In 2002, with much enthusiasm and little sense, Fabio Ciccalè decided to found an association, under the improbable name of FC@PIN.DOC. He also decided that he absolutely wanted to involve me, despite my total disappointment regarding the choice of name.
For years, Fabio has been much more than a colleague to me. He is a friend. A very dear friend. So yes, let’s live this adventure, let’s create the association, let’s imagine and produce shows and take them on tour.
That is how the first version of PinDoc was born − though it wasn’t yet called PinDoc − and so it grew, solely through Fabio’s and my own efforts. The two of us did everything: creation, organization, administration, distribution.

In 2003, the Ministry (MiC, MiBaC, MiBaCT, who knows what it was called back then) decided to subsidize us. A bit of money, a bit of support, a bit of oxygen. And we went on like this for a few years.
But in the meantime, things got complicated: fewer and fewer dates were sold, while the ministerial minimum requirements grew. It became too difficult. So, we decided to renounce the contribution and leave the association on standby.
In the meantime, I was continuing with my second (which back then was actually my first) job, namely as a lighting designer for contemporary dance shows. Among the choreographers I collaborated with was Giovanna Velardi, a young (choreographers under sixty are all young) Sicilian choreographer, vehement and passionate, whose work I adored and with whom I got along particularly well − which naturally included having furious arguments, with shouting from both sides that made the walls shake.
Giovanna had returned in Italy after a long period living in Marseille and had founded an association with her boyfriend at the time. The association, which produced Giovanna’s shows, had been funded by the Ministry. Then, as sometimes happens when making projects with someone you are romantically involved with, the love ended and the association vanished. Giovanna found herself unable to apply for ministerial funding. She was obviously desperate. We talked about it. Fabio’s association came to my mind, which by then had been in a dormant state for a couple of years. It had all the necessary requirements. I spoke with him, and he obviously consented. I spoke with Giovanna, who was obviously happy.

So we moved to phase 2.0 of PinDoc, which still wasn’t PinDoc.
And so there were three of us managing the association with great effort, which at this point supported not only Fabio’s and Giovanna’s shows, but also those of Giuseppe Muscarello, a choreographer from Palermo, an old friend and collegue of Giovanna in some of her shows. Shortly after, Letizia Coppotelli joined us for administration, and since then she has become one of the pillars of the association. Then Giovanna proposed the entry of Paola Bianchi into the association, an artist we highly esteemed who was looking for a “home” at the time.

During the same period, I was working as executive director for the contemporary dance festival Tendance, under the artistic direction of Ricky Bonavita and Theodor Rawyler of the Excursus association. Theodor (known as Theo) and I worked together more and more often – I managing PinDoc (which still wasn’t PinDoc!), and he managing Excursus.
We thought about creating a sort of small network, pooling skills and resources. Letizia started working for Excursus as well, and Giordano Novielli, who worked for Excursus, began working for PinDoc (which still wasn’t PinDoc!!). Benedetta Boggio, head of communication for the Tendance festival, became the communication manager for both Excursus and PinDoc (which still wasn’t PinDoc!!!), and so our paths and our lives became indelibly intertwined.
It happened because in those years working together, Theo and I began to imagine a way of working that would make everyone − artists, technicians, organizers − feel good. A method based on mutual aid, solidarity, and love. One that takes into account the needs and possibilities of each individual, with a decidedly socialist vision (let’s use this word without fear − Giovanna tells me − as it is beautiful and precise), and why not, also feminist. Because care, taken precisely in its feminist sense, is the true center, the true beating heart of our association.
And that is how we finally arrived at the actual birth of PinDoc.

It was 2017.
Since 2015, the Ministry had radically changed the methods for allocating the FUS (Single Fund for the Performing Arts). The subsidy had become triennial, and the parameters for accessing it had become much more selective. While we were preparing the application for the 2018/2020 triennium, Theo proposed that we join forces and submit a single application, merging the two associations and putting into practice what had already been happening for a long time.
This was always from a perspective of mutual support, with each filling the other’s gaps (we had several artists to manage and few people to do it; they had a practically mono-authorial production that, in the previous triennium, had struggled to keep up with ministerial demands). I spoke with Giovanna, already knowing she would approve, because − and this is one of the reasons that made our union a happy one − like me, she does not just want to build a company, but to establish a community. A community of people who share a similar vision of the world, capable of prioritizing the collective good of the community itself.

At the end of 2017, PinDoc was born in its current − for now − definitive version. With Giovanna Velardi and Ricky Bonavita as co-artistic directors; the irreplaceable Letizia Coppotelli and Giordano Novielli, respectively administrative manager and production manager, without whom everything would be impossible. With the omnipresent Benedetta Boggio as communication manager, and the ubiquitous Manuela Cirfera and Valeria Vannucci who learn and support. With Enrica Felici and Francesca Schipani putting their choreographic art at the service of community dance projects − one of PinDoc’s sectors of activity, an inheritance from Theo to which we are most attached. With the group of artists that has welcomed the intimate genius of Alessandra Cristiani, in addition to the talent of several young authors (Bernabeu/Covello, Vicari/Aloisio, OperaBianco) coming from collaborative experiences with Giovanna Velardi, Giuseppe Muscarello, Paola Bianchi, and Fabio Ciccalè. And Theo and I as general directors − officially and on paper in triennial rotation, but actually co-directors.
Then Theo left us in 2019, without even managing to finish his first official triennium as director. Leaving us here to keep on this path, so beautiful and exhausting, which we had imagined and built together through years of chatter, dreams, laughter, doubts, accounts, discussions, tears, disappointments, fights, delusions, and satisfactions. With years of work. Which in the end gave us what we have today. Simply PinDoc.