Dancer, choreographer and artistic director Mauro de Candia is one of the most distinctive personalities of his generation of Italian artists. His path depicts the natural reflection of encounters, exchanges and contacts that have forged his temperament and marked his artistic carrer.
De Candia began to dance very young. At the age of ten he was discovered during a ballet competition in Verona by Marika Besobrasova, founder and director of the Académie de danse Classique Princesse Grace in Monaco. She offered him a scholarship, and from that moment, de Candia attended summer classes in Monte Carlo every summer.
After short periods at the school of the ballet company of La Scala in Milan and the Rudra-school of Maurice Béjart in Lausanne, in 1998 de Candia entered the Académie in Monaco to complete his professional dance education, supported by the John Gilpin Scholarship awarded by the Monegasque Princess Antoinette.
In 2001 de Candia joined the Ballett des Staatsoper Hannover in Germany, where artistic director Stephan Thoss appointed him as a soloist after only four months. While Stephan Thoss will play a special role for his development as a dancer, during his dancing career de Candia also performed in works by choreographers such as Balanchine, Kylian, Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin and Marco Goecke.
Mauro de Candia started pursuing his choreographic projects early in his dancing career, starting during his engagement in Hannover (until 2006), then as guest dancer and finally as a freelance choreographer (which he has been since 2008).
From August 2012 until July 2021 de Candia has served as artistic director of the Dance Company Theater Osnabrück in Germany. With a team comprising Patricia Stöckemann, manager and dramaturgue, Leonardo Centi, ballet master and assistant to the choreographer, and a group of versatile interpreters from all over the world, de Candia brought to Osnabrück the works of important choreographers of the present International scene, such as Stephan Thoss, Marco Goecke and Edward Clug, and eriche the company’s repertoire with the reconstruction of some works by Mary Wigman. At the same time, he opened the Company to rising International choreographers such as Shang Chi Sun, Stefano Mazzotta, Rafäele Giovanola, Samir Calixto, Vasna Aguilar, Ben J. Riepe, and gave his dancers the chance to create their own choreographic works.
Throughout the years, the Company has gained more and more appreciation by both audience and press alike, receiving invitations to perform in International dance festivals in Germany, Italy, China and Russia.
Despite these results, after nine successful seasons, Mauro de Candia made the decision to leave his post as artistic director of the Dance Company Theater Osnabrück in July 2021, to open up to new challenges and artistic projects.
Meanwhile de Candia has choreographed for many leading ballet companies such as Introdans, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Florence’s Maggio Danza, the Slovak National Ballet, The Washington Ballet and the Staatsballett Berlin.
De Candia’s creations include both narrative works and personal reinterpretations of classics and repertoire ballets, as well as creations that show the depth of his interest for the musical and the symphonic genre at the same time. His work is characterized by a special musicality. His choreographies often contain energetic group parts, but these are almost alternated with silent and poetic fragments. Sometimes his musical choices may seem remarkably surprising, but he can always sustain these choices: thanks to his refined musicality, even the most wonderful musical collages in his work sound perfectly logical. Music and dance are an indissoluble duo for him.
Although he has lived abroad for years, Mauro de Candia has always kept a strong connection to his homeland. In 1997 he founded, in his hometown of Barletta Italy, the non-profit organization Arte&BallettO, which operates successfully in the field of education, production and promotion of dance, both nationally and internationally. He is also the Founder of the ApuliArteFestival and the International Award ApuliArte, and his educational dance program FormAzione Tersicore, which was supported by the Italian Cultural Ministry and accomplished through a network of European ballet academies and dance universities, has encouraged and backed many young Italian talents, today professional dancers in European as well as overseas ballet companies.
His dance company Pneuma Dance Theater, has flourished during these years and was hosted by International festivals like La Biennale Danza di Venezia, Le Temps d’Aimer in Biarritz, Bolzano Danza, in Maracaibo and Edinburgh.
De Candia received various prizes for his services, including the Premio Positano per la Danza and the Premio Giuliana Penzi per la Danza. He has been the winner of the Uncontainable Prize 2 (Antwerp) and the Genesis International Competition (Milwaukee). His full-length commission Angelika, for the Slovak National Ballet, won the 2015 Minister of Culture Award for outstanding contribution to the field of theatre and dance and artistic achievements. The Slovak National Television has broadcasted the ballet production.
Named up and coming European choreographer by Dance for You magazine (2007), Choreographer of the Year by magazine Tanznetz (2015, 2017) and mentioned as one of the 30 artists with best visibility on an international level by TANZ (2017). In 2009 a silver medal from the Italian government was presented to him by President Giorgio Napolitano.