KEA TONETTI Dancer, choreographer, performer and teacher, eclectic artist who has made dance her primary path, interweaving many other disciplines, such as theatre, voice and yoga, in her personal and spiritual growth, which have nourished and enriched her artistic and pedagogical message.
Born in 1971 in Italy, she currently lives in Milan. Motivated by her love of movement, she studies classical dance for twelve years, from the age of eight, broadening her studies from the age of fifteen with training in modern and contemporary dance in Italy, South of France and Paris, New York. In 1990 in New York she attends the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Steps, Martha Graham School, Limon Institute and Peridance Center.
From 1991 to 1993, while living in Paris, she continues her studies at L’ècole de Peter Goss, La Ménagerie de Verre and the Centre Harmonic, studying with Lucienne Denunce, Norio Yoshida, Anne Dreyefus, Jean Yves Ginoux, Jean Marc Boitere, Peter Goss and Redha, among others. Additionally, while in Paris, she practices Hatha Yoga at the Federation Française de Hatha Yoga.
From 1994 she continues her studies in Italy and in Europe, working with various choreographers, including Terry Weikel, Ivan Wolfe, Stephen Petronio, Randy Warshaw, Dominique Dupuy, Raffaella Giordano, Giorgio Rossi, Roberto Castello, Michele Abbondanza and Antonella Bertoni. In 2002/03 she participates in the “V Corso di perfezionamento di coreografia modern e contemporaneo, teatro danza da vicino” in Rome, taught by Michele Abbondanza, Antonella Bertoni, Giorgio Rossi, Simona Bucci, Carolyn Carlson, and Susanne Linke.
Her research in theatre leads her to the exploration of her own clown with Pierre Byland, the director Danio Manfredini and the actor Gabriel E. Hernandez of the Teatro de los Sentidos. She further deepens her dance experience by participating in workshops of African dance, traditional dance of Magreb (with El Hadi Chèriffa), “Candomblè” dance of Brazil (with Augusto Omulù), “Chau” dance (of the Bihar tribe of India) with Abani Biswas’ company “Melon Mela” and Kalaripayat, the antique Indian martial art. From 1990 to 2004 she works as a dancer and choreographer with various theatre and dance theatre companies. Among others, she collaborates with the Teatro della Contraddizione, Maria Carpaneto, La danza immobile with Corrado Accordino, Edoardo Favetti, Lorenzo Sanguedolce, the Teatro delle Moire with Alessandra De Santis, Paolo Ferrari and Alessandra Pescetta.
In 2002 she encounters Butoh dance, a revealing discovery that allows her to liberate her own movement, beyond forms, in a revolution of the body that yearns to be reunified with the Spirit. Thus her path takes a new direction, influenced by various Butoh dancers and masters, including Atsushi Takenouchi (Jinen Butoh), Yumiko Yoshioka, Ko Murobushi, Seisaku ( T. Hijikata Butoh), Yoshito Ohno, Yukio Waguri, Hisako Horikawa, Natsu Nakajima, Mitsuyo Uesugi, Masaki Iwana (White Butoh), Joan Laage, Yuri Nagaota and Motimaru Dance Company. Butoh dance represents for her the possibility of reuniting her spiritual path with that of dance and becomes, in 2009, predominant in her creations and presentations.
In 2002 she is introduced to Sensitive Dance®, completing a four year training with Claude Coldy and the osteopaths of the French school, Jean Louis Dupuy and Marie Guyon, becoming a teacher in 2007 as well as Claude Coldy’s assistant in his seminars in nature and in studio. Sensitive Dance reawakens in her a renewed vision of dance and of the origins of movement, becoming an integral part of her research and allowing her to more fully explore dancing in nature, in contact with the elements.
Her artistic work also leads her to study voice and singing as expressive possibilities that are inseparable from the body and as expressive necessities on stage. Her teachers include Mari Boine (Lapland singing), Saynko Namcylak (Tuva throat singing), Amelia Cuni (Indian Druphad singing), Massimo Laguardia (Sicilian Tamorra) and Tivitavi (voice and mantra). From 2008 she studies voice with Carola Caruso, following Gisela Rohmert’s Functional Method of voice .
For some years she has been a practicing and researching various Eastern spiritual disciplines and paths, particularly yoga, tantra and shamanism. In 1995 she encounters the practice of Hara Yoga, founded by Giò Fronti in Milan, of which she becomes a teacher in 2001. Hara Yoga is a path that is characterized by a rich interweaving of various practices from different cultures and both Eastern and Western spirituality, embracing a broad vision of the origins of the practice of tantric yoga and including martial arts, therapy, self-therapy, meditation and art. With Master Giò Fronti, she also studies the art of manual contact through the therapeutic practice of “Setsu Shin”, touching the Spirit, and of “Shin Ki Ren”, healing energy through the visualization of light; she also practices the “Rite of cure”, a form of active prayer carried out through deep manual contact, channelled breathing and mantric vibration. She studies Yoga Ratna for one year with Gabriella Cella Al-Chamali and undertakes studies of meditation and internal listening with Marina Borruso. She undergoes training in Thai massage in Chiang Mai, Thailand. She is exposed to and practices with healers and shamans from various cultures: Siberia and Tuvan shamanism, with the shaman Aitchurek Ojun, and Venezuelan spiritism, during journeys of initiation. Her studies of tantric yoga and shamanism, in which the emanation of the divine pervades all aspects of life, inspire her to dance in contact with nature and to explore the subconscious and spiritual dimensions of the human being through her art.
After meeting Alejandro Jodorowsky in 2001, she undertakes a ten-year artistic and therapeutic path with his son, Cristòbal Jodorowsky, through the study of Psychogeneaology and the practice of Psychomagic. With him, she completes a training in family tree reading and takes part in a research group (Gips) on ritualistic psychoshamanism. In 2010 she begins a five-year itinerary with Paulina Jade Doniz in the study of the Tarot of Marseilles, psychogeneaology and Mexican shamanism, becoming her assistant and Tarot reader. With Jade, she also undergoes a path of therapy through a practice of healing through the body, which combines bioenergetics with holotropic breathing.
In 2008 she founds CompagniaKha with Tivitavi, producing performances of Butoh dance and Sensitive Dance with live acoustic and electronic music, collaborating with artists such as Atsushi Takenouchi, founder of Jinen Butoh, the musician Hiroko Komiya, the choreographer and butoh dancer Joan Laage, the dancers Yuko Ota and Marek Jason Isleib, the master of Noh Theatre Monique Arnaud, the performer Shaiba Vincenzo Geddo, the musician Ogam Fabio Malizia, the video artist Alessandra Pescetta. With Tivitavi she opens the Spazio Continuum in Milan, a centre of artistic research, where she teaches and creates. She has been teaching for more then 20 years in Italy and abroad, offering her pedagogic, artistic and spiritual research through courses and seminars in various venues, including theatres, dance schools and art studios.
PERFORMANCE AND CHOREOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE:
2024 – Splendore solo by Kea Tonetti with live music by Tivitavi, at the Valence Butoh Festival 2024, France; at the Sol de Sabba Festival, in Bosa, Sardinia, Italy; at the Festival ” Le Voci dell’Anima” in Rimini, Italy.
2024 – Being Humans coreography by Kea Tonetti , live music by Tivitavi, with: Kea Tonetti, Mariagiulia Leuzzi, Puer Purpura, Šamaš Sarmiento. Milano Spazio Continuum.
2023 – Elettra, performance dedicated to violence against women, inspired by the poetry of Donatella Bisutti and read by Sonia Grandis, for the Parole Splanacate Festival, at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa and at the Royal Palace of Monza; Valence Butoh Festival 2024.
2022/23 – Splendore with the live-music by Tivitavi for the Amsterdam Butoh Festival at Munganga Theater, and for the Hybrid Butoh Festival in Vienna, at the space Das Lot, Helsinki Butoh Festival 2023, at the Miniature Festival 2023, Ruvo di Puglia.
2022- Trafics with the acousmatic music of Denis Royer for the Festival En Chair et en Son #7 at Aleph Theatre in Paris.
2021- Terre Rare-Mémoire des Sols with the acousmatic music of Rodolphe Collange, presented to the Festival En chair et en Son#6 of Paris, in Theatre Aleph. the performance received a beautiful review of the dance critic Jean Marie Gourreau on the magazine Critiphotodanse.
2019/21- Mono with the live-music of Tivitavi, presented to the: Rosenhof Festival 2019, Tegernau, D; Sommer Werft Festival 2019, in Frankfurt am Main, D; Amsterdam Butoh Festival 2020, Munganga Teatro; Festival Le Voci dell’Anima 2021 of Rimini, Teatro degli Atti, where received the organization prize awarded by the artistic direction.
2020 _ Collaboration to two projects with Joan Laage: dances for Ruvers running red with Joan Laage and in Strata, a group performance directed by Joan with: Kea Tonetti, Maruska Ronchi, Elisa Tagliati, Gauri Silvia Fontana, Giulia Leuzzi, Marco Casiraghi, Veronica Vetrila, Ricardo Sarmiento Muñoz, Aeryn Rock.
2019- collaboration with Ferruccio Ascari for the performance chi è Stato? (for the victims of Piazza Fontana and Pino Pinelli) as choreographer and dancer, at Pacta Theater and in the board room of Palazzo Marino, Milano; in 2021 at the Novecento Museum of Milano.
2019- Two little Pierrot dance with Joan Laage for the Paris Butoh Festival at Espace Culturel Bertin Poirée , Remnands dance with Joan Laage, Elisa Tagliati, Giulia Leuzzi, Ricardo Munoz, Marco Casiraghi, with live music of Tivitavi at Spazio Continuum in Milan.
2018 – Tasogare dance with Atsushi Takenouchi and live-music by Hiroko Komiya e Tivitavi, at Fabbrica del Vapore in Milano, The Art Land.
2018 – 19 – Amor with live-music of Tivitavi, Milan at Spazio Continuum; Budapest at Harom Hollo ; Festival Hortus Conclusus in Novi Ligure, Vicenza Teatro Comunale, Festival Haru no Kase 2019.
2018 – Dances for the performance directed by Joan Laage “Three little Pierrot” with Joan Laage and Maruska Ronchi in Pontedera at Spazio Nu.
2016-17 -18 Ātman live-music by Tivitavi, Festival ” La voce del corpo” Osnago and “The Living Art ” Space Shed in Schio, VI, Italy, Horslits Festival, Venice; Festival “Haru no Kaze”, Teatro Comunale, Vicenza, 2017; Most Center, Odessa, Ukraine 2017, Festival ” La Voci dell’Anima 2018″, Rimini Italy 2018.
2016 – Ma to ma with Atsushi Takenouchi and live-music by Hiroko Komiya and Tivitavi, Spazio Continuum, Milano.
2016 Dunkelspiegel with Marek Jason Isleib and live-music by Tivitavi for Art Action Festival, Monza, IT.
2016 Tribute to David Bowie – dance for the event Justforoneday, directed by Giorgio Magarò.
2015-16 White-hot, with live music by Tivitavi, at the Pontedera Butoh Festival, Italy; for the event Behind the Movement at the Loophole in Berlino, for the Stems Festival Migratorio des Artes in Barcellona, Spain; at the Jurányi Art Incubator Haouse in Budapest, Hungary; at Teatr Novyy Balet, Moscow and One Theater – Krasnodar, Russia in 2016.
2015 Sacred Night with Atsushi Takenouchi and live music by Tivitavi and Hiroko Komiya, at the Macao in Milan.
2015 Choreographs Hana with live music by Tivitavi, for the dancers of the company “Vinculation” directed by Isabel Beteta at Los Tailleres in Mexico City.
2014 Hana no inochi – Life of the flower, with Atsushi Takenouchi and live music by Tivitavi and Hiroko Komiya, at the Spazio Tadini in Milan.
2014 Participates with Tivitavi in the Festival Butoh Off in Basel, with an improvisation.
2014 Kha, with live music by Tivitavi, at the Művelődési Szint-Müszi in Budapest.
2013-16 Yo soy azul, with live music by Tivitavi, presented at various theatres and festivals: at Kulturraum Rosenhof Festival Tegernau, Germany, in 2013, at Jurányi Art Incubator Haouse in Budapest, Hungary, in 2014, at One Theatre in Krasnodar, Russia, for l’Evolutive dance festival Behind the movement and at Brotfabrik in Berlin, at Brady Arts Centre in London, at Un Teatro Centro Cultural in Mexico City, at the Festival Grandezza Naturale in Oggiono, Lecco, at the Moving Bodies Butoh Festival in Bologna, in 2015; at the festival Solliloquios y dialogos bailado, Teatro Los Tailleres in Mexico City; for the event In Butoh in Lion; at Espai30 in Barcellona, Spain.
2012 Enthullt: The flower garden with Shaiba Vincenzo Geddo and live music by Tivitavi and Ogam Fabio Malizia, for the Rosenhof Festival in Tegernau, and the Werkraum Schöpflin, Lörrach-Brombach,D.
2013 Mothersea, live music by Tivitavi, for the installation The plastic side of the sea at the Straf Hotel in Milan.
2013 Utsusemi with live music by Tivitavi for the Festival La voce del corpo, Osnago, Italy.
2012 Utsusemi, with the Master of Noh Theatre Monique Arnaud and live music by Tivitavi and Ogam Fabio Malizia, for the Centro Alik Cavaliere in Milan.
2012 Inori in a church in Milan.
2010 Wu, with live music by Tivitavi for the Festival Rosenhof in Tegernau, Germany; Trace Becoming Art, for Perypezye Urbane, Milan; for PAF Performing Art Festival 2011, in Meina, Italy.
2009 Space is body with the Butoh dancer Yuko Ota, live music by Tivitavi and Ogam at the Spazio Continuum in Milan.
2009-11 Shishigami, Spirito della foresta, with live music by Tivitavi, for the Festival Rosenhof in Tegernau, Germany in 2009 and for the Sconfinando Sarzana festival in Italy in 2010, Eco-Art Festival Asti, Italy, 2011;Theatre “La scala della vita”, Milano.
2009 Dancer in the art video La veglia di Venere, directed by Alessandra Pescetta.
2009 Dancer in Spiegel im Spiegel, directed by Pilar Buira Ferre at the Festival Rosenhof in Tegernau, Germany.
2008 Memoire d’eau, with live music by Tivitavi, for the event Fuori Salone in Milan.
2008 Omoshiroi, live music by Tivitavi, Davide Livornese and Ogam Fabio Malizia presented at the Studio Novi in Milan.
2008 Founds CompagniaKha with Tivitavi, working as a choreographer and dancer for the company since then, collaborating with other musicians and dancers.
2008 Presents her first self-directed solo piece, L’ombra della luce, at the Festival Kulturrraum Rosenhof in Tegernau, Germany.
2005 Dancer, five months pregnant, for the Teatro delle Moire, directed by Alessandra De Santis. 2007 Ador-azione – interactive performance at the Studio D’Ars in Milan.
2003 Dancer and choreographer for Fremito d’apocalisse, with piano accompaniment by Paolo Ferrari.
2002-03 Participation with other artists in the project Mass-Construction, a performance group that includes the saxophonist Lorenzo Sanguedolce, the painter and musician Tivitavi, the actress Sabina Villa and the dancer Antonella Dell’Ara.
2003 Dancer and choreographer for Fremito d’apocalisse, with piano accompaniment by Paolo Ferrari.
2002 Dancer and choreographer for Astratta Commedia by Paolo Ferrari, directed by Corrado Accordino.
2001 Dancer and choreographer for In-vitro, directed by Edoardo Favetti.
2000 Dancer in L’inferno di Strindberg, directed by Edoardo Favetti.
1993 Collaboration with the Teatro della Contraddizione as a choreographer and dancer in the production of Danton, la mort and Don Giovanni el Burlador de Sevilla directed by Marco Maria Linzi.
1998-2000 Dancer in the productions of Isolde, T.I. and Rava Noir (with live music by Enrico Rava and Stefano Bollani), by Maria Carpaneto.