Tortelli’s ,,engaging work (…) begs to be seen live, in order to experience even more the intensity and power
that flows between these extraordinary artists.”
Alison Kent about SNOW CRASH, Dance Europe Dec 20/Jan 21
Diego Tortelli (choreographer) and Miria Wurm (dramaturg & production manager), both members of Munich’s independent dance scene, have been developing projects together since 2018.
Their artistic language and aesthetics are characterised by clarity and complexity, both in terms of choreographic style and the subject matter of their works. Drawing on cutting-edge technologies and theoretical concepts, they create contemporary dance pieces that reflect on current issues from a personal perspective.
Pivotal to each piece is Tortelli’s very own choreographic idiom, which splits the body into its various limbs and joints and then reassembles them over and over again like a game of Tetris. The torso remains the fixed point around which everything revolves, as if calculated by geometric formulas – at times playful and surreal, at others architectural and rigid. The body is revealed in all its beauty and artistry, but also its fragility and brokenness. Traces of bodily memories are brought to light through a process of poetic abstraction.
Miria Wurm was born in Weiden i.d. Oberpfalz in 1979 and studied theatre studies, German literature and psychology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, graduating with a master’s degree in 2005. While still a student, she gained professional experience through internships and assistant directorships at theatres including the Prinzregententheater in Munich and the Spielmotor festivals SPIELART and DANCE. Her first job after graduating was as creative team assistant for the fashion designer Baldessarini, followed by a position as editorial assistant at MERIAN. In 2009, she returned to the arts sector on a full-time basis. Since 2010, she has been working as an independent production manager in the arts, specialising in dance, theatre and festivals more generally. She worked as an artistical production manager for choreographer Richard Siegal’s companies The Bakery and Ballet of Difference from 2013 to 2019 and with Dietmar Lupfer on several festivals at the Muffatwerk in Munich. Among them were SENSEFACTORY – you have never experienced to celebrate the centenary of the Bauhaus in 2019, the BioArt festival {un][split} Micro Performance and Macro Matters in 2018, the theatre and dance festival 25 Jahre Muffatwerk in 2018, the dance festival Arabien im Fokus in 2015 (a collaboration with DANCE and Access To Dance), the MUFFATfestspiel 20 in 2013 und RODEO 2012 – The Dance and Theatre Festival of Munich’s I n d e p e n d e n t S c e n e i n 2 0 1 2 . Another important focal point is her involvement in Tanz und Schule e.V., a non-profit organisation promoting dance in schools. She has been the production manager for its Think Big! Festival for young audiences since 2013, first under the artistic direction of Simone Schulte-Aladag and Bettina Wagner-Bergelt, and since 2019 under the artistic direction of Andrea Gronemeyer and Simone Schulte-Aladag. When the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, she worked with the filmmaker Benedict Mirow and the artists who had originally been invited to perform live to develop a film version of the festival entitled Think Big! #7 – Portrait of a Festival. In 2014, Miria Wurm, Simone Schulte-Aladag and Tina Meß founded the Tanzbüro München, which receives its funding from the City of Munich’s Department of Culture. Having left the Tanzbüro to concentrate on her collaboration with Diego Tortelli in 2019, Miria Wurm now periodically returns as a freelance consultant to work on specific areas such as providing advice for choreographers and dance artists.
Diego Tortelli was born in Brescia in 1987 and began his dance training locally at STUDIO 76 before being accepted into the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan. His first professional job after graduating was with the Ballet de Teatres in Valencia, followed by an invitation from Gustavo Ramirez to join the Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago. In 2012 he became a member of the Ballet National de Marseille under the artistic direction of Frédéric Flamand. He has been a freelance dancer and ballet master since 2015, working with, among others, the Bavarian State Ballet, Richard Siegal’s The Bakery and Ballet of Difference, Korzo Theatre and La Veronal.
Since 2015 he has also been concentrating on his own choreographic practice, creating pieces for INTRODANS and CND Madrid, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, MILANoLTRE Festival and Palcoscenico Danza Torino. In 2017, he presented his first full-length piece, Sleeping Beauty for Nuovo Balletto di Toscana. The following year, he created Lorca sono tutti for MILANoLTRE and Domus Aurea, part of the Bach Project, for the Fondazione Nazionale della Danza/Aterballetto. 2019 saw his first collaboration with Miria Wurm: Shifting Perspective premiered at the Muffathalle in Munich as part of explore dance, a dance network for young audiences initiated by fabrik Potsdam, Fokus Tanz/Tanz und Schule e.V. Munich and K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg. Their second piece SNOW CRASH followed in 2020, funded by the City of Munich’s Department of Culture. Due to the coronavirus crisis, the premiere was live streamed from the Muffathalle to a digital audience.
In 2019, Diego Tortelli was appointed choreographer in residence at the Fondazione Nazionale della Danza/Aterballetto, where he has created Inter-view: Emanuele e Clément, Preludio and Another Story, as well as the video production 1 meter CLOSER, which premiered on Rai5, and the video installation LASCIA CH’IO…. He is also an associate choreographer at MILANoLTRE