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Roberto Cocconi

DIRETTORE ARTISTICO

Founder, Legal Representative 

Arearea Cultural Association, dancer,performer and choreographer, lives inUdine where he founded in 1992 theArearea Company.

EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES

From a very young age, he began studying artistic gymnastics,which revealed his preference for acrobatics and freemovement. He started studying contemporary dance with ElsaPiperno and Joseph Fontano in Rome.
He continued his studies in contemporary techniques withCarolyn Carlson, Larrio Ekson, Jorma Uotinen, and Ruth Currier.In 1982, he joined the Teatro Danza La Fenice company led byCarolyn Carlson at the GRAN TEATRO LA FENICE in Venice. Hedanced in “Chalkwork” (The Bear and the Moon) and”Underwood,” choreographed by Carolyn Carlson, and in”Anonuumit” (choreography by Jorma Uotinen). With theVenetian company, he participated in tours in Italy, France,Spain, the United States, and Sweden.
After the dissolution of the Teatro e Danza La Fenice companyin 1984, he founded, along with other Italian dancers, the SostaPalmizi company in Turin, a historic group in Italian theater-dance of the ’80s and ’90s.
In 1985, he danced in “Il Cortile,” the first collective creation ofSosta Palmizi (in co-production with the CantiereInternazionale d’Arte di Montepulciano), which won the OperaPrima award in Narni (TR), the UBU award in Milan for the bestItalian theater-dance show of 1985, and the award from themagazine Danza & Danza.
He danced in the performance “Auf dem gebirge hat man eingerschrei gehort” by the TANZTHEATER WUPPERTAL DI PINABAUSCH during the anthological presentation of the Germanchoreographer in Venice (1985).

CHOREOGRAPHIC EXPERIENCE

Some of his most recognized choreographies include “P.E.E.P.Ovest,” special mention at the Coreografo Elettronico ’94(Naples); “VENTI” (1998); “About:Blank” (2013); “Le QuattroStagioni” (2016); “Il Caos e la farfalla” (2017), co-produced by IlRossetti Teatro Stabile di Trieste and Mittelfest; the trilogy onprotest music, “Noi siamo il tricheco” (2020), “Cosmic Dancer”(2021), and “About Punk” (2022).
He is a co-author, along with Luca Zampar, of thechoreographic installation “Box_Two,” the show “Ballata_Cortocome un lungo viaggio,” “Indefinito,” and “Scarti_pezzi nonconformi.”
He is also a co-author, along with Marta Bevilacqua, ofBO.LE.RO., the latest production for the thirtieth anniversary ofthe Company (2023).

MISSION

Cocconi’s artistic career is aligned with the mission ofpromoting the growth of new choreographic perspectives,encouraging professional figures for the creation of events thatemphasize the importance of gesture culture, and ensuringcontinuity to the Arearea project with ever-new talent scoutingmethods. Technique and a preference for emotionally chargedabstraction are the main drivers of his creations, built on theexclusive trust in the moving body. For Cocconi, dance is agroup activity, and his need to surround himself withprofessionals of different languages presents stable corechallenges to face creation after creation.