Esercizi di fantastica

Giorgio Rossi
As E. Satie would probably say, “he is a dancing mammal”. At the age of 4, seeing the Swiss clown Dimitri perform in surreal stage time, he realised that theatre was his life. He owes his artistic fortune to having been able to witness the work of great masters (Kantor, Brook, Bausch, Carlson), with some of whom he learnt the art of the stage’ both as a student and as a performer. In 1984, he co-founded Sosta Palmizi, an acronym under which, in 30 years, over 400 dancers and others have worked, who have found work in the major Italian and European dance theatre companies or founded their own groups: some of these are part of the nucleus of the association as Artisti Associati. With his performances, over 30 productions, he has travelled the world, thanks to the universality of the poetic art of movement. Over the years, he has collaborated with artists from the most diverse fields such as: Andrea Pazienza, Paolo Fresu, Bernardo Bertolucci, Terry Gilliam, Stefano Benni, Paola Turci, Lucia Poli, David Riondino, Paolo Rossi, Banda Osiris, Gabriele Mirabassi, Danilo Rea, Elisabetta Pozzi, Jovanotti and many others, as well as working with people of all ages, students, therapeutic communities and social rehabilitation groups.

Federico Dimitri
He graduated in 2004 from the Accademia Teatro Dimitri, Verscio (CH). In 2005 he won the Pinokkio Prize in Belgium with his performance entitled Perfectly Coupled. In the same year, he co-founded the company I Tre Secondi, and created the performances Zurigo Stazione Centrale (2005), I Doganieri (2010) and Kaspar (2015). In 2006, he moved to Geneva, where he continued to work as an actor. In the same period, a meeting with director Teresa Ludovico led him to collaborate with the Teatro Stabile d’Innovazione Kismet Opera in Bari. He starred in the performance La Regina delle Nevi, directed by Teresa Ludovico. In 2008, he participated in the founding of the research group Progetto Brockenhaus, based in Ticino, with which he created the performances Non facciamone una tragedia and Sagra. In the summers of 2009-2010-2012, he participated in the Origen festival, Riom (CH) under the artistic direction of Giovanni Netzer. Arriving in Livorno in 2010, he continued his artistic collaboration between Italy, Switzerland and Germany. Since 2012, he has collaborated with Theater Werkstatt Gleis 5 in Frauenfeld (CH), with whom he creates Laina Viva. In 2013, together with Elisa Canessa, he founded the Compagnia Dimitri/Canessa. Central point, always, the body, container of the whole, of the gesture as of the word of the concrete and the subtle; fundamental instrument of communication. The company has been working for years both in Italy and abroad, particularly in Switzerland, and has four performances to its credit: Bruno (2013), a performance that won the FIT, International Theatre Festival of Lugano; …di Giulietta e del suo Romeo (2014) and Hallo!I’m Jacket! (2016), Ad esempio questo cielo (2019). He also made the video clips Show me, for French singer Marina P. and Lettera di San Paolo agli operai, Virginiana Miller, Targa Tenco 2014.
For years, he has been actively collaborating with Ticino choreographer Giorgio Rossi, of the Sosta Palmizi company. This collaboration will see him involved from October 2016 in the creation of the children’s performance Col naso all’insù.

Elisa Canessa
Elisa began her training in 1999, dedicating herself to the study of more specifically corporeal languages. In 2001 she graduated from the School of Theatre in Bologna, a training course in Nouvea-Cirque. Since 2002, she has been studying Commedia dell’Arte with the Pantakin company in Venice. In 2003, she received a scholarship from the Ass. Sosta Palmizi. He has attended numerous Contact Improvvisation seminars with masters Dieter Hetikamp (Berlin) and Benno Voorham (Stockholm) and with the latter he collaborated for two years on a project to develop Contemporary Dance in Eastern European countries. Among others, she studied with Maestros Giorgio Rossi, Raffaella Giordano, Michele Modesto Casarin, Gey Pin Ang, Chiara Guidi, Francesca della Monica, Daniel Lepkoff, Since 2001 Elisa has been actively working as a performer for: Compagnia Agar, Sant’Arcangelo dei Teatri; Arcipelago Circo- Teatro, La Biennale di Venezia; Compagnia Pantakin da Venezia, Commedia dell’arte; Benno Voorham for ADDM Fest (Moldavia); Massimiliano Barrachini, Resolution Festival (London); Compagnia Sosta Palmizi, Giorgio Rossi/Raffaella Giordano; Teatro Kismet Opera – Teresa Ludovico; Teatro all’Improvviso, Mantova; Segni Particolari/Amina Amici; Origen Festival (CH). Since 2002, alongside her activity as a performer, she has been conducting her own theatrical research. She is the author of the performances Esercizi and Drunk. In 2008, she co-founded the research group Progetto Brockenhaus in Switzerland, with which she created the performances Non facciamone una tragedia and Sagra. In 2010 she graduated from the Teatro Stabile di Torino in “Scritture per la Danza Contemporanea”, a professional specialisation course held by Raffaella Giordano. She played the lead role in one of Lorenzo Jovanotti’s video clips, Mezzogiorno. In 2013, Federico Dimitri founded the Dimitri/Canessa Company. For years he has been actively collaborating with Ticino choreographer Giorgio Rossi, of the Sosta Palmizi company.

Francesco Manenti
He works in the field of theatre, performance and visual art. He graduated from the Professional Training Course in Noveau Cirque at the Theatre School of Bologna Galante Garrone. He studies and deepens the Contact Improvisation, in particular following the seminars of D.Heitkamp and Benno Voorham. In 2003-2004 he was awarded a scholarship by Raffaella Giordano and Giorgio Rossi, with whom he studied at the theatre-dance seminars held at Sosta Palmizi. Since 2010 he follows the work of Masaki Iwana attending his intensive workshops at the Atelier du Butoh Blanc in Normandy. He graduated from the International Master WTTL (World Theatre Training Library) under the artistic direction of Master Yuri Alschitz which took place at the UNAM University in Mexico City with the aim of developing theatrical pedagogy. For several years he has been studying martial arts (Ki Aikido, Kung Fu, TaiJiQuan), circus arts (in particular aerial acrobatics and dance with flaming sticks); in 2011 he graduated as Teacher of Dao Yin Fa Qi Gong at the Tao Yin Italy School. With Elisa Canessa he gives life to the Agatharandagio Project and together they create the shows “ESERCIZI” and “DRUNK” (co-production TIR-Dance) participating in several festivals including: “Lavori in Pelle”, Iceberg Award 2005, Festival DANAE 2006, Italia Wave 2009, GD’A 2004-2005 and Festival Inequilibrio-Armunia 2009. In 2008 he created together with E. di Terlizzi, E. Canessa, F. Dimitri, E. Rosenberg and P. Gianotti the Swiss movement theatre company Progetto Brockenhaus. He has worked and still works as interpreter for some of the most interesting Italian and foreign companies such as Sosta Palmizi (Giorgio Rossi), Pantakin (Michele Modesto Casarin), Teatro Kismet Opera (Teresa Ludovico), Eccentrici Dadarò. He has also worked with: Riccardo Palmieri-ArterieCIRT, PierrNosari-Acidi Alteri, Maria Carpaneto-Filo di Paglia, Company Mafalda, Dimensioni Parallele Teatro (Stefano Cenci). At the same time he carries on a personal research in the field of visual arts.