CHOREOGRAPHER
She began her own work as a choreographer in Sweden, as assistant to Cristina Caprioli Grasso.
A year later she started collaborating with Fiorenza D’Alessandro, director of “Balletto di Spoleto”, for whom she would create several pieces:
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Enemy or Friend, on a poem by Anna Akhmatova, also performed in Belgium
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The Waves, freely based on Virginia Woolf’s book
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Three Women, based on a radio piece by Sylvia Plath
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Penelope, danced by Maria Grazia Galante and Sasha Ramos, also performed in Madrid
She then worked with “Teatro Lirico Sperimentale A.Belli” in Spoleto, choreographing and dancing the role of “The Virgin Mary” in G.B. Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, in a staging by director Paolo Baiocco and featuring the actress Piera Degli Esposti.
She continued to work for the “Lirico Sperimentale” doing stage movement work with singers, as assistant to the following directors:
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Alvaro Piccardi in L’Inganno felice
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Franco Ripa di Meana in Don Giovanni
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Gabriele Dolcini in Dido and Aeneas, where she also danced as “The Fury”
She collaborated again with Dolcini, as choreographer and assistant director in Gounod’s Faust, also performed at Ankara’s Opera House.
At the prestigious Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, she created choreographies for War and Peace, directed by Gian Carlo Menotti.
In 1996 she began working with the sports association "La Fenice" in Spoleto, a partnership that would reveal itself to be both precious from an artistic and human perspective.
With Laura Bocchini and Roberto Settimi, managers of the club, she first established a division where athletes from rythmic gymnastics would be able to continue their career into the dance world; from this evolved her first dance company “La Fenicedanza”.
The company, based in Spoleto, has performed shows and installations at the most important venues of the Umbrian region (central Italy).
A distinctive feature of this project was that, even in the absence of meaningful contributions from state or private funds, Daniela had created a semi-professional structure that involved mainly young local talent.
Many artists have collaborated on the project, among them actor Pietro Biondi, painter Jeffrey Isaac and Mauro Bigonzetti, present artistic director of Aterballetto, for the show Giulietta… e Romeo? which was performed at Teatro Nuovo in Spoleto.
In 2004 she created choreographies for Diana Cantelma, a show conceived and directed by “La MaMa” Ellen Stewart, founder of the historical La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club of the East Village in New York.
In 2005 she interpreted the role of “Naomi”, mother of beat poet Allen Ginsberg, in a show for the Nuit Blanche in Perugia, also starring Italian clarinettist Gabriele Mirabassi.
In 2006, at the open-air Narni Opera theatre, she choreographed and danced the role of “Nut”, one of the three goddesses in Verdi’s Aida, directed here by Paolo Baiocco.
In 2010, as actress and choroegrapher, she joined the production of the full-length movie Dance for Life, directed by Francesco Mazza, featuring actor Massimo Ciavarro and dancer Francesco Mariottini in the lead roles.
The project has also seen the collaboration of Keith Young, popular choreographer who has worked on movies such as It’s Complicated and Rent, and created tour choreographies for Madonna and other artists.
In 2012 Daniela is invited by The Ailey School (Official School of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre) to hold a choreographic workshop for their Summer Intensive Program. The 2-month program would entail the creation and final performance of a full-length choreography called "The Last One Turn Off the Light".
THE LAST ONE TURN OFF THE LIGHT Students of The Ailey School
In 2012 Daniela is invited to create a choreography for the dancers of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, to be performed at a festival in Tunisia.
In 2013, Daniela was approached by Lenka Flory e Simone Sandroni, artistic directors of the company Deja Donne, for the creation of an interview entirely dedicated to her personal story. The show, part of the Vale Tudo series, retraced the essential phases of Daniela’s artistic career.
In the summer of 2013 Daniela was invited by theatre and movie director Marco Filiberti to lead along with himself a workshop on body and movement, designed for actors.
The project, produced by the organisation Le Vie del Teatro, had its natural finalisation in the performance Conversation Pieces, based on the plays “Cain” and “Manfred” by Lord Byron.
CONVERSATION PIECES (2013)
based on "Cain" & "Manfred" by Lord Byron
Director: Marco Filiberti
Choreography: Daniela Malusardi
Actors: Luigi Pisani & David Gallarello
3 September 2013
In 2014 Daniela would newly collaborate with Filiberti for the production of the full-length feature Cain, this time also as actress, as well as choreographer of the stage movements of the actors.
In the same year, Daniela would start a long-lasting fertile collaboration with The Hamlyn Dance School in Florence (Italy), directed by former ballerina Nicoletta Santoro. Daniela is initially invited by Alessandra Alberti, former dancer at the Hamburg Ballet and current ballet teacher at the school, to create a choreography for the end-of-year show.
The end product is the piece called Re-Fractions, which would be performed in 2014 and 2015 in several theatres across the Tuscan territory.
RE-FRACTIONS (2014)
Scuola Hamlyn Firenze
Music: Olafur Arnalds
Choreography: Daniela Malusardi
In 2015 Daniela collaborated for the 3rd time with Marco Filiberti in what would be their most ambitious project together, Il Crepuscolo di Arcadia, an all-encompassing theatre piece, where Daniela created the choreographies for the dancers and perfected the stage movements of the actors.
2015 proved to be a very fruitful year as, along with Hamlyn's and Filberti's collaborations, Daniela was also invited to lead a choreographic workshop for The Ashkenazy Ballet Center in Switzerland for heir very first edition of Ticino Summer Intensive. Among the other guest teachers also Alexandre Stepkine and Anthony Basile. Daniela created both a classical and contemporary piece:
TICINO SUMMER INTENSIVE (2015)
Ballet
Ashkenazy Ballet Center
TICINO SUMMER INTENSIVE (2015)
Contemporary
Ashkenazy Ballet Center
In 2016 Daniela is again invited by the Ashkenazy Ballet Center to hold a choreographic workshop for the second edition of their Ticino Summer Intensive. Alexandre Stepkine is also invited, while Daniela is helped by her assistant and long-time friend Gianluca Martorella. A full-length piece is also created during the workshop and performed at the end of the process.
TICINO SUMMER INTENSIVE (2016)
Ashkenazy Ballet Center
During the same year Daniela is again invited by Alessandra Alberti and Nicoletta Santoro of the Hamlyn School to hold a neo-classical workshop for the school's dancers.
The end product is yet another full-length piece called "OMBRE CINESI" that would be performed the following year at the prestigious Teatro Verdi in Florence.
Later that same year Daniela creates a pas-de-deux on Lara Brandi and Gabriel Marseglia, both dancers at the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck, Lara once being a pupil at the Hamlyn School.
In 2018 Daniela is invited by Stefania Cantarelli and Giovanni Patti to hold a Neoclassical and Contemporary workshop during their 6th "Stage Internazionale di Danza Città di Verona", in Verona (Italy). Her personal assistant is again Gianluca Martorella.
The week-long process culminates with the creation of three pieces.
Photo © Caterina Ferrari
1st PIECE - Music: Jeroen Van Veen
2nd PIECE - Music: Max Richter
3rd PIECE - Music: Jeroen Van Veen
In early 2019 Daniela is invited as Guest Choreographer by the Accademia di Danza in Rome (Italy) to hold a choreographic workshop during spring, aimed at the creation of a full-length piece.
The final choreography, "BEAUTY IN THE EYE" was performed in the month of June at the annual end-of-the-season show, part of the larger dance festival "Percorsi".