and many other institutions in Poland and abroad. She teaches classes in historical dance at the Academy of Music in Krakow and Lodz. Moreover she runs many courses and workshops in her areas of specialization.

She has had occasion many times to work with illustrious personalities of the music and ballet worlds. As choreographer, co-director and dancer, she has participated in the preparation of opera/ ballet performances under the direction of Jean-Claude Malgoire. She has also presented historical dance with the accompaniment of distinguished virtuosos: Jaap Ter Linden (Baroque cello) and Kenneth Weiss (harpsichord).

GLORIA GIORDANO – RESUME

She has a degree in Pedagogy and graduated from the National Academy of Dance in Rome, where she has taught Dance Theory from 1986 to 2004.

Furthered her study of Renaissance and Baroque Dance in France and America abroad with, among others, Christine Bayle, Angene Feves, Francine Lancelot, Barbara Sparti, Ana Yepes. She performs regularly with Italian and foreign companies active in this field, and has participated in numerous festivals in Italy and abroad. Her present activities and professional interests include research, interpretation of original manuals of the period, and choreographic reconstruction, staged productions of historical music and dance. She has created choreography for operas, collaborating with, among others, the directors Stefano Vizioli, Vera Bertinetti and Domenico De Martino.

Participates in international conferences, publishes essays in specialized journals including “La danza italiana”, “Chorégraphie”, “Dance Chronicle”, “Dance Research”, in collected works and edit headings for Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani. She has been invited to host theoretic-practice conferences on the dance of the XVI-XVIII century at various Music Conservatories, in Italy and abroad (among others: Roma, Frosinone, La Spezia, Lipsia, Mosca). Teaches historical dance at dance schools and musical associations, since 2001 directs the Laboratory of historical dance in Rome Corti in Festa, and since 2003 teaches French dance of the seventeenth and eighteenth century to the International Early Music Course in Urbino.

In 2005 edited the publication in facsimile of the manuscript Balletti of Gaetano Grossatesta (Venice, 1726), for Libreria Musicale Italiana (L.I.M.).
www.gloriagiordano.it

CURRICULUM DI GLORIA GIORDANO

Laureata in Pedagogia si è diplomata presso l’Accademia Nazionale di Danza, dove è docente di Teoria della danza dal 1986 al 2004.
Si è perfezionata nello studio della danza rinascimentale e barocca in Francia e in America con maestri di fama internazionale, tra i quali: Christine Bayle, Angene Feves, Francine Lancelot, Barbara Sparti, Ana Yepes. Co-fondatrice, nel 1985, della “Compagnia di Danza La Follia” (dir. F. Sparapani, Firenze) con la quale ha collaborato per dieci anni, nel corso della sua attività è stata invitata a danzare nelle compagnie italiane e straniere attive nel settore, esibendosi in numerosi festival in Italia e all’estero. Si dedica alla ricerca, all’interpretazione dei manuali dell’epoca e alla ricostruzione coreografica, realizzando spettacoli di musica e danza antica, in collaborazione con affermati solisti e ensembles specializzati nel repertorio rinascimentale e barocco.

Ha firmato coreografie per il teatro d’opera, collaborando tra gli altri con i registi Vera Bertinetti, Domenico De Martino e Stefano Vizioli. Ha curato le coreografie per la prima esecuzione di opere mai rappresentate in Italia quali The Devil and Daniel Webster di Douglas Moore e Casanova's homecoming di Dominick Argento con la regia di Stefano Vizioli. Ha composto coreografie per balli e spettacoli operistici di epoca pre-barocca e barocca, tra cui: Chi soffre speri (C. Mazzocchi, V. Marazzoli), Il Ballo delle Ingrate (C. Monteverdi), Acis e Galathea e Terpsichore (G.F. Händel), Dido and Aeneas (H. Purcell).

Partecipa a convegni internazionali, pubblica saggi in opere collettive e su riviste specializzate fra cui “La danza italiana”, “Chorégraphie”, “Dance Chronicle”, “Dance Research”, e cura voci per il Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani.
È stata invitata a tenere conferenze teorico-pratiche presso Università e Conservatori di Musica in Italia e all’estero (tra gli altri: Roma, Frosinone, La Spezia, Lipsia, Mosca). Docente di danza antica presso scuole di danza e associazioni musicali, dal 2001 dirige il Laboratorio di danza antica Corti in Festa di Roma e dal 2003 insegna Danza Francese del XVII e XVIII secolo al Corso Internazionale di Musica Antica di Urbino.

Nel 2005 ha curato la pubblicazione in facsimile con cd rom, del manoscritto dei Balletti di Gaetano Grossatesta (Venezia, 1726) per la casa editrice Libreria Musicale Italiana (L.I.M.).
www.gloriagiordano.it