About

Ricardo Viviani

choreographer, Researcher

I am a choreographer, Oral Historian and mentor working across Dance, Music Theater, Education and cultural heritage.

I have spent many years dancing, making dances, and working with artists, theaters and cultural institutions. I am interested in how dance is created, performed and received. For the past ten years, I have worked as an Oral Historian at the Pina Bausch Foundation, where I developed a collection of Oral History interviews with dancers and other professionals involved in the work.

My work aims to create an arc between knowledge from the past, art in the present, and desirable futures. I am interested in how listening to the people who make and perform dance can open another way into dance. These stories do not explain away the dance; they offer another way into it.

I was born in São Paulo, Brazil, and began my dance training there. I later studied at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York, Theater Direction at the University of São Paulo, and Cultural Sciences at the FernUniversität in Hagen.

As a dancer and choreographer, I have worked mainly in Brazil, the United States and Germany. I have taught dance, choreography and composition, and presented my work internationally.

My current work focuses on Activating Archives, embodied knowledge and new ways of bringing dance heritage into artistic and educational practice. I am interested in emerging Knowledge Technologies and in exploring what remains particular to human embodied experience, while creating new connections between artists, archives, researchers and cultural institutions.

Music Theater Productions

Opera, musical and operetta – choreography and performance

  • Die Comedian Harmonists – choreographer, Germany
  • Hänsel und Gretel – choreographer, Germany
  • Rotkäppchen – choreographer, Germany
  • Fly Me To The Moon! – Swing evening – choreographer, Germany
  • Gegen die Wand – choreographer, performer, Germany
  • Schneewittchen – choreographer, Germany
  • Im weißen Rössl – 2010, choreographer, Germany
  • My Fair Lady – choreographer, Germany
  • Der gestiefelte Kater – choreographer, Germany
  • Orpheus in der Unterwelt – choreographer, Germany
  • Kurt Weill’s Street Scene – choreographer, Germany
  • Die lustige Witwe – choreographer, Germany
  • Rumpelstilzchen – choreographer, Germany
  • Das Glück liegt im Westen – choreographer, Germany
  • ABBA Mania – additional choreography, restaging, Europe
  • The Wild Party – choreographer, Germany
  • Das Wundertheater – choreographer, singer/dancer, Germany
  • L’Enfant et les Sortilèges – choreographer, Germany
  • Im Weißen Rössl – revue concept, choreographer, Germany
  • Requiem für Bonhoeffer – choreographer, featured dancer, Germany
  • Rita (Donizetti) – choreographer, Germany
  • Orpheus und Euridyke – dancer, Germany
  • Cabaret – singer/dancer, Germany
  • Oh! Calcutta! – singer/dancer, USA · Brazil · Norway · Israel
  • A Chorus Line – singer/dancer
  • Amahl and the Night Visitors – dancer

Various TV spots, galas, trade fairs, video and DVD productions, including Coca-Cola’s “Fame” and Bundespressball in Bonn, Germany.

Tanztheater / Dance

Work as a dancer

Repertoire Companies

  • Nationaltheater Weimar – Tanztheater Ismael Ivo 1997–2000
  • Manuel Alum and Dancers – New York, USA 1985–87
  • Balé da Cidade de São Paulo, Brazil 1982–83
  • Cisne Negro Dance Company, São Paulo, Brazil 1982
  • Corpo de Baile Municipal, São Paulo Opera, Brazil 1980–81

Single Productions

  • Can You See Me Now 2004 – Blast Theory
  • Embalse de Valdeinfierno (Film) 2004 – KHM Köln
  • Tamanana (Film) 2002 – Zet-Select Köln
  • Floresta do Amazonas 2000 – Ivo Haydeé
  • Certain Women 1995 – Mara Borba
  • Spricht Else Lasker-Schüler 1995 – Görner
  • Jacob’s Pillow Dancers 1981 – Igal Perry
  • Seis Ensaios e o Resto 1979 – Sônia Mota

Independent Productions

Under the label ‘mammut tanzproduktion’, these are conceived, produced and choreographed by Ricardo Viviani.

  • QuaaDriDuuo 2007 – Germany · Brazil · co-choreography
  • Gods Prey 1996 – Germany · Italy · USA
  • Böhm Homage 1995 – Germany
  • Virtual DADA 1994 – Germany · Switzerland
  • Serious Talk 1993 – Germany
  • Le Sacre Du Poisson 1993 – Germany
  • Eroberung Des Atlantik 1992 – Germany
  • Serafim Ponte Grande 1992 – Germany
  • A Brazilian In New York 1991 – Germany
  • Colchões Ortopédicos 1986 – Brazil · USA
  • Blue Danube 1982 – Brazil

Studies

Ballet

  • Joffrey Ballet School, NYC – ballet
  • Ballet Stagium School
  • Jane Blauth, Ernie Pagnano, Meredith Baylis, Libby Farr, Janet Panetta, Alfredo Corvino

Modern Dance

  • Louis Falco (Fame), Jennifer Müller, Limón Dance Studio
  • Manuel Alum, Paul Sanasardo
  • Milton Myers, Stephen Petronio

Singing & Speech

  • M. de Paula and PePe de Castro Neves, SP
  • McCoulough, NYC
  • Marta Laurito, Rolf A. Scheider, Germany
  • Michael Pinkerton, Germany · Austria

Choreography

  • Rolf Gelewski, São Paulo
  • Bessie Schoemberg, Jacob’s Pillow, Dance Theater Workshop

Music / Composition

  • David van Tieghem, Movement Research
  • Kirk Nurok
  • New School for Social Research, NYC

Clowning

  • Bill Irwin, Jacob’s Pillow
  • Peter Shub, Köln, Gemany
  • Rene Basine, Köln, Gemany

Pedagogy

  • Christa Coogan
  • Kultur und Schule: Anja Weber, Maria Speth, Nadja Raszewski
  • Landesmusikakademie NRW: Pädagogisches Basisseminar I, II, van Almsick, Schneider, Levkau, Jendrkowiak

Additional Studies

  • Alexander, Pilates, Eutonie, Gyrotonics, Kathakali Indian, Mime, Tap, Butoh, Puppetry, Stage Fight, Computer Choreography (LifeForms).

Published / Commercially Issued Material

  • Das Wundertheater 2005 CD – ARS Produktion
  • Der nackte Michelangelo Vokalsuite für Bariton 1998 program – George Tabori, Schaubühne Berlin
  • Corpos 1987 book – Massao Ohno Ed.
  • Görner Spricht Else Laske-Schüler 1995 video
  • Dance in Prague – SUNY at New Paltz
    • 2003 DVD · 2004 DVD · 2005 DVD · 2006 DVD
  • Dance Magazine as a Correspondent

To order some of these items, please look at the download/links page.

Testimonials

Ernie Pagnano, my teacher in New York, recommended me in 1981 to Jacob’s Pillow, noting my frequent participation in his classes.

Decades later, a student report from Poughkeepsie described my teaching as professional, energetic and approachable, particularly noting my use of imagination, emotion, humour and movement to engage students.

In her letter of 13 May 2008, Lynn Barr, Director of SUNY Study Dance Abroad at the State University of New York at New Paltz, described me as a valuable teacher for performance programmes. She noted that I had taught for the programme in Prague and Italy for many years and that my experience as a dancer and choreographer of opera and musicals informed a distinctive and energetic approach to teaching. She wrote that my workshops were consistently among the highlights of the programme and highly valued by both students and the programme leadership.

Selected Reviews

Voice logo

The Village Voice by Bruce Supree

Serious Talk – New York City

… Darkly handsome, Viviani has the masculine power of the young Robert Mitchum, but he’s hot, not cool. Joining Hartley for Serious Talk, he’s slightly menacing, controlled, agressive — but unhurried. A ’40s film noir, Mickey Spillane kind of guy — but he doesn’t lay a hand on her. … Viviani’s in formal pants, black suspenders, a sleeveless undershirt. He slowly raises his arms, folds them across his chest. He points his index finger, then with the other hand pushes softly in the opposite direction with measured force. Repeating gestures, speeding them up, adding more, he produces a steady flow of contradictory impulses, while playing off the waltz rhythms. He opens his hands with a kind of helpless strength, then draws them in to his chest and cringes. The accelerating repetition of impassioned gestures gradually builds as unbearable pressure of feeling in him.

The New York Times by Jennifer Dunning

Blue Danube – New York City

… Mr. Viviani, a relatively new choreographer, took simple themes and dealt with them with admirable simplicity … The quality of movement is most subtle and interesting in “Blue Danube,” set to the Strauss waltz, but its message is mystifying. Mr. Viviani and Cheryl Hartley were personable dancers.

logo dagsavisenDagsavisen Arbeiderbladet by Hans-Chr. Sørensen

Oh! Calcutta! – Oslo, Norway

… Størst inntrykk gjorde “One on one”, en vakker pas-de-deux, fremført av Cheryl Hartley og Ricardo Viviani. En dans hvor de nakne kroppene virkelig ble et naturlig uttrykk for sunn erotikk og kjaerlighet.…The most impressive scene was “One on one”, a beautiful pas-de-deux danced by Cheryl Hartley and Ricardo Viviani. A dance where the naked bodies really became a natural expression of healthy eroticism and love.

Selected Productions — German Press

Several productions in my work in German music theater and dance were discussed in the contemporary press. The following examples show different aspects of my choreographic work.

The Wild Party — Theater Heilbronn, 2005. Contemporary reviews highlighted the inventive and expressive character of the choreography and its integration of dance, music and ensemble performance. Fränkische Nachrichten · Heilbronner Stimme

L’Enfant et les Sortilèges — Theater Osnabrück, 2005. The choreography was described in contemporary press coverage as imaginative and was an important part of the visual and theatrical construction of the production. Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung · Opernwelt / Der Theaterverlag

Die lustige Witwe — Theater Hagen, 2008. Contemporary criticism drew attention to the relationship between the choreography, the music and the psychological dimension of the characters. DerWesten

Street Scene — Theater Hagen, 2009. Reviews highlighted the precision, energy and erotic dimension of the choreography and its strong presence within the opera staging. Opernnetz · Ruhr Nachrichten · klassik.com

Gegen die Wand — Theater Hagen, 2011. Contemporary reviews gave particular attention to the choreography and to the work of Ricardo Viviani and Bärbel Stenzenberger in expressing the relationship between the central characters. choices · DerWesten

Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse — Theater Hagen, 2012. A contemporary review highlighted the sensitivity of the production and specifically praised Ricardo Viviani’s choreography, describing it as convincing throughout. TV58

Hänsel und Gretel — Theater Hagen, 2015. Contemporary coverage identifies Ricardo Viviani as choreographer and describes the production through its combination of fairy-tale imagery, music and dance. Lokalkompass Hagen

Further reviews and source documentation are collected in Selected German Reviews.