Maria Giovanna Delle Donne
was born in Foggia / Italy, in 1992 and moved to Germany at the age of eighteen to continue her studies in ballet and contemporary dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 2014 and a Master’s degree in Dance Composition / Interpretation two years later.
During this time she took part in various projects and events organised by the university and other institutions, both as a dancer and as a choreographer. She deepened her knowledge of the Jooss-Leeder technique and the Bausch repertoire and in 2014 was selected to perform in Pina Bausch’s Tannhäuser Bacchanal at the Dance Biennale in Dresden as well as in her works Wind von West – Cantata and The Rite of Spring, which were shown as part of a reconstruction of the Stravinsky evening at the PINA40 festival, in collaboration with The Juilliard School, New York.
Maria Giovanna Delle Donne has worked with several choreographers and companies, making her professional debut in Lithuania in 2015 with Johannes Wieland's piece “Darwintodarwin”, which was also performed in Poland, Greece and Italy. In the same year she was selected by the Sicilian choreographer Ester Ambrosino for her productions Romeo and Juliet and Hercules at the Opernhaus in Erfurt. She was also invited to join the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch as guest dancer for two consecutive seasons to perform in The Rite of Spring, including on tours to Nîmes / France and Wellington / New Zealand.
As well as dancing in various contemporary dance productions, she has continued to dance and choreograph for commercial festivals and events. In 2015, she was honoured at the FISM in the "Big stage illusions" category for an "Act of dance and magic". The piece has been shown internationally, among others in Shanghai, Macao, Zhuhai, Guangzhou and Munich and the piece was broadcasted on television as well.
From 2018 to 2020 she was a member of the Folkwang Tanzstudio, where she worked with various guest choreographers including Reinhild Hoffmann, Henrietta Horn, Michel Vandevelde and Iker Arrue. As a freelance dancer she performed in Cristiana Morganti’s production Another round for five and also joined the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch as a guest dancer for the productions Bluebeard. While Listening to a Tape Recording of Béla Bartók's opera "Duke Bluebeard's Castle" (including on tour to Sadler's Wells Theatre in London), The Seven Deadly Sins and The Piece with the Ship. 2021 Maria Giovanna Delle Donne became a full member of the ensemble of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.