600 beats
SHOWCASE DIF AND EURASIA
FIRST EDITION 2024
The showcase of 600 BEATS in Florence has been hosted by DanzaInFiera, a successful event that in three days achieved more than 18,000 attendees of choreographic art enthusiasts. “We tried to give visibility and attention to those who want to make choreographic creation their business,” says Raffaello Napoleone, CEO of Pitti Immagine, organiser of the event: we have dedicated this event to emerging choreographers in order to encourage them in their production and offer them opportunities for professional growth. This was also made possible by the collaboration with UniCredit, main partner of the Pitti shows, which has always been committed to supporting the talent and training of the younger generations’.
UniCredit, in fact, strongly wanted and supported the realisation of 600 BEATS, a project which offers an important opportunity for professional growth to a promising Italian choreographers. This demonstrates the Group’s commitment to supporting and promoting cultural, artistic and sports activities. Initiatives that constitute a driving force for the social and economic development of communities, lifting the curtain on the talent and beauty of our country and inspiring people to be more creative, optimistic and open-minded. This is in line with the main objective of UniCredit on its journey to become the bank for Europe’s future: to unlock the potential of people, businesses and communities by providing them with the levers for progress.
The call for 600 BEATS received a strong response: we received applications from Italy, France, Spain, Great Britain, Armenia, Mexico and India to bring to Florence five finalists.
The project also highlighted the merit of the other candidates: the EurAsia Scholarships for the three years of the IODC (Canada-UK) online programme, the only three-year programme on composition and choreography regulated and accredited by the UK Government, were awarded to the two youngest but very talented candidate choreographers both as dancers and as creatives Simone Cristofori and Elisa Cloza. Two promises of Italian contemporary dance, very strong technically and who brought to the stage in Florence a stage presence and a very mature quality of movement, despite their young age, which we will certainly hear about in the near future.
planning for the new artistic idea proposed for the residencies of 600 BEATS.
After the online pre-selection, below are the names of the choreographers who were invited by Stefano Fardelli for the showcase in Florence and so for the second phase of the open call 600 BEATS.
This was a dance opportunity for choreographers organized by Stefano Fardelli in collaboration with Pitti Immagine and supported by Unicredit.
Why ‘600 Beats’? Because each pre-selected choreographer had 600 seconds, 10 minutes, to present one of their existing works, live in Florence on February 23rd.
The open call required choreographers to write a dossier for a new solo project or for a duet if the author was also a dancer. They had to write a new project inspired by the culture of one of the countries in the world where the EurAsia Dance Project International Network is based in all the five continents.
The chosen choreographer was given the chance to realize and work on the new artistic project presented by dossier, that will develop together with one of the EurAsia Dancers, through residencies and performances in Europe.
All artistic residencies will be financially supported and therefore remunerated with a cachet for the two artists (selected choreographer + EurAsia Dancer).
The showcase partners for this event were DanzaInFiera (Florence, Italy), Balletto di Siena (Italy), Kaos Balletto di Firenze (Italy), Shoonya Dance Centre of Ghent (Belgium) and Choreography Online’s IODC (Canada – UK).
The selected choreographers were as follows:
