Wanda Moretti
A choreographer and researcher, her dance studies focus on systems of proportion and the harmony of the space. She is the first dancer in Italy to have undertaken vertical dance in 1990, 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 www.ilposto.org 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. She participated in the first Training Course for Dance Educators run by the Centro Mousikè in Bologna together with the History of Dance sector of DAMS University of Bologna and Aterballetto.
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 verticaldancecompany.com
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 Department of Management of 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, Finland, Bulgaria, Brazil, Germany, etc.
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.
From 2018 she began to disseminate the results of her research on the origins of vertical dance through public lectures, articles, podcasts.
Annually she conducts training workshops for dancers and international research on vertical dance. Moretti continues with her creations on vertical surfaces and architecture and the possibilities of learning through the body in movement in relation to the space that surrounds us.
www.ilposto.org
www.verticaldanceroutes.com
www.verticaldancecompany.com