Premio Roma Dance 2025 / Emanuelle Burrafato

Emanuele Burrafato is a versatile dancer, choreographer, teacher and dance historian of Italian origin. After specializing at Aterballetto under Amedeo Amodio and advanced studies in Brussels (Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker), London (The Place) and Paris (Harmonic), he performed from 1999–2013 in the corps de ballet and as soloist at Teatro San Carlo (Naples), Arena di Verona and Teatro Giuseppe Verdi (Trieste), as well as with companies such as Aterballetto, EgriBiancoDanza and Astra Roma Ballet.
As a principal dancer he took leading roles in productions like Pinocchio at Teatro Regio Turin, Cyrano de Bergerac with Astra Roma Ballet, Concilio dei pianeti in Padua and the Serata Nijinsky in Turin. His repertoire spans classics until contemporary works and a fusion of both by Balanchine, Béjart, MacMillan, Karole Armitage, Michele Merola, Renato Zanella and others. He shared the stage with stars such as Roberto Bolle and Svetlana Zakharova, working under renowned film and theater directors including Franco Zeffirelli and Hugo de Ana.
He also choreographed for theatre and film (Pergolesi Spontini Foundation, Montepulciano Art Shipyard, One More Picture) and appeared together with the famous dancer Luciana Savignano in Daniela Ambrosoli’s documentary The Making of a Dream.
In 2025 Emanuele served as Competition Coordinator for the XXIII Roma Danza Prize—an international competition (July 10–15) organized by the National Dance Academy, this year dedicated to Interpretation and Videodance. Under his coordination, the new Senior Interpretation prizes offer winners four-month internships at the Slovak National Theatre Ballet and MM Contemporary Dance Company, thanks to the Cuomo Foundation’s support. He also teaches Classical Dance Technique & Repertoire at the Accademia Nazionale di Danza in Rome, contemporary dance at Paola Jorio’s Ballet School in Rome, and serves as maître de ballet for Michele Pogliani’s MPTRE project.
An honors graduate in “Arts and Sciences of the Spectacle” (2010) and “Theatrical, Cinematographic, Digital Show” (2016) from Sapienza University of Rome, he earned a Master in Management of Musical Entertainment at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin (2012). His research—published in monographs on Elisabetta Terabust and Luciana Savignano, as well as articles for Treccani’s Biographical Dictionary—focuses on repertoire transmission, innovation in Italian lyrical entities and choreographic composition. He is a member of Air Danza, consultant for Rome’s in Divenir Festival, and artistic director for International Dance Day activities.

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