Maristella Martella, dancer and choreographer. In 2001, together with Eugenio Bennato, she founded the first school entirely dedicated to the study of traditional dances from Central and Southern Italy and their contemporary interpretation - “Taranta Power” in Bologna. She carries out a theatrical and dance research on the phenomenon of Tarantism and Mediterranean dance and rituals. Since 2003 she has participated in many artistic and didactic residencies in Tunisia, Morocco, France, Egypt and Italy. In 2009 Maristella founded Tarantarte Association in Salento. She holds a permanent dance and choreography atelier in professional dance schools: IALS (Roma), CID Oriente Occidente (Rovereto), Centre Fleury Barbara (Paris), Carlo V Castle (Lecce).
Maristella is a choreographer of the Tarantarte dance company with which she has created numerous works. From 2006 she has been a soloist dancer at La Notte della Taranta Festival and a choreographer of the final shows in the editions directed by Ludovico Einaudi, Goran Bregovic e Giovanni Sollima.
• La notte della Taranta Festival, edition 2011, directed by Ludovico EINAUDI • La notte della Taranta Festival, edition 2012, directed by Goran BREGOVIC. • La notte della Taranta Festival, edition 2013, directed by Giovanni SOLLIMA.
In the edition of 2015, directed by Phil Manzanera, Maristella participated as a dancer with choreographer Roberto Castello. Dancer and choreographer of video dance projects directed by Edoardo Winspeare, “Taràn SOLOdiTARANTA”, MAMMA SIRENA, and by Azzurra LUGARI,“KORE La danse de Perséphone” with Tarantarte dance company as performers and Officina Zoè playing life music.
On May 2016, in collaboration with Teatro Pubblico Pugliese and Puglia Sounds, she participated in an art residency in Morocco in order to create an opening show for Festival di Fes Musiques Sacrées (Fes, Morrocco) directed by Alain Weber.
In June 2016 Maristella was invited by the Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor CRICOTEKA (Cracow, Poland) to conduct a choreographic workshop and to create a performance in cooperation with Italian Cultural Institute and Theatre Institute of Zbigniew Raszewski in Warsaw, where she participated in a conference “In the ritual circle”.
In 2016 she participated in European tour of KORE ENSEMBLE giving performances in Paris (Eglise St. Merry and FGO Barbara) and in Warsaw (Teatr Academia). She was a choreographer and a dancer in the Verso Terra – for those who come from the sea project, directed by Mario Perrotta, Ubu price in 2013 and 2015, held in Salento between Adriatic and Ionic sea.
