From Curon to Vienna, this is how Fosca Schiavo dances on the world – Venosta
Merano. From Curon Venosta to Vienna, passing through Bolzano Danza, Montpellier and a small Gothic church in the Neapolitan area. This is the world of Fosca Schiavo, the twenty-six year old dancer from Merano who speaks five languages and loves Baroque art. A world, her own, which, as mentioned, starts from upper Venosta “where as a child I milked cows and danced with my mother: always and everywhere”, says the girl who for some years has also undertaken a career as a teacher in Vienna.
Fosca Schiavo, today you live in Vienna, but it all started in the little Curon Venosta, right?
Around, I would say. I spent the first few years of my life in Curon, then we moved to Parcines. My maternal grandmother is originally from Val Venosta, but as a child she went to work with a family in Milan where she met my grandfather: a carabiniere in the Lombard capital but originally from Basilicata. Upon her death, my grandmother decided to return to South Tyrol and a few years later my parents followed her.
A dove from Curon Venosta …
I spent my days in the barn and drank fresh milk as soon as it was milked. Rhythms of the mountain pastures that I continued to experience even after moving to Partschins, when in the end I returned to Curon.
How does your passion for dance come?
In elementary school I started doing sports: gymnastics, swimming and ballet. Passion, the latter, which I carried with me in everything I then did. I started at the Arabesque school in Merano, I was about seven years old. Back and forth between Partschins and Merano to dance.
Can we call it passion?
Yes, indeed, a family transmission. Even my mom used to dance as a child. We have always danced. In short, at the sea, in the mountains, at home, dancing has always played an important part in my day. Likewise, the combination of movement and music is a constant in my life.
Dance, but what style?
Up to the age of 19 I studied at the Arabesque school of and with Irmtraud Filippi. For example, contemporary with Martina Marini or jazz with Sabine Raffeiner. They have always pushed me to do better and more, maybe internships outside South Tyrol. Once, Sabine even accompanied me to France, just to explain what kind of passion revolves around this art.
You dance around the world: why did you have to drop out of school?
Not a chance. After graduating from the Bede Weber I moved to France. I’ll take a step back if you agree to it.
You’re welcome.
At the age of 15 I started spending my holidays in Montpellier, in particular at Anne-Marie Porras’ Epsedanse dance school where I moved at the age of 19. I thought that ballet could only represent a foundation but not my future. They are more for the contemporary. In France I experimented with another approach to dance which allows more freedom of movement and leads better to the arrival of the contemporary.
How was your life going during that period?
I took care of a stage training but also a pedagogical one. Lots of technique lessons, from 9 in the morning until late at night. Theory and practice: I only had a head for that. Dance is passion but it feeds on concentration and determination.
How did you come to Vienna then?
Thanks to Sharon Booth, director of Bolzano Danza to whom I must have introduced me to the Viennese reality where at a certain point I started training. In Vienna I studied Art History, to return to my never interrupted studies, while now I am engaged in a Master’s always in the Austrian capital. Also, in October I should finish the other Master’s degree at the Universität für Angewandte Kunst in “Art and Economics”.
In what area?
To summarize, a work on the connection between rationalist art in Bolzano and the development of that artistic current in Vienna where a process of historicizing the works is underway to explain their origins. Instead, my thesis in History of Art will be on a baroque church in Naples. After two trips to the Neapolitan capital I identified the church of San Gregorio Armeno. A lesser known Baroque style building which I really like. At the same time, I fell in love with the city.
We mentioned the Bolzano Danza as a springboard.
With it I have grown a lot. It was my springboard to France. Anne-Marie motivated me but she is not the only one in the heritage of this important event. The teacher Natalia Vinas Roig, also known in Bolzano Danza, took me one day to her school in Barcelona. In contemporary she gave me what I needed to develop my personal style.
What time would you define come?
Afro jazz with classical dance movements developed in a contemporary way. To dance I need techno music. My dance is dynamic and sensual. This is my style, but as a dancer I have to adapt. I participated in projects in the world of musicals at the Life Ball in Vienna, for example, during a demonstration for gender minorities where I danced on stage with actors like Alan Cumming, as well as in October I performed in Leibnitz with dancers and Volksoper singers.
Dance and teach, right?
I started teaching five years ago and have been at the Académie de Danse for three years. First with teenagers and now I am with professional adults. We have guys who dance at the Staatsoper and participate in international competitions. I like to teach, when you see that what you transmit reaches the student. It is wonderful to follow the growth and development of people. During the lockdown I also happened to teach online for a school in Egypt.
Is Merano beyond its horizons?
I don’t know, but in case I would like to absorb as much as possible from outside the province, before returning to live in Merano. My partner is from Barcelona, it is not excluded that he can go and live in Spain. In South Tyrol it is more difficult to dance. What I see every time I come back is an insistent focus on tourism, despite the presence of oases like Bolzano Danza capable of greatly enriching our province. For Bolzano Danza she collaborates both as an assistant but also as a translator.
And what about Merano, the South Tyrolean tourist city par excellence, what do you say?
Art and culture in Merano seems to me at an advanced level even in the provincial context. Especially in recent years, the city has begun to offer a lot of ideas for those who make art. I hope that this path is not abandoned.