Giuseppe Calanni was born in Castellammare di Stabia (Naples), Italy, in 1961. He studied at the Centro Danza Tersicore, under the direction of A. Di Lecce, and later specialised at the Academy “Princess Grace” in Monte Carlo, directed by Marika Besobrasova.

In 1983, he participated in the first Specialising Course of the Teatro “R. Valli” in Reggio Emilia. He afterwards joined Aterballetto, under the artistic direction of Amedeo Amodio. He performed in ballets by Amodio, Tetley, Tudor, Balanchine, Forsythe, Childs, Ailey, Kylian, and Béjart. He also worked as assistant to the choreographer in some of these works. He re-staged several of Amodio’s ballets for the Teatro Filarmonico Verona, Teatro alla Scala Milan, and for the Opera in Rome.

He continued working with Aterballetto under the new artistic direction of Mauro Bigonzetti, from 1997, as a dancer, repetiteur and assistant. He re-staged Mauro Bigonzetti’s Songs for the Ballet National de Marseille, directed by Roland Petit.

Since September 2002 he has been working as maître de ballet and maître repetiteur of Aterballetto.