Rachele Rapisardi was born in Florence, Italy where she started her training in ballet and contemporary dance at the age of eight.
After winning a number of dance competitions in Italy, she began studying at the Rotterdam Dance Conservatory, CODARTS, graduating in 2008. During her studies she performed and toured in the Netherlands, Belgium and Turkey, featuring in works by Jasper Dzuki Jelen, Piet Rogie, Michael Schumacher, Edan Gorliki and Willam Forsythe among others. In her third year of study she undertook an internship with Dylan Newcomb for the CaDance Festival in The Hague. She then relocated to Paris where she trained and worked closely with Nina Dipla.
In 2010-11 she joined EDge, the postgraduate company of LCDS directed by Jeanne Yasko, touring nationally and internationally in works by Martin Forsberg, Eva Recacha, Jorge Crecis, Ben Duke and Jaremy James.
Since then she has been freelancing in the UK and Europe working with Lost Dog (directed by Ben Duke), Protein Dance (by Luca Silvestrini), Gwyn Emberton Dance, Jorge Crecis, Jose Agudo, Quang Kien Van, Emma Martin Dance (Ireland), IlDance Company (by Israel Aloni and Lee Brummer, Sweden).
In 2012 Rachele started choreographing her own work debuting with Shhhout ‘IN followed the next year by Corollaria. Both works have been presented in Florence during ‘Design with a view’, an event directed by Think Benci.
In 2014 she has been assisting Ben Duke in the new creation for Shift (Youth Dance Company at LCDS).
She is currently finishing her MA degree in Creative Practices as part time student at LCDS (London, UK), while regularly performing on a free-lance basis in the UK.
“I love my job! To be physical and perform makes me feel incredibly alive and present. I believe it to be a great vehicle to experience life: I meet amazing people and artists, I travel and keep on growing in a multicultural environment, I get the chance to create, destroy to create again, I communicate beyond verbal language with known and unknown people.
I am interested in interacting with the world and society in a wide-ranging way, changing often my point of view to gain a fuller understanding and keep my curiosity alert by studying, teaching, creating, volunteering, working, climbing, walking, dancing, playing…
I believe that OpenFLR is an incredible platform that offers the chance to give in to curiosity, to experiment and experiencing different way of learning, to exchange and meet your self and other people. And most of all a great chance to dance and perform!”
She has started OpenFLR with Giacomo and Valeria in 2013, and left the organising team in 2015 to pursue intensively her dancing career.