Dancer Choreographer and Movement Director

Originally from La Spezia, Italy, Andrea trained with teacher Loredana Rovagna in his hometown as well as CODARTS in Rotterdam. He has previously danced for Ballet Junior de Geneve, Switzerland, where he performed pieces by Alexander Ekman, Hofesh Shechter, Stijn Celis and others. After that he moved to London to join nationally and internationally acclaimed company Balletboyz, performing pieces by Ivan Perez, Russell Maliphant, Liam Scarlett, Christopher Wheeldon and Javier de Frutos. Most recently Andrea moved to Shanghai to work with company Punchdrunk on the show Sleep No More, where he performed the principal role of Macbeth. Andrea also works in the commercial and fashion field as dancer and
choreographer, creating and performing various works for NOWNESS and other acclaimed fashion platforms and magazines. Some of his clients include luxury brands such as Bulgari, Hermès, Moschino and Stella McCartney. We are honoured to have him on the platform today, thank you Andrea. He is currently back in his hometown due to the pandemic, in order to be close to his family and the sea.

Greatest inspirations or influences Andrea?

Since I was a child the names that definitely shaped my vision of dance were Jiri Kylian and Pina Bausch. Two very different artists but with many similarities in terms of outstanding quality of movement and great emotional charge in their pieces. As of today I try to find inspiration in everything that surrounds me; music, nature, yoga, books, fine and contemporary art, tv, fashion, people, anything can be sure of inspiration.

Tell us about your creative process?

My process is very different each time depending on the project or the show I’m working on in that moment. But maybe the starting point is always understanding the task and trying to analyse what approach I need to achieve the most beautiful and interesting and exciting result I can get. I also like to decompose shapes and try create new interesting ones with my own body or the beautiful bodies of the dancers I work with. I need to be excited about my own work, I need to find emotional attachment in everything I do and that’s why I’m mostly proud of each and every single work I’ve done.

How has this year changed your creativity and how do you see the world moving forward?

What was incredible about this year is that it challenged, and still is challenging anyone in every single part of the world at the same time. No exceptions. We were forced to stop and postpone every plan or certainty we had for the next future. You suddenly realize how important the little simple things in your life that you never noticed before, but that now feel vital as we are all deprived of them.

Specially for creatives it has been a very tough year having theatres suddenly closed down and specially for us dancers, having a highly physical job that mostly requires touch or contact with other people, we felt stuck and we were forced to stop. Throughout this time we used the power of social media to share our art and started a new digital era in proportions that have not been seen before. I have been working remotely on some projects in Shanghai and Europe, choreographing from my living room or dancing in front my bedroom window to create a silhouette series that I’ve been sharing throughout this lockdown period via my social media. It seems like this period tho had created such frustration that whenever the time comes and we can go back to our new lives there will be an explosion of creativity and the passion to do extraordinary things.

Icons of our time?

Icons always change, specially nowadays that things move very very fast. It is very stressful but also very exciting to keep up with the pace.

A special quote you would like to share?

“ Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost”. Pina Bausch.

This is one of my favorite quotes and very famous amongst us dancers. In these difficult times this statement resonates like a mantra and a motto.

Thank you so much Andrea for chatting with us today. Follow Andrea here and VIMEO: vimeo.com/andreacarrucciu