Stefano Mazzotta
Stefano Mazzotta is a choreographer, dancer, and photographer.
After training in dance and theater from a very young age at the Laboratorio Permanente dell’Attore dei Cantieri Teatrali Koreja (Lecce), he continued his studies at the Civica Scuola d’Arte Drammatica Paolo Grassi, founded in Milan by Giorgio Strehler, where he graduated in 2000. He studied with masters such as Jean Cebron, Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, Marco Baliani, Bruce Michelson, Maria Consagra, Susanna Beltrami, Beatrice Libonati, Raffaella Giordano, Michele Abbondanza, and Davide Montagna. From 2000 to 2008, he worked with directors and choreographers such as Ismael Ivo, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Luca Veggetti, Stefano Monti, Martim Pedroso, Giorgio Marini, Hervé Koubi, Monica Casadei, and Avi Kaiser.
In 2005, with the creation of the Zerogrammi company, where he is still permanent choreographer and artistic director, he embarked on a personal creative and productive journey whose choreographic signature is strongly inspired by the fusion of genres and research in artistic fields and languages that transcend dance, and results of a blend of dance and movement theater. This fusion has given rise to a fluid and evocative style, interrupted only by forms and signs drawn from the rich vocabulary of everyday movement, whose primary feature is a communicative lightness inspired by Calvin. Each creation is the result of studio work, but also of a structured program of Italian and foreign choreographic residencies, research activities, training, and exchanges between artists of different origins and backgrounds. The resulting dialogue and hybridizations, combining choreographic language with literature, photography, video, and the visual arts, become entries in a travel diary that is a search (also geographical and anthropological) for the most effective form of sharing and a scenic honesty projected towards others, built on the words “urgency” and “necessity.”
He has directed artistic projects in collaboration with festivals and theaters in Italy, Portugal, France, Russia, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Germany, receiving various awards: Russian Golden Mask (2012), Vignale Danza (2012), Giocateatro (2009), Oriente Occidente (2008), Premio Hystrio (2013), Apulia Arte festival (2012).
Alongside his work as a choreographer, he is involved in multimedia languages, particularly photography and video. He has published two books of photography for the publishers Artemis and Ilisso and directed his first dance film, “Elegìa delle cose perdute,” which won the D&D Award 2021 for best dance film.
Over the years, he has worked as an artistic and choreographic consultant and tutor at artist residencies including Interconnessioni (Sardinia, Italy), Home (Umbria, Italy), and Air/Lavanderia a Vapore (Piedmont, Italy), and with companies such as Onda teatro (Italy) and Nova Companhia (Portugal). He teaches at institutions such as the Tsekh Dance School (Moscow, Russia), the University of Turin (Italy), the University of Salento (Italy), the summer school of the Civica Scuola d’Arte Drammatica Paolo Grassi (Italy), Alta Formazione/Arearea (Italy), the Accademia Nazionale di Danza/Madis, and at the Turin headquarters of his company, CASA LUFT. In this theater space, production work is accompanied by a broader project that includes local initiatives to promote and raise awareness of contemporary languages, choreographic coworking, and professional training courses in dance and theater.
Since 2018, he has been a member of the RTO at the Lavanderia a Vapore/Residency Center for Dance of the Piedmont Region. Zerogrammi’s artistic and cultural activities are supported by the City of Turin/TAP Torino Arti Performative, the Piedmont Region, and the MIC, Ministry of Culture.