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MAURO DE CANDIA

2022 - IN HOUSE

COREOGRAPHER

Born in 1981, he began his dance studies at the age of nine in Barletta, his home town. In 1991, in Verona, he was noticed by Marika Besobrasova, director of the Académie de danse classique Princesse Grace in Monte Carlo, who offered him the opportunity to come to her school every summer. After briefly studying at the Scuola di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala in Milan and Béjart’s Atelier Rudra in Lausanne, he joined the Académie permanently in August 1998 thanks to the John Gilpin grant awarded by Princess Antoinette. After completing his professional training, he moved to Germany in August 2001, where he danced for five seasons with the Hanover Opera Ballet under the direction of Stephan Thoss. Appointed soloist four months after his arrival, he refined his stage presence and movement alongside director Thoss, who created several roles especially for him. During his career as a dancer, he had the opportunity to work with some of the greatest choreographers of the second half of the 20th century: George Balanchine, Maurice Béjart, William Forsythe, Jiri Kylián, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin and Marco Goecke. Always tied to his homeland, in 1997 he founded the Arte&BallettO project in Barletta, focusing on supporting young talent and promoting the territory on an international scale. In 2008, his FormAzione Tersicore programme was approved and supported by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. In July 2005, he initiated the ApuliArteFestival and the ApuliArte International Prize in the courtyard of the Castello Svevo in Barletta, a summer festival that will host some of the best national and international productions until the summer of 2012, while keeping an eye on the younger generations of dancers and choreographers. From 2007 to 2012 his company Pneuma Dance Theater, resident ensemble at the Curci Theatre in Barletta, created some productions that were subsequently requested by important Italian and foreign festivals and stages such as Bolzano Danza, MilanOltre/AddaDanza, Le Temps d’Aimer in Biarritz in France and the Maracaibo Festival in Venezuela. Also worth mentioning is the commission received from the Venice Dance Biennale directed by Ismael Ivo in 2008. From 2014 to 2019, in collaboration with the Teatro Pubblico Pugliese, he was supervisor of the dance season at the Teatro Curci in Barletta.

De Candia was attracted to choreography from a very young age. After his first trials in Montecarlo he went on to Hanover, where Stephan Thoss allowed him to make several creations with the dancers of the Hanover Ballet, presented on tours in Italy and abroad, as well as some productions included in the official programme of the opera’s dance seasons. Since 2008 he has concentrated on choreography, working for various companies, including Introdans, Ballett am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Tanztheater Braunschweig, Milwaukee Ballet, Maggio Danza di Firenze, Staatsballett Berlin, Balletto dell’Arena di Verona, Ballet of the Opera Bygdoszcz, Slovack National Ballet, Ballett Augsburg, Washington Ballet. Also worth mentioning is his collaboration with Vladimir Malakhov, for whom he remounted his male version of The Dying Swan, and with the first dancer of the Paris Opera Ballet, Alessio Carbone. Starting with the 2012/13 season, Mauro de Candia was appointed by Osnabrück Theatre’s artistic director Ralf Waldschmidt as artistic director and main choreographer of the ballet company. Flanked by dramaturg and manager Patricia Stöckemann and his assistant and maître de ballet Leonardo Centi, and with a team of young and versatile dancers from all over the world, in just a few seasons he positioned the ballet company among the leading names on the German and international scene. In addition to his own creations, de Candia brings works by important choreographers from the current international scene to Osnabrück, enriches the company’s repertoire with reconstructions of works by the German choreographer Mary Wiggman and opens the company to up-and-coming international choreographers. In July 2021, after nine successful seasons at the helm of the Dance Company Theater Osnabrück, Mauro de Candia decide to leave the direction of the ensemble by personal choice to devote himself to new artistic challenges.

He has received numerous critical acclaim and awards for his artistic and educational activities, including the Melvin Jones Fellowship, the Mediterranean Peoples Prize and the Positano Leonide Massine Prize for Dance. His creation Stillness of an empty move (2009) for the Royal Ballet of Flanders was awarded as the best work of the project Uncontainable 2. In 2009 he was nominated by the German magazine “Dance for you” as one of the best young choreographers of the new generation. In 2011 he received the Genesis Award as best choreographer with a choreography created for the Milwaukee Ballet in America. In 2015 and 2017, the German online magazine tanznetz named him “Choreographer of the Year” for his productions Brahms 1. – Reflections (2015), Swan Lake: metamorphosis of the soul (2016) and Sacre (2017), created for the Osnabrück company. The staging of his ballet Angelika (2014) for the Slovak National Ballet, received the Best Production of the Year award from the Slovak Minister of Culture. In 2017, the German magazine TANZ selected him as one of the 30 international artists who were most prominent during the season. He received the Giuliana Penzi Prize for Dance and, in June 2009, the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano awarded him a silver medal of representation.