Wanda Moretti
A choreographer and researcher, her dance studies focus on systems of proportion and the harmony of the space. She is one of the pioneers of vertical dance in Europe in the 1990s, developing and spreading this practice before creating a specialist technique and creating performances in which space and movement merge in a single scene. In particular, her artistic project concerns the relationship with the architecture and the landscape, the dance insinuating itself in any vertical environment and conversing with it, adding a value that completes the actual place. Parallel to this is her research on how the structured space influences human movement. Her vertical dance performances have taken place at numerous festivals and various national and international events.
In 1994, she and the musician Marco Castelli founded the Compagnia Il Posto in Venice. Since 2000 Moretti has focused her attention on site-specific creations for historical and museum sites. Ideal spaces for reflecting on the past and the future, for emotional explorations and experimentations, these spaces have acted as catalysers of the choreographer’s new artistic direction, in which the relationship with the place is of primary importance. Parallel to her choreographic work, she has also done personal research into the educational potential of dance in a social and extracurricular setting.
In 2002, she won the third Museum Education Competition run by the Veneto Regional Government with her project Le arti visive attraverso il corpo e il movimento (visual arts through the body and movement). She carries out educational activities, training courses and workshops for museums and other entities, and for many years has run a research programme working with prisoners in Venice’s women’s prison, developing a dance education pilot project that is the only one of its kind in Italy, working alongside the Ministry of Justice, the Veneto Regional Government and DES – the National Dance Education Association. She is registered with the Albo Nazionale Danzeducatori® (National Dance Educators Institute). In 2007 and 2008 she was a lecturer at the Faculty of Design and Art at the University of Architecture in Venice. Since 2008 she has worked on the M.Ed. in Theatre through Art Education; in 2011, she worked on the M.A. in Pedagogic Actions and Interactions through Narration and Theatrical Education at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, in Milan. She was a lecturer at the Faculty of Communication and Art Education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino from 2010 to 2011. She occasionally works with the Faculty of Motor Sciences at the University of Padua.
In 2010, she created the International Vertical Dance Network, which unites the most important companies in the world, a project presented on website.
In 2011, she created and developed Vertical Suspension Training®, a teaching method for dancers on a vertical plane. Since 2012 she has started a collaboration with the Ca Foscari University in Venice, courses in Design and Innovation Management and in Economics and Management of Arts and Cultural Activities.
In 2015 she created "Habitat Verticali" for the opening of the EXPO in Milan for Cascina Triulza Foundation and again in 2015 she realized the choreographies of the vertical roles of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" for the muscovite Company Ogennie. Among the most successful creations she realized "Kinetic" in 2009 on commission of ENEL, "Exuvia" in 2010 from Teatro Cargo and Genova Festival, "Atto Bianco" (2012) Kuopio International Festival, "Little Nemo" (2014) International Festival of Bangkok, in 2015 opening of the Venice Carnival "Molto Tesa" on the Tese Cinquecentesche of the Venice Arsenal, "Forme Uniche" in 2016 Invisibles Cities Festival of Gorizia, "Sonora Lux", Teatro Politeama of Lecce. In 2017 "The Hill Sphere" aerial dance creation with 6 dancers suspended on a crane and "Full Wall" commission from Roma Europa Festival. In 2018 #Verdinaria on commission from Teatro Regio di Parma for the opening of the Verdi Festival. Her work has been performed in Italy, Portugal, Morocco, Lithuania, Thailand, Ireland, Croatia, Denmark, Norway, Greece, Botswana, Qatar, England, Slovenia, Macedonia, Ireland, Finland, Bulgaria, Brazil, Germany, Vietnam, Japan, Hong Kong, etc.
Over the years, the artistic research has been developing around themes related to inclusion and participation such as the show "Hill's Sphere" and social issues with "The Giant" and "Stuck! Opera on the wall" commision by Macerata Opera Festival and the more recent LoveBar an adaptation from Carlo Goldoni's "La Bottega del Caffè," a winning project of 'Goldoni 400,' works that use innovative methodologies that place the body and movement as primary means of knowledge but also strongly oriented to the happenings and facts of our time and civic life.
Moretti is founder member of Vertical Dance Forum composed by 7 European and Canadian Vertical dance companies aims to strength capacity and visibility of the vertical dance. Vertical Dance Forum is Co-funded (2017-2019) by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.
Annually she conducts training workshops for dancers and international research on vertical dance. Moretti continues with her creations on vertical surfaces and architecture, and publishes texts and articles on vertical dance and the possibilities of learning through the body in movement in relation to the space that surrounds us.
In 2018 at the end of one part of her research “The Routes of Vertical Dance”, she has began to disseminate the results in public lectures “First Generation: origin and history”, In 2020 “Moon and the Movement” she is currently engaged in “Reason” the final parts of the research.
In 2022 he published "Vertical Dance: creating and perceiving space" for Edizioni Ephemeria, Macerata, Italy co-written with Kate Lawrence and with a preface by Margaret Wilson.
She has always been interested in the principles of choreography organization, in the last twenty years Wanda Moretti has proposed new approaches to documentation, research and teaching of vertical dance.
www.ilposto.org
www.verticaldancecompany.com
www.verticaldanceroutes.com