FINI DANCE FESTIVAL – Italian International Dance Award 2023

The FINI DANCE FESTIVAL Italian International Dance Award 2023 recently concluded its thirteenth edition with great success. The exceptional dancer, choreographer and artistic director Antonio Fini gave the audience at the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater in New York a show of extraordinary beauty and grandeur on the evening of August 31st, masterfully presented by the creative director Tabata Caldironi.

The evening opens with the irrepressible energy of BBoys Fini Dance, a group of young Italian dancers who have studied Hip Hop in New York in recent weeks. The choreography of Antonio Fini and Gianni Santucci, international opera and film choregrapher.

Next on stage are Ermanno Rava and Cristian Prejbaj, dancers selected by Milly Carlucci’s Dancing with the Stars.

From Treviso, a company of Danzaisieme students presented a choreography of 4 dancers who rediscover a parallel reality that was perhaps already part of them.

Melania Liotta Now Dance Movement displays high-quality contemporary technique in “Mediterraneo,” a surge of energy that finds no resolution on music by Vivaldi.

Antonio Fini brought to the stage “The Cosmic Dance of Siva”, a reconstruction of Ted Shaun’s 1926 choreography. The elegant representation shows the Hindu God Shiva destroying and recreating the universe through his dance.

The evening culminated with the Awards ceremony:

• Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Janet Eilber, Art Director of Martha Graham Dance,
• Extraordinary Award was awarded to Jonathan Mendez, exceptional dancer and member of the Ballet Eloelle Grandiva,
• Rising Star Award was awarded to Marzia Memoli, talented dancer and member of the Martha Graham Dance Company,
• A second Rising Star Award was presented to Luigi Crispino, a notable dancer from the American Ballet Theater corps de ballet.

The make-up of the Fini Dance boys was done by a group of make-up artists led by Angie Valentino, who presented the Best Make Up Award sponsored by Aegyptia Milano Make up to Anna Briotti.

The event attracted illustrious spectators, including renowned masters of the American Ballet Theater such as Franco De Vita and Raymond Lukens, director Virginie Mecene of Graham Due, Francis Roach, expert in the Luigi technique, and former television prima ballerina Ornella Fado.

Also present at the event was the Consul General Fabrizio Di Michele, who greeted the public with joy, also expressing admiration for this festival.

Ph. Wendy Wild