Deda Cristina Colonna is a director and choreographer. Her preferred repertoire is 17th and 18th century opera as well as contemporary music theatre. Her work is strongly influenced by her own stage experience as a dancer and actress. Her particular expertise is in baroque dance, rhetorical gesture and historically informed acting. Based on a historically informed stage practice, her direction seeks contact with today's audience.
Deda Cristina Colonna obtained degrees in ballet at the Civico Istituto Musicale Brera (Novara) and at the École Supérieure d'Etudes Chorégraphiques (Paris). She completed her studies at the Sorbonne (Paris) and specialised in Renaissance and Baroque dance. She also graduated from the drama school of the Teatro Stabile di Genova and performed in productions from Shakespeare to Cechov and Genet in Italy, France and Germany. She worked with the company "Theater der Klänge" (Düsseldorf) and was a soloist and guest choreographer with the New York Baroque Dance Company.
She has directed and choreographed numerous productions, including theatres and opera houses in Copenhagen, Drottningholm, New York, Florence, Potsdam, Innsbruck, Buenos Aires, Schwetzingen.
For over 25 years she has taught baroque dance, gesture and acting in courses and master classes at institutions in Italy and abroad. Her research on Baroque dance has led to publications in specialist journals and congress proceedings.
From 2008 to 2013 she was the director of the dance school of the Civico Istituto Musicale Brera in Novara. In 2014 she was a visiting professor at the University of Stockholm / Performing Premodernity. Since 2021 she has been the director of the dance school of the Accademia G. Marziali in Seveso and lecturer for rhetorical gesture at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. In 2023 she was also appointed as lecturer for historical opera and stage practice at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.