New York, NY –Choreographer/Performance Artist Bianca Falco is one of 500 New York City-based artists to receive $5,000 through the City Artist Corps Grants program, presented by The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), with support from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as well as Queens Theatre.
Bianca was recognized for “conamorebia”, which will bring a dance performance to Astor Place the NoHo/East Village neighbourhood of New York in Manhattan on July 16, 2021 3:30-6:30pm.
“conamorebia” means “withlovebia”, with love from Bia, the artist.
Bianca Falco is a choreographer, dancer, dance teacher, certified Pilates teacher, and musician born in Napoli, Italy. After dancing ballet in Italy for several years, she performed in a piece choreographed by Murray Louis and received a scholarship to study contemporary dance at the Nikolais and Louis Dance Lab in New York City. She also studied Zapateado and Son Jarocho (Veracruz folk dance), jazz dance, and movement for theater, as well as Cyr Wheel, aerial silk, and trapeze. She plays the clarinet and jarana, a Mexican string instrument.
Besides dancing for Murray Louis, her early experiences in Europe include operating her own dance school and receiving first prize in an international video dance competition sponsored by RAI Italian national TV. Her dance/soloist credits include Freestyle Die Trilogie”, an experimental dance theater piece choreographed by Peter Fuxx, which premiered at the famous Schauspielhaus Theater in Vienna. She has also danced for Poppo and the Gogo Boys at the Joyce Theater and performed with Fly-by-Night Dance Theater, a low flying trapeze company.
Her long association with La Mama ETC includes choreography for several productions, among them “Intermezzo” (La Mama Moves Dance Festival), “Apnea” (La Mama NYC), and “Easy” (Spoleto Festival, Italy). From 2000 to 2003, she co-directed the emerging dance company, NuVoLe Dance Theatre, which presented new work at the Present Theater Company, the Montreal Fringe Festival, La Mama Moves, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Her choreographic credits also include the Artscorporation’s Acettes (the Highline, NYC), Intermezzo (La MaMa Moves Dance Festival), and several art/music videos for director Massimo Monacelli in Perugia, Italy.
She has also works as a choreographer and movement director for film, theater and video. She choreographed the music/art video “Somebody to Love” directed by Josh Jordan, the western-themed film musical ‘A Ballad for Tex” and the short film “ALEX”, which won “Best Fiction Film” and “Best Cinematography” at the Directors Guild of America’s festival Cityvisions in 2011.
From 2011 to 2015, Bianca was the choreographer and Movement Director for the Middle School and High School division of La Scuola d’Italia Guglielmo Marconi, the only Italian bilingual and bicultural school in New York City. Most recently, she workshopped “Searching” a dance/spoken word/live music event, performed at the No-Lesque performance art series at the Slipper Room. In 2016 She is creating and performing site specific dance and acting for Zero Boy’s interactive comedy and high art monthly event.
Her latest project “Terra dei Fuochi / Land of Fires” is based on the toxic waste scandal in her homeland Italian region Campania. The project started when she read The Gospels of the Land of Fire by Father Patriciello, and watched a collection of interviews with the mothers of Campania, suffering for the loss of their kids to cancer.
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club produced “Terra dei Fuochi / Land of Fires”. The project received its world premiere in March 2017, as part of their 55th season, and in doing so lend their support to the mission of the project.
“Terra dei Fuochi / Land of Fires” has been granted as well a residency by prestigious Chashama. The residency took place December 7-20 2016 at XOCO 325 Gallery in Soho, NYC.
Bianca was a teaching artist at Mopa/Mudra Foundation in Odisha, India, September 2017 and performed as a dance artist in Singapore at the 9th Xposition ‘O’ Contemporary Dance Fiesta, November 2017. Bianca collaborated and performed in Italy for a
NY/Italian theather production, May 2018 and presented her solo “Marzia” at Smush gallery, NJ in August 2018.
“Terra dei Fuochi/Land of Fires” has been chosen to be part of the performance programming for Performance is Alive at the SATELLITE ART SHOW during Miami Art Week (Art Basel) in December 2018.
In 2020 Bianca performed at OnlinePerformanceArt Festival and was one of the artist chosen to be part of The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2020 with her work “Toxic/Skin/Terrae”.
Bianca is a part of “the modern dance awareness society” since almost two decades. She humbled to have the chance to co-direct since 2019 Passtrespass with the funder of the project, choreographer Despina Sophia Stamos.
She has been raised in the arts and enjoys keeping alive our family traditions. Bianca is a descended from Raffaele Calace (1863 – 1934), a famed Italian mandolin player, composer, and luthier. He and his brother Nicola were instrument makers in the Neapolitan mandolin family and their atelier continues to this day.
Bianca seeks to explore connectivity: the interaction and ties people have with each other, other living creatures, objects, and their environment. She explores how the physicality of movement is challenged, modified, and transformed through response and engagement with outer phenomena. She is from Napoli, one of the most creative, and sometimes, challenging cities in the world. Through dance, she learned that she could transcend difficulties through translating it into modern dance. She hopes to lead everyone to a different perception, a different place, where limitations are beautiful and a key for people to get together and find solutions to social issues as well as personal ones.
black and white by http://www.albertocristofari.it
header photo and color photo by http://www.antoinelutens.com