Marigia Maggipinto

Marigia Maggipinto was born 1963 in Bari (Italy), where she learned dance from 1970 to 1985 at a private dance school in Bari following the techniques and teachings of the Royal Academy of Dance, London. She studied the techniques of José Limón, Merce Cunningham, Alwin Nikolais, Maurice Béjart, Matt Mattox and Martha Graham. She performed with Giorgio Rossi’s company Sosta Palmizi and with Carolyn Carlson at the Polverigi festival. She began her professional career as a dancer in 1984 in the Niccolò Piccinni Foundation company (J. De Min, Roberto Fascilla), named after the eponymous eighteen-century Italian composer. In 1985 she completed an international tour with the Rome company Danzatori Scalzi and performed in the film Il giovane toscanini by Franco Zefirelli.

Wuppertal – Essen – Wuppertal
In the same year she auditioned for Pina Bausch in Wuppertal and stayed for half a year. Follow-ing this she embarked on a further dance course at the Folkwang School in Essen, from 1987 to 1989. Her teachers included Jean Cébron (composition and improvisation) and Hans Züllig (Jooss/Leeder-technique). When she had finished, Jean Cébron asked her to stay on for another year. For this year she lived in Wuppertal with Pina Bausch, who funded her studies. In return Marigia Maggipinto looked after Pina Bausch’s young son Salomon. She enjoyed the time, the constant coming and going in the house, a period when Pina Bausch was working on her film Die Klage der Kaiserin (The Empress’ Lament). In Essen Jean Cébron taught her his piece I’m alone with a bit of my heart, for the first time in the school’s history, which they showed to Pina Bausch at the Folkwang School. Pina Bausch then invited her to join her company starting with the 1990/91 season. Marigia Maggipinto danced in a total of 19 pieces, including five premieres, works she helped shape: Tanzabend II, _Das Stück mit dem Schiff (The Piece with the Ship), Ein Trauerspiel, Danzón, and Der Fensterputzer(The window Washer). In 1999 she left the Tanztheater Wuppertal, but returned frequently as a guest in the years 2000 to 2002.

A contemporary witness
In the USA she worked with the theatre company Mutation Theater Project and taught from 2003 to 2005 regularly at the private Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. As part of the major Pina Bausch exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn and the Gropius Bau in Berlin, she led workshops in partnership with the Pina Bausch Foundation in 2015 and 2016. In 2016 she taught as guest lecturer at the dance academy Dancehaus in Milan, and created the solo two but not two in 2019 with support of the Cirko Vertigo Foundation in Turin. In 2021, in the piece Miss Lala al circo Fernando, directed by Chiara Frigo, she reflected on her experiences at the Tanztheater Wuppertal. The title refers to an 1879 painting by Edgar Degas showing a trapeze artist in the air. As a contemporary witness, Marigia Maggipinto dipped into the past on more time and recalled key moments from her collaboration with Pina Bausch.

Together with Ophelia Young, in October and November 2022 she was part of the new production of Tannhäuser Bacchanal at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). Then in June and July 2024 she acted as rehearsal leader and artistic director along with Barbara Kaufmann and Ophelia Young at the English National Ballet School on their new production of the Bacchanal.

As a freelance guest lecturer she leads workshops and masterclasses throughout Europe.

Text: Norbert Servos
Translation: Rachel McNicholl