Orsolina28 is a recent and ambitious non-profit organization dedicated to dance practice and creation. The dance studios have wide windows and overlook the vineyards. Far from the rush of technology and global media, it is impossible not to fall in love with the serenity of the Monferrato region. Orsolina28 believes in the power of Graham to help dancers come back to the essential and express the stories they carry with them.
This Summer (June 21 – 28), Orsolina28 will offer The Graham Intensive at Orsolina28 in collaboration with the Martha Graham Center, a program for students unable to attend the Martha Graham School in NYC and who wish to progress rapidly in Graham. The Artistic Director of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Janet Eilber, will be present to launch this collaboration and will give a talk on the Graham tradition and the Company’s current activities.
During the school year, Orsolina28 operates as a local dance school with high standards and in the summer, it hosts various intensives including work on major neoballet repertoires (Jiří Kylián, Crystal Pite, William Forsythe), a Gaga Lab with special guest Ohad Naharin, etc.
Throughout the year, choreographers are also supported in their research and inspired to produce works of art in this environment. Orsolina28 was indeed born in order to balance and encourage creative thinking and embodied practice.
Since January 2018, Giulia D’Antoni has been teaching Graham technique all year round to the full time students. Giulia, a native of Sicily, began her professional studies at La Scala in Milano and graduated from the Vienna State Opera in 2012. Then she moved to NYC, became a member of Graham 2 and graduated from the Teacher Training Program at the Martha Graham School. Giulia is also a certified teacher of the American Ballet Theater from Pre-Primary to Level 3. Her background and expertise in these two fundamental techniques give her a deep understanding of how dance techniques can help dancers grow beyond their specifics. Her training and certification as a dance teacher both in the Graham and ABT tradition are also precious in her pedagogy with young students. She has been creating a curriculum specifically designed for pre-teens and teens.
Giulia D’Antoni teaching Graham Technique for teens at Orsolina28.
Orsolina28 has also been organizing Graham master classes with guest teachers. Since 2016, Lorenzo Pagano and Kim Jones have been coming to teach Graham workshops in the Summer at Orsolina28. Kim Jones, former dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company and currently an Associate Professor of Dance at UNC Charlotte and a Regisseur for Martha Graham Resources, has been coming in the region for years to teach Graham and even trained Lorenzo Pagano when he was young. Lorenzo is a native of Torino, Soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company. In 2016, he received the Italian International Dance Award for “Male Rising Star”. This year, the commitment of Orsolina28 to bring Graham is going further with this full intensive directed by Oliver Tobin. Oliver is a former member with the Martha Graham Dance Company, currently Director of Martha Graham Resources and Director of Teens@Graham.
Kim, Lorenzo and Oliver will teach Martha Graham Technique™, Martha Graham Repertory, and Dance Composition. The Intensive will conclude with a studio showing, highlighting student achievements in their Repertory and Composition classes and two participants will be rewarded with a 3-week full scholarship to attend a future Summer Intensive or Winter Intensive at the Martha Graham School in New York City.
It is a pleasure to witness this new generation of talented dancers in Italy and the rest of Europe being attracted to the strength, power and expressive possibilities of Graham. And to be honest: Italy is well represented in the Graham Company with three dancers: Lorenzo Pagano from Torino, Marzia Memoli from Palermo and Alessio Crognale from Abruzzo.
Lorenzo Pagano in a bison jump at Orsolina28.
For more information and to register: