Choreographer
Massimo Moricone was born in 1958. He commenced his training in Rome at the Centro Sperimentale di Danza Contemporanea, and then later at Mudra, the Maurice Bejart school in Brussels, and at the Centre Internationale de la Danse in Cannes. Massimo Moricone has also studied acting but decided later to pursue a career in dance.
He went on to appear with many companies throughout Italy, dancing the ballets of leading choreographers, including Alvin Ailey, Amedeo Amodio, Felix Blaska, George Balanchine, Janine Charrat, Derek Deane, Heinz Spoerli and Vittorio Biagi.
He also appeared in Franco Zeffirelli's production of La Traviata and was director of choreography and dancer for the film version of Monteverdi's Orfeo, directed by Claude Goretta, and for Moravia's Gli Indifferenti, directed by Mauro Bolognini.
In 1983 he founded his own company TEATRO KOROS, for which he has created many original works for tours of Italy and France, Belgium, Greece, Cuba, India, Mexico, Spain and Japan. Over the 20 years of its existence Teatro Koros collaborated with The Festival de Paris, Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Teatro Ponchielli di Cremona, The Opera House Athens, Sagra Musicale Umbra, Fondo Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Indian Council for Cultural Relations, La Biennale di Venezia, the Tokyo Dance Triennale.
In 1984 he won First Prize at the International Choreographic Competition at Nyon in Switzerland and the same year Serge Lifar conferred upon him the Prix de L'Universite de la Danse de Paris. Several other awards followed including a special grant, which enabled him to complete the International Dance Course for professional choreographers and composers at the University of Guildford, London - 1985.
From 1989 - 1992 he was Assistant Artistic Director to Elisabetta Terabust of both the ballet company and school of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma.
In 1994 he produced Progetto Contemporaneo for Teatro alla Scala di Milano, and in 1997 returned to the Rome Opera House to direct Progetto di Formazione sul Contemporaneo until the year 2000.
In 1991 Massimo Moricone was asked by Christopher Gable CBE, the then Artistic Director of Northern Ballet Theatre, to create new choreography, the first in over a decade, for Prokofievs Romeo & Juliet. It became NBT's biggest box office hit and went on to receive several awards including: The Manchester Evening News' Best New Dance Production of the Year; Dance and Dancers Best Dance Production of the Year; a Royal Philharmonic Music Award; and a nomination for a Laurence Olivier Award.
The BBC film of Romeo & Juliet had its screen premiere on Christmas Day 1992. His second ballet for the company, A Christmas Carol, appeared on BBC TV on Christmas Day 1993 and in 2001 he created a production of Jekyll & Hyde, which marked a decade of association with NBT.
He has choreographed ballets for many Italian companies including the Balletto di Toscana, Balletto dell'Arena di Verona, Balletto di Venezia, Balletto del Teatro di San Carlo, Aterballetto, MaggioDanza, Teatro Verdi Trieste, Teatro alla Scala and Teatro dell' Opera di Roma.
He has also worked as guest choreographer with Scottish Ballet (director Elaine McDonald), Mälmo State Theatre (director Jonas Käge), Deutsche Oper Berlin ( director Richard Cragun), Ballet Nacional de Cuba (director Alicia Alonso), Joven Ballet de Càmara de Madrid (director Loipa Araujo ), Slovak National Ballet (director Jozef Dolinsky).
He has created works for dancers such as Carlos Acosta, Federico Bonelli, Josè Manuel Carreno, Lynne Charles, Alina Cojocaru, Vladimir Derevianko, Raymondo Rebeck, Luciana Savignano, Isabel Seabra, Charlotte Talbot, Elisabetta Terabust.
In 2001 Carolyn Carlson asked him to present a new creation at La Biennale di Venezia.
From 2003 to 2005 he was co-director of Lab:oratory engines multimedia venue in Rome.
For three years he lived in Tokyo and worked at “from#01to11th" a project linked to Japanese culture and concluded with the last part skin - fatman/littlebastard performed in the Spiral Hall at the Tokyo Dance Triennale 2006.
He was guest teacher during periods from 2005 to 2008 at the Instituto Superior de Danza Alicia Alonso of Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid.
His last work for Maggiodanza, BBB Bach & Break Beats, was premiered in 2008 and was performed on tour until 2010. In September 2012 he presented a new creation on Don Juan for the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples.
Massimo Moricone premiered his Romeo & Juliet in Rome on July 2013, at The Globe Theatre.