Francesca Santamaria in NPAFE’s words…

Photo Credit: Emanuele Tetto

…Italy’s Francesca Santamaria is an especially expressive young creator of dance movement whose partiality for careful research as well as her love of dance itself is bringing her impressive recognition for video and live productions. Both an expressive dance artist and dance scholar, she is working closely and successfully with collaborators in film and technology to create works of art that merge multiple artistic languages.

…Santamaria favors simplicity and essentiality. Her works are strongly influenced by the theoretical studies in Performing Arts she pursued during her university career. Her presence in today’s Europe of dance is to be seen and felt for more than just her vibrant inner drive for originating dance movement. She is driven to to seek out and collaborate with filmmakers who are themselves partial to using advanced technology for creating visual dance masterworks that will immerse audiences.

Photo Credit: Emanuele Padovani

…Can someone really immerse audiences in 2D video? Determined to marshal and marry dance, filmmaking and technology, Santamaria says yes, but only if the vision and follow-through are right. Hardly claiming to be expert in technology herself, she conceptualizes the choreography in relation to the screen and music and then collaborates with those who know how to leverage technology. It’s a compelling formula: she and they combine their respective skills to create works of dance art that converge multiple art forms.

Photo Credit: Nazario Cruciano

……Who are these masters Santamaria seeks out? They are the relative handful of technology geniuses and filmmakers themselves willing to go the distance in learning how to think and even move while the camera is rolling almost as if they were dance performers themselves.

Photo Credit: Emanuele Padovani

…Which is exactly what we see Santamaria achieving with her strong focus on building teams able to create a continuous interplay between dance movement, camera and music. The result? Audiences get to see, hear and feel not just the story she intends to tell but also stories that they invent and tell themselves when the fires of their own imagination are lit by the thought product of Santamaria’s mind.

…What a superb way for audiences to be inspired! And you will be inspired when you see the images and videos below, and especially when you follow Francesca Santamaria on her website and social media.