Gaetano Posterino
Career as a dancer
After a first engagement at the Balletto di Toscana Florence he danced for a variety of companies as soloist in Italy (e.g. Ballet L'Ensemble de Micha van Hoecke), Argentina (Teatro San Martin), the United States (San Francisco Ballet), the UK (English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet), Switzerland (Lucerne Ballet, Ventura Dance Company, The Orma Dance Theatre) and as first soloist at Peter Schaufuss Ballet (Denmark) and for many years as first soloist at Hessian State Ballet in Wiesbaden.
His career lead him onto stages in more than 100 countries. He performed roles in choreographic works of e.g. Oscar Araiz, Tarek Assam, George Balanchine, Patrice Bart, Ben van Cauwenberg, John Cranko, Nils Christe, Derek Daine, Mats Ek, Antonio Gomes, Enrico C. Musmeci, Jiří Kylián, Inbal Pinto, Helgi Tómasson, Peter Schaufuss, James Sutherland, Stephan Thoss, Boris Trailine, Pablo Ventura, Richard Wherlock and Ed Wubbe. The performances included well-known classical repertoire pieces as well as modern and contemporary works.
The choreographer
At an early stage in 1995, Posterino discovered his talent for choreography. Parallel to his dance career he created a large number of very versatile, international choreographic works. Over many years he created for Hessian State Ballet Wiesbaden as house choreographer, International Dance Theatre Reutlingen as artistic director and principal choreographer and State Theatre Ballet Augsburg as house choreographer.
He has been commissioned as guest choreographer by Ballet Istanbul, Ballet de Santiago de Chile, Pennsylvania Ballet, Lucerne Ballet, Semperoper Dresden, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, State Theatre Augsburg, Ballet Wuerzburg, Theatre Hagen, International May Festival Wiesbaden and ARD Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen.
His over 60 works include full evening story ballets, dance theatre pieces, duets and solos, operas and dance films. A complete work listing can be found on his personal webpage.
Gaetano Posterino has been invited to international festivals with several creations, including Aarhus Dance Festival, Bilbao Dance Festival, Dance First Festival Fuerstenfeldbruck, Internationales Festival Kultur vom Rande Reutlingen, Lisboa Dance Festival, Marata de l'Espectacle Barcelona, Manifestation d'Art Contemporain Paris, TanzArt Ost West Giessen and Tanzfestival Bielefeld.
He received eleven international awards for his choreographic works and dance performances. His work is supported by state and municipal institutions, enterprises and foundations and has received excellent reviews in important newspapers and dance publications.
Artistic collaborations
In many productions Posterino collaborated with other artists:
- theatre directors like Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak (Armide), John Dew (Platée), Stefan Huber (Carmina Burana) or Axel Köhler (Švanda dudák, Das Land des Lächelns),
- dramatic advisers like Nora Schmid (Švanda dudák),
- conductors like Mikhail Agrest (Švanda dudák), Sébastien Rouland (Armide, Platée), Toshiyuki Kamioka (Carmen) or Kevin John Edusei (Das Land des Lächelns),
- live musicians like Tim Raschke, Roman Rindberger and Roland Vanecek (Operalectric), Heiner Rekeszus (Stimmungen eines Fauns, The Mime – Hommage an Charlie Chaplin), Thomas Lambrecht (Einfach so) or Chamber Orchestra City Theatre Augsburg (Pulcinella, Geschichte des Soldaten, Les Noces),
- composers like Jan Paul Werge (Olymp Express, Der Soldat – Molotov Soul) or Ilse Fromm-Michels (Stimmungen eines Fauns),
- costume designers like Angelo Alberto (Pulcinella, Geschichte des Soldaten, Les Noces), Lana Lafer (Chronos), Katharina Weißenborn (Das Land des Lächelns) or Adriana Mortelliti (ViceVersa),
- actors like Kristina van Eyck (Operalectric), Galina Freund, Yvonne Lachmann and Rüdiger Götze (Einfach so, Die Zofen),
- film directors like Frank Bäumer (Chronos, Four Choreography Moods) or Naira Cavero (Entfremdung),
- stage designers like Marcel Keller (Pulcinella, Geschichte des Soldaten, Les Noces), Arne Walter (Švanda dudák) or Frank Philipp Schlößmann (Das Land des Lächelns) and
- make-up artists like Olesia Pantchenko (Chronos).
Choreographic signature
In his work today, highly agile dance theatre meets modern, expressive choreography: his works are held in an avant-garde experimental style that combines flowing contemporary movement vocabulary, denial of gravity, modern intensive floor work, dance theatre, speech, singing, enriched with almost acrobatic and humorous elements. Posterino uses a reflective introspective search for movement reflected in dance, which focuses on fascinating expressions of modern diction in order to open up new spaces for dance – flowing, faltering, sensitive, but also rough and dirty.
He conveys his artistic development through a dynamic choreography that works interdisciplinarily and draws on literary, performative and sociological approaches. And that focuses on perfect body control in dance as well as strong expression in gestures and facial expressions.
International awards
- 2021: Premio Danza Calabria 2021 for his international career, Rende / Italy
- 2017: Winner Movie Competition of Bavarian State Government, Munich / Germany for "Entfremdung"
- 2007: 2nd at ÖTR Contest / Wien Welt Wettbewerb, Vienna / Austria for "Time Lock"
- 2006: 2nd at USA International Ballet Competition, Jackson / USA for "Vivaldi"
- 2006: 2nd for International Ballet Competition, Varna / Bulgaria for "Zone"
- 2005: 1st for Helsinki International Ballet Competition, Helsinki / Finland for "Time Lock"
- 2002: Balletto Award 2000 (Dance Magazin) as on of the most active Italian dancers in Europe
- 1999: Laudatium of Queen Margarete of Denmark for his artistic performance in "The man of the past" of Peter Schaufuss, Copenhagen
- 1991: Silver medal at International Ballet Competition, Varna / Bulgarien
- 1990: 1st at Primo Concorso Internazionale di Danza Città di Rieti / Italy
- 1990: 1st and Audience Award at Concorso Benetton Treviso / Italy
- 1990: Gold medal at International Dance Competition Dom Perignon Brussels / Belgium
