Roberto Zappalà is the artistic director and main choreographer of the Zappalà Danza company, which he founded in 1989 in Catania. Today, the company is one of the most important Italian dance organizations. Zappalà Dance Company has been supported by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities since 1996 and by the Sicilian Region. In 22 years of activity with the company, Roberto Zappalà has created over 30 productions featured throughout Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East, and South Africa. For his creations, the choreographer often develops complex paths with extensive projects, some of which include “Incomplete Bodies” (2002-2007), “Instruments” (2007-2009), and “re-mapping Sicily” (initiated in 2007, still part of the choreographer’s work). Among the company’s most successful creations are “Pasolini in the Internet Age,” selected for BIG Torino 2000, and “A.semu tutti devoti tutti?” which won the Danza&Danza 2010 award for best Italian production. Additionally, one of his latest creations, “THE NINTH (from chaos, the body),” received the Danza&Danza 2015 award for “Italian Production of the Year.”
Zappalà Danza stands out for its extensive and varied repertoire, the result of the synergistic and prolific work of Roberto Zappalà and Nello Calabrò, who in the last ten years have traced a continually expanding project path, allowing for the realization of productions of various types, most of them with live music.
Zappalà has also collaborated with other companies, producing works for the Balletto di Toscana (Dionysus – 1998), the Ballet School of Teatro alla Scala in Milan (TZ001 – 1998), the Swedish company Norrdans (I’m a good cook – 2004), ArtEZ Arnhem Netherlands (zappalàloop – 2008), and the Dutch Foundation Theaterwerkplaats Generale Oost (corpo cage – 2009). Recently, he collaborated with the Gothenburg Ballet in Sweden, which commissioned him to create “South-virus,” which premiered in October 2011 at the Gothenburg Opera with live music.
The Catania-based choreographer has also left his clear creative mark by choreographing specific editions of the famous musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, produced by the Teatro della Munizione and revised with a new choreographic interpretation and movement line. He has collaborated with various opera directors, including Daniele Abbado (“Mephistopheles” and “Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny”), Federico Tiezzi (Madame Butterfly and Carmen), and Francesco Torrigiani (Don Giovanni). He has collaborated with several composers and musicians from the European scene, such as Giovanni Sollima, Paolo Fresu, Fabio Vacchi, Rosalba Bentivoglio, Nello Toscano, Puccio Castrogiovanni, Alfio Antico, Gianluigi Trovesi, Piero Sammataro, and Vincenzo Pirrotta.
Over time, Zappalà has dedicated himself to transmitting his choreographic language through numerous seminars held throughout Europe and overseas and has also conducted workshops on body languages for the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy at the University of Catania. In 2009, he initiated the “Atelier at home – tailor-made workshops and creations for young dancers” project in collaboration with several European institutions such as ArtEZ Dansacademie (NL) and the National Dance Foundation/Aterballetto.
The choreographer occasionally dedicates himself to installations; among others, he produced the interactive installation “MindBox” together with Christian Graupner/Humatic (Berlin), successfully presented in various parts of the world and winner of the second prize at the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition (Atlanta/USA 2011).
Roberto Zappalà is responsible for the recovery and ideation, as well as the artistic direction, of Scenario Pubblico International Choreographic Centre Sicily, which opened in 2002 and is home to the Zappalà Danza Company: a structure designed for contemporary dance, a rare example of a choreographic center in Italy, which has allowed the company and the choreographer to expand and deepen their choreographic research work and to establish themselves in the territory through activities not only in production but also in education through the launch of MoDem/codici gestural compagnia zappalà danza, a structure that promotes the dissemination of the company’s language.
In November 2013, he was awarded by the National Association of Theater Critics.
