THIS IS A PREMIERE
Cristiana Morganti + Emanuele Soavi (Wuppertal / Pistoia / Cologne)
Co-Production | German | ages 12 and up
This unusual collaboration brings together two strong personalities of the international dance world for the first time. Cristiana Morganti and Emanuele Soavi share the stage: the long-standing protagonist of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, now a freelance choreographer, and the choreographer influenced by William Forsythe and Jiří Kylián, who has been directing his company Emanuele Soavi incompany in Cologne for thirteen years. As performers and authors, they explore their understanding of art and theatre in an interplay of words, gestures and dance – and at the same time question their origins. They are an Italian woman from Rome and an Italian man from Ferrara, who have lived and worked mainly in Germany for over twenty years.
THIS IS A PREMIERE is a choreographic space for memories. A play with found objects, a reassembly of experiences. Scenes from earlier pieces and personal experiences condense into physical reflections, giving rise to new ideas, associations and images.
The result is a pointed portrait of two artistic life paths - and a critical discussion of the current codes of the dance world: fashions and trends, unspoken expectations and clear restrictions, as well as increasingly stringent production requirements. Cristiana Morganti and Emanuele Soavi stage themselves – and do it with so much wit and self-irony that the supposed narcissism turns into a wonderfully playful commentary on art.
Biographies
CRISTIANA MORGANTI graduates in Classical Dance at the National Dance Academy in Rome and in Modern Dance at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. She widens her training studying in Denmark with the Odin Teatret of Eugenio Barba. In the following years she collaborates with a number of established choreographers such as Susanne Linke, Urs Dietrich, Felix Ruckert, Joachim Schlömer.
From 1989 until 1992 she is a member of the company Neuer Tanz directed by VA Wölfl and Wanda Golonka. She participates to the creation of the pieces Räumen, Gelage, Sieben Miniaturen, Ballet nr 5 and she dances in many repertory pieces, among them: Leitz, Die Schiefe, Das Böse Minute.
From 1993 until 2014 she is solo dancer at Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal. She dances in most of the repertoire performances and participates in many new creations such as: Trauerspiel, Danzon, Der Fensterputzer, Masurca Fogo, O Dido, Agua, Nefés, Rough Cut, Bamboo Blues. As part of Pina Bausch Tanztheater, she also starred in Pedro Almodovar’s film Talk to her (2001) and in Wim Wenders’ Pina (2011).
More information: https://cristianamorganti.de/
EMANUELE SOAVI started his career at Opera Roma and Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Engagements at Ballet Dortmund the Dutch company Introdans followed, during wich he worked with Jiří Kylián, Hans van Manen, William Forsythe and Mats Ek. Since 2016 he has been working as a freelance choreographer for independent ensembles, companies, theaters and universities, among them Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich (current production PETER PAN in 2016), Theater Aachen, Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, ARTEz Dance Academy Arnheim, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, MMcompany and Agora Coaching Project Reggio Emilia. As part of movingtheatre.de he has been nominated for the Cologne Dance Award multiple times and was awarded with this prize in 2009.
Soavi’s works have been invited for numerous guest performances and international festivals in Austria, Belarus, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
In 2012 Soavi founded EMANUELE SOAVI INCOMPANY, based in Cologne. Since then the ensemble works on interdisciplinary, structural and artistic networking – regionally, nationally and internationally. The work centers on questioning the relationships between music and dance, body and world, and the further development of a specialized body language and choreographic signature. Based on profound – also scientific – research, the projects take a universal look at psychology, mythology, iconography and their relevance in the here and now.
In a wide variety of formats, the ensemble builds bridges between experiment and large-scale project, research and practice, heritage and the present, institution and independent scene, artists and audience. In different places such as museums, churches, hotels, galleries, clubs and educational institutions, border crossings between artistic genres and even literature and the visual arts are created.
More information: https://emanuelesoavi.de
Credits
Idea + Choreography + Performance Cristiana Morganti, Emanuele Soavi Lighting Design Simone Mancini Costüme Chiara Venturini Outside Eye Achim Conrad, Kenji Takagi Choreographic Assistence Elena Copelli, Federico Casadei Sound Editing Federico Casadei Technical Director Roman Srok Project Management + Outreach Miriam Leysner Editing + PR Anne-Kathrin Reif Production Management Achim Conrad
Production Emanuele Soavi incompany + Cristiana Morganti Co-Production euro-scene Leipzig, Pina-Bausch-Zentrum – Wuppertal, Centro Servizi Culturali Santa Chiara – Trento, TanzFaktur – Köln Funding Kulturamt der Stadt Köln, Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen Support Teatri di Pistoia Centro di Produzione Teatrale – Pistoia, Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, NATIONALE PERFORMANCE NETZ Co-production funding for dance, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
Audiodescription Beatrix Hermens, Matthias Huber, Cathi Matthies, Jana Rath – supported by Aktion Mensch
Kreation TanzFaktur, Cologne, 24 October 2025
Main Supporters
euro-scene leipzig is institutionally supported by the City of Leipzig and the Saxon State Ministry for Higher Education, Culture and Tourism. Co-financed by tax revenue on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament.