Team
Our tireless team
Artistic Direction
Giovanna Velardi
Giovanna Velardi, choreographer and dancer of Sicilian origin, is artistic director of PinDoc and of the multidisciplinary festival Prima Onda, organised by Genia LabArt.
A graduate of the Accademia Nazionale di Danza in Rome, she currently teaches at the Liceo Coreutico Regina Margherita in Palermo. Her career has developed between France and Italy, collaborating with choreographers of the nouvelle danse movement such as Geneviève Sorin, and exploring the drive quality of movement and improvisation. Velardi has created over twenty choreographic works and performances, collaborating with directors such as Vincenzo Pirrotta and Fausto Paravidino, and with video director Dominik Barbier on the multimedia project Hamlet Machine. She was artist-in-residence at the Centre Chorégraphique National d’Orléans, directed by Josef Nadj, and in 2009 was appointed as an expert technical advisory commissioner for the dance sector at the Mibac. In 2018 she created the choreography for the project In-Side-Out at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, and taught at the Scuola di Arti e Mestieri of the Teatro Biondo, directed by Emma Dante. Through her research, she has developed a movement method called il cuore articolare (the articular heart) for dancers and actors. In 2023, the essay Il cuore articolare was published, authored by Vincenza Di Vita, for the publisher Mimesis/Eterotopie. The essay, enriched by testimonies on Velardi’s method, includes a manifesto with the theoretical and practical articulations written by the choreographer herself.
Ricky Bonavita
Ricky Bonavita founded the Compagnia Excursus in 1994, together with Theodor Rawyler, initially supported in Switzerland and from 2000 by the MiC.
His international career has taken him as a guest artist to productions across Europe, Panama and Kazakhstan, collaborating with organisations such as Fundación Opera Panamá (2013), International World Stars of Ballet Art (Astana, Kazakhstan), La Compagnia/AND (2010–2011) and Akarwerkstatt (Bern, Switzerland, 1998). He has created choreographies for theatre and television, including Memorie di Adrianowith Giorgio Albertazzi (2013), Il Funambolo by Daniele Salvo for Napoli Teatro Festival (2016), and the Andrea Bocelli Concert at the Colosseum for RAI1/Eurovision (2009). Bonavita trained with seminal figures of American contemporary dance (Graham, Limón, Cunningham, Nikolais) and, during a period in Paris, with leading artists of the new European dance scene such as Carolyn Carlson, Peter Goss, Jean Gaudin and Jean Cebron. He has received numerous choreographic awards, including 1st Prize for Contemporary Choreography at The Young Ballet of the World Competition 2010 in Sochi, Russia, presided over by Yuri Grigorovich; 3rd Prize for Choreography at the Serge Lifar International Ballet Competition 2004 in Kyiv, Ukraine; and the Premio Fausto Maria Franchi for Best Contemporary Choreographic Work at the Concorso Internazionale di Danza – Premio Roma 2010. He also received the 1st Prize in the Singolari di danza category in 1988 at the Teatro Spaziozero in Rome, with a production award. Since 2014 he has curated the dance programme of the Festival Artescienza for the Centro di Ricerche Musicali, and has organised numerous events for the Accademia Nazionale di Danza, where he has taught modern and contemporary dance technique for over twenty years.
General Managing Director
Danila Blasi
Danila Blasi is an organiser, curator, artistic director and lighting designer. She began her career as a lighting designer for numerous theatre and contemporary dance companies. She has worked in the organisation of various festivals and theatres.
From 1999 to 2002 she worked at the Volterrateatro festival, directed by Armando Punzo. She is the co-founder, alongside Benedetta Boggio, of the association Rosa Shocking, for which she curates the Tendance festival in Latina, co-directed with Ricky Bonavita. Since 2007 she has been General Director of PinDoc, an organisation supported by the MiC and the Sicilian Region, through which she produces and promotes artists and dance projects at a national level. As president of CORE – Coordinamento danza e arti performative del Lazio, she has directed projects such as Officina COREografica and Attacchi di CORE. She has been vice-president and president of Aidap, the body representing dance production within Federdanza – Agis. In her role as president of Aidap, she signed the first National Collective Labour Agreement for dance production. From 2017 to 2019 she was a member of the Consulta dello Spettacolo dal Vivo at the MIBACT. In 2022 she was nominated for the UBU Awards for Best Organisation/Curatorship.
Administrative Management
Letizia Coppotelli
Letizia Coppotelli was born in Rome in October 1980. She graduated in 2010 in Political Science and International Relations at the Sapienza University of Rome with a thesis in economic statistics.
From 2012 to 2013 she worked at Duncan 3.0 performing arts center, dealing with administrative and accounting management.
From 2014 to date she collaborates with various dance companies, theaters and festivals dealing with accounting and administrative management and specializing in the management of Ministries and Regional Reports. Among her collaborations there are Compagnia Excursus, Compagnia Atacama, Compagnia PinDoc, Spellbound Contemporary Ballet, Festival TenDance / Rosa Shocking, La Scatola dell’Arte (choreographic center), Tor Bella Monaca Theater.
Production
Manuela Cirfera
She is a choreographer, performer and teacher of contemporary dance, and alongside her artistic work, she has an interest in dance studies and in organisational and production processes within the performing arts.
Graduated in Contemporary Dance and Choreographic Disciplines from the National Academy of Dance. Following an initial course of study at DAMS, she furthered her research through the Da.Re. Dance Research programme in Rome.
Over the years, she has developed a wide-ranging experience in production, cultural management and curation, collaborating with festivals, production organisations and local projects. She is involved in organisational coordination, planning, artistic support and the development of collaborative networks, with a particular focus on the relationships between artists, local areas and communities. She is currently production manager for PinDoc, organisational director of the Tendance Festival and works with the Associazione Controchiave in the dance sector.
She believes in art as an interstitial space capable of transforming divisions into communication, creating open connections between aesthetics, visions and people.
Valeria Vannucci
Born in Rome in 1993, she graduated in History, Theory, and Techniques of Dance from Sapienza University of Rome in 2020. In 2018, she published the essay Tersicore bendata: eros alla Biennale Danza di Venezia, released by La Biennale di Venezia as part of the “Scrivere in residenza” project.
She is the co-founder and editor of the theater criticism magazine Le Nottole di Minerva. She has collaborated on the editorial project 93% – Materiali per una politica non verbale, with the sciami.com network, with Artribune, and with the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art. She is the author and curator, alongside Valentina Valentini and Chiara Pirri Valentini, of the book Nel migliore dei mondi possibili. Intorno all’opera di Roberto Castello (Ephemeria 2021).
Since 2021, she has collaborated with the Rosa Shocking and PinDoc associations in production, organization, and educational projects related to critical writing. Between 2022 and 2023, she worked as an organizer for the Adriana Borriello Dance Research Company and collaborated with the Genìa LabArt association for the third edition of Prima Onda Fest, the Inondazioni project, and the first and second editions of the Metamorphosis festival. Since 2022, she has collaborated with the Vento di scirocco association and served as an organizer for the InCastro Festival. She won the 2022 Call for Dance Dramaturgs by Anghiari Dance Hub and participated in the symposium “Micro and Macro Dramaturgy of Dance.”
In 2023, she won the SIAE – Per chi crea grant with the PinDoc association for the production of Michael Incarbone’s new work, serving as both dramaturg and organizer. She has collaborated on the dramaturgy of several projects, including Le costellazioni del pupo by choreographer Giuseppe Muscarello, Simpatia n. 3 by Lilli-Sansone duo, and fin che ci trema il cuore by Michael Incarbone. In 2025, she also managed the organization of the Radicante project, the first national transmedia and transfeminist school encompassing art, performance, theater, cinema, dance, writing, and music.
Community Dance Coordinator
Francesca Schipani
Francesca Schipani trained at the National Academy of Dance in Rome, where she earned her eighth-year diploma. Alongside her career as a dancer − which she pursued further with Ricky Bonavita’s Excursus company − she practices community dance, a field in which she has developed a specific focus on participatory processes and the relationship between dance, territory, and social inclusion.
Thanks to her collaboration with PinDoc ETS, she is involved in leading community dance workshops and artistic projects with a social vocation. She participates in school-based initiatives, including the Io non odio project, and contributes to contemporary dance festivals by creating performances born from workshop-based paths.Since 2019, in Latina, she has taken part in an ongoing series of workshops culminating in artistic showcases in the form of urban performances. Among the projects realized are: Bonifica, Sakura, Barramundi, Chaosia – Il vuoto e la città, Quello che resta, and Poppy Seeds.
From this experience, filoturchino was born—a group composed of the most dedicated workshop participants. This collaboration led to the creation of the theatrical production Scritto sul corpo, which was presented at the Teatro Biblioteca Quarticciolo in September 2025.
Communication
Martina Chiocca
Performing Arts professional and expert in Digital Communication.
Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Performing Arts from the University of Rome La Sapienza, she enrolles in two postgraduate programmes: Economics, Organisation and Programming of Live Performance and Events at La Sapienza, and Management of Artistic and Cultural Heritage at IULM University of Milan. She collaborates with collectives, performance artists and visual artists based in Rome and the surrounding area. Since 2022, she has been working with the Rosa Shocking Association within the framework of the contemporary dance festival Tendance, and from 2023 to 2026 she worked as Communications Manager at the Virgilio Sieni National Dance Production Centre, in Florence.
She currently holds the role of Communications Manager for for PinDoc ETS, an organisation dedicated to the production, promotion and distribution of contemporary dance, operating between Rome and Sicily, and IRA, a contemporary dance and new performative languages festival based in Soverato (CZ).