Cristiana Morganti

Cristiana Morganti

Cristiana Morganti was born in Rome in 1967 and studied classical ballet there, at the Accademia Nazionale di Danza, from 1978 to 1986. From 1987 to 1989 she studied contemporary dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. Further studies took her to Eugenio Barba’s Odin Teatret in Denmark, where the focus was on intercultural exploration of theatrical expression.

Dancer

After that, Morganti went on to work with choreographers like Susanne Linke](/id/susanne_linke), Urs Dietrich, Felix Ruckert and Joachim Schlömer. In 1989 Wanda Golonka and VA Wölfl asked her to join their group Neuer Tanz in Dusseldorf, and between 1989 and 1992 she participated in the creation of Räumen, Gelage, Sieben Miniaturen and Ballet No. 5, and she performed in several of the company’s repertoire pieces, such as Leitz, Die Schiefe and Die Böse Minute. In 1993 Pina Bausch engaged her for Tanztheater Wuppertal, where she worked until 2014, appearing in a total of thirty pieces. Nine of these were pieces which she and other original cast members had created with Pina Bausch. Morganti, with her magnificent head of black curls, was an unmistakable presence in Ein Trauerspiel, Danzón, Der Fensterputzer(The Window Washer), Masurca Fogo, O Dido, Água, Nefés, Rough Cut und Bamboo Blues. As a dancer, she combines suppleness and elegance with a finely tuned sense of comedy.

Choreographer

Morganti started to create her own choreographies from 2010. Moving with Pina, her homage to Pina Bausch, was an immediate success. The cultural centre Il Funaro in Pistoia, Italy, became her artistic home as well as the main producer of her work and supporter of her choreographic career. In 2010 she won the Premio Positano Léonide Massine for best contemporary dancer. She then collaborated for a number of years with the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, for whom she choreographed several pieces: From here to there (2011), Out of twelve (2012), Sacré Printemps! (2013), Petit Rêve (2017). With Jessica and Me she won the 2014 Danza & Danza prize, awarded by Italian dance critics, for best dancer and choreographer. This production has been seen in over fifty cities around the world. In 2016 she created the duet A Fury Tale, which toured in Italy, France and Germany. The following year she created the piece They didn’t know where to leave me for the company Aterballetto. In 2018, she choreographed Without knocking for graduate students of the Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica Silvio d’Amico in Rome. It had its premiere at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. In 2019 Another Round for Five was premiered in Naples, and in June 2020 Cristiana Morganti was judged best dancer of the 2019/2020 season by the French Syndicat Professionel de la Critique. In 2021, along with dancer Kenji Takagi.

Text: Norbert Servos
Translation: Rachel McNicholl