Musical theater direction
Deda Cristina Colonna is a director and choreographer and her chosen repertoire are 17th – 18th century opera and contemporary opera. Her style is deeply influenced by her stage experience as a dancer and actress, with specific expertise in baroque dance, rhetorical gesture and style acting. Based on historically informed stage practice, his direction seeks contact with today’s audience through a modern language, also influenced by prose acting and contemporary theater.
Deda Cristina Colonna graduated in classical dance at the Civic Institute of Music Brera (Novara) and the Ecole Supérieure d’Etudes Chorégraphiques (Paris). She graduated from the Sorbonne, specializing in Renaissance and Baroque dance. She later graduated from the Acting School of the Teatro Stabile in Genoa and starred in productions from Shakespeare to Cecov and Genet in Italy, France and Germany. She worked with the Theater der Klänge company (Düsseldorf) and was a guest soloist and choreographer with the New York Baroque Dance Company.
She has staged and choreographed numerous titles, including: Ottone in Villa by A. Vivaldi (Copenhagen Opera Festival: nominated for the Reumert Award in Copenhagen for best work in 2014), Il Giasone by A. Cavalli and Il Matrimonio Segreto by D . Cimarosa (Drottningholm Slottsteater), The Coronation of Poppea by C. Monteverdi and Gesualdo-Shadows by the contemporary Bo Holten (Copenhagen Royal Opera / Takkelloftet), the choreography Fortuna Desperata with Francesco Vezzoli and David Hallberg (opening Performa, New York 2015) , Abandoned Dido by L. Vinci (Opera di Firenze / Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), Armide by JB Lully (Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik / Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, winner of the Olsnienia Roku Prize: Best Choreography 2017 and Giuseppe Di Stefano International Award 2018, Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colon 2019), La Fiera di Venezia by A. Salieri ( SWR SChwetzinger Festspiele), Europe by G. Melani (Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci), Il Giustino by A. Vivaldi (Naestved Early Music Festival), The Return of Ulysses to Homeland by C. Monteverdi (Teatro Olimpico di Vicenza), The wedding di Figaro by WA Mozart and The Barber of Seville by G. Rossini (Auditorio de Palma de Mallorca 2017, 2019), Lesbina and Milo (GB Pergolesi Theater, Jesi 2020, Nina, mad for love by G. Paisiello , Comala by P. Morandi and Zebran by T. Monnakgotla (2016, 2021 Vadstena Akademien – Stockholm).
She has created and performed original works, including Voluptas Dolendi – I Gesti del Caravaggio , Sidereus Nuncius – Galileo e la luna and Alltid Densamme with the harpist Mara Galassi.
She has been teaching baroque dance, gesture and acting for over 25 years and has held courses and masterclasses in various institutions in Italy and abroad. In 2014 she was Guest Visiting Professor at the University of Stockholm / Performing Premodernity.
She was Director of the School of Dance of the Civic Brera Institute of Novara from 2008 to 2013. Her research in Baroque dance has been published in the proceedings of various international conferences and in the specialized press.
Since 2021 she has been Director of the School of Dance of the G. Martial Academy of Seveso.
Since 2021 she has been Professor of Gesture and Historical Acting Techniques at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.
She is president of the cultural association La Terza Prattica , with which he realizes shows, concerts and works of art that represent a journey through and beyond the philological approach of the ancient repertoire.
Deda Cristina Colonna is a member of the Accademia degli Intermedi, an Italian research group on ancient dance.
She works in Italian, English, French, German and Spanish.