Riccardo Meneghini was born in Italy in 1979, he graduated from I.S.E.F. (University of Verona) Diploma in Physical Education and attended a professional courses at “Accademia Isola Danza” in Venice, artistic director Carolyn Carlson.
In the academic year 2001/2002 he joined “Transitions”at Laban Centre London achieving diploma in performance with special mention. He moved his base from London to Scotland and then to Leeds. He is regularly involved in projects in UK, France and Italy.
He has worked with such choreographers as Russell Maliphant, Carolyn Carlson, Janet Smith, Malou Airaudo, Rui Horta, Didi Veldman, Kim Brandstrup, Arthur Rosenfeld and companies including Scottish Dance Theatre, DV8 Physical Theatre, CCN Robuaix, Company Chameleon and Balletto Teatro Torino, while developing his own choreography and working as a freelance performer, teacher and choreographer. His work has been supported by Arts Council England and Provincia Autonoma di Trento several times in the past. His creations often contains original music, Riccardo has been regularly collaborating in the years with composers Demetris Zavros and Jered Daniel Sorkin.
“I am fascinated by the honesty, simplicity and humanity of Pina Bausch work, her world theatre does not seek to teach, does not claim to know better, instead generate experiences: exhilarating or sorrowful, gentle or confrontational – often comic or absurd too. I had the opportunity to work closely in the making of two creations by two of her dancers: Malou Airaudo ( now director of IZT, the Folkwangschule in Essen), and Arthur Rosenfeld (artistic director of Meekers in Belgium). In these past four years I have been involved in project with Carolyn Carlson (Alwin Nikolais). Her dance is strongly oriented towards philosophy and spirituality and she defines the choreography in her works as ‘visual poetry’. I am learning a lot from her vocabulary, way to teach and structure choreography which is purely influenced by the refine studies on movement by Alwin Nickolais. In my work I tend to develop an idea to a wide rage of physicalities, with the use of improvisation and athleticism. I have been working in the contact improvisation field for more than 10 years and I trained in different martial arts (capoera, judo, tai chi). I am intrigued by people, their personalities, ways to deal with life issues which I find directly related to the inner dialogue with themselves. This is the reason I have been working on creating dance where the theme of Identity is pulling through. I am always looking for a thread of story in all work. I find narrative very useful, if not essential, for connecting with the intention of the composition. I would always aim to communicate with the audience through a clear narrative (avoiding being literal), but giving the opportunity for the viewer to wonder inside the structure, of hopefully, a multilayered piece.”