The teachers

The teachers at the Center are Marina Soligon, who supervises all the courses and Elena Baggio trained in the heart of the School and a graduate of the School of Dramatic Arts and Music Studies under the supervision of Claudio Marangone and Furio Bologni.

MARINA SOLIGON

Marina Soligon started the study of classical dance under the guidance of Prof. Vanna Busolini, She was born in Padova in 1950 and has been involved with dance since she was a girl. She is a niece of art. Her uncle, Amleto Sartori, was a sculptor and creator of theatrical masks that are known all over the world and can be seen in Abano Terme at the “Amleto and Donato Sartori International Museum of Theatrical Masks”.

Marina was still a girl when she started changing the way of interpreting music and selecting musical pieces differently from the traditional way. She felt the need to develop her ideas and started a long “journey” of research and study in the areas of new expressions in contemporary dance and in music. As an adolescent she followed the activities of her uncle whose masks were used for the revived Comedy of the Art for performances directed by Strehler and Gianfranco De Bosio, for Jean Louis Barrault, and for the most famous of the Harlequins of the last century, Marcello Moretti, but also for Eduardo De Filippo and many of the other great European interpreters. Marina Soligon has thus grown up in an environment full of theatrical experiences.

Spontaneous and almost unavoidable was the choice to continue, although on a parallel path, the family passion for the mask. Her cousin Prof. Donato Sartori, director of the “Masks and Gestural Structures Center”, opened the “International Museum of Theatrical Masks Amleto and Donato Sartori” in the eighteenth-century Villa Trevisan Ravioli in Abano Terme” on 30 December 2004. The neutral mask, used in all the performances by the students of the school, is similar to that studied and made for the “école du mime” of Jacques Lecoq. One of the differences is the opening, since in fact dance is a “solar discipline” it was felt that the need of visual effects had to be more radiant and Donato Sartori perfectly understood this need and created a mask especially for the school.

A neutral mask is used to turn our spirit toward our inner “I”, but more openly to give our art and our spirit to humanity, to others like ourselves.

ELENA BAGGIO

Elena Baggio was born in Camposampiero (Padua) on 13 December 1982. She began the study of classical dance under the guidance of Nada Kolak, and at the same time she studied piano, theory and solfeggio at the Malipiero Institute of Padua. Later she continued privately with Prof. Lovisato.
A daughter of art, her mother, Marina Soligon, is a teacher, choreographer and the founder of the Association of the Diffusion of Gestural Dance in Padua, and artistic director of the Gestural Dance Company, also in Padua. She continued the study of dance turning with greater attention to contemporary dance. In 2002 she was awarded a diploma and teaching certificate for intermediate and advanced courses with Claudio Marangone and Furio Bologni. She was an adolescent when she decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps. She is getting ready to start a comprehensive research and study of new expressions of contemporary dance and music. She has devoted herself to research of the “dance gesture” through the use of the “neutral mask”, an almost unavoidable choice having grown up among the masks of the renowned Amleto Sartori, her mother’s uncle. She has been raised in an environment enhanced by dance and art.

Her interests in the artistic field: in 2003 she attended a photography workshop “North East Passage” directed by Marco Munari at the University of Padua. Her photos were selected and chosen for exhibition in two shows organized by DAMS; in 2004 in Bologna she attended a seminar on contemporary dance and improvisation with Michal Mualem and Giannalberto De Filippis. In the same year she attended a video production workshop with university professor Mirco Melanico at the Dams University of Padua. For her final project she presented a video entitled “The modern hermit”. The video was also presented at the Inauguration of the “Taverna of the Gufo” – Padua. In 2005 she formed the ”Company of Gestural Dance” holding the title of Vice President and Artistic Director responsible for special events.
At the Center of the School of Gestural Dance she attended a PHYSICAL THEATER AND CONTEMPORARY DANCE WORKSHOP, a seminar that took place from September 6-9, 2005 with Michal Mualem and Giannalberto De Filippis.

On December 5, 2005 she graduated from the DAMS in Padua specializing in theatre performance. At the same time she had an interview with the Admission Requirement Assessment Committee and its President, Prof. Eugenia Casini Ropa, of the Specialization Degree Course in Theatrical Disciplines of the DAMS in Bologna. After the interview she was admitted to the second level specialization course; her training within the course is on dance.

From December 2006 to February 2007 she attended the workshop organized by IALS in Rome: “Education and Training in dance; study of the choreography”. Within the workshop she followed the courses performed by
Odette Hughes - Random Dance - Repertory Wayne McGregor - London
Elizabeth Corbett - Repertory William Forsythe - Paris
Austin Hartel - Contemporary Dance - Oklahoma
Mauro Astolfi - Spellbound Dance Company - Italy
Gael Domenger - Ballet Biarritz - Repertory Thierry Malandain - Biarritz
Wayne Byars - Centre National de la Danse - Paris
Sean Wood - Ecole de danse de Genève - Ballet Junior - Genève
Tero Saarinen - Tero Saarinen Company - Finland
Pompea Santoro - Repertory Mats Ek - Italy