On May 9, 2025, the Fondazione Livorno will host an anthological exhibition titled Sentire la Luce by renowned photographer Paolo Bonciani. This exhibition, which opens at 5:00 PM, features over 100 photographs taken from the 1970s to the present, showcasing Bonciani's long and illustrious career in dance photography.
Attending the event will be Luciano Barsotti, President of the Fondazione Livorno, and Giorgio Bacci, the exhibition's curator. Bonciani is recognized as one of the leading interpreters of dance photography, both in Italy and internationally. His artistic sensitivity, rigorous technical preparation, and a long list of prestigious awards set him apart in the field.
Bonciani's artistic journey has been closely linked with the world of dance, particularly through his collaboration with choreographer Micha Van Hoecke. From a young age, Bonciani developed a unique sensitivity to movement, which is evident in his photographs. Rather than merely capturing the moment, he allows the movement to live, fade, and sometimes even dissolve, suggesting a dynamic view of photography that captures a flow of energy rather than a fixed form.
His use of long exposure times, controlled blurring, and unexpected framing transforms the danced gesture into a symbol. In Bonciani's work, the body becomes a trace, a writing in space. Throughout his career, he has photographed some of the biggest names in dance, including Carla Fracci, Luciana Savignano, Alessandra Ferri, Roberto Bolle, Lindsay Kemp, Daniel Ezralow, and Antonio Marquez, along with emerging talents and international dance companies.
The exhibition Sentire la Luce is not just about dance; it is a journey through images and art in its highest expression. Bonciani’s approach to photography can be described as aesthetic and philosophical. He adopts a visual language that seeks to capture the essence of human experience rather than merely describe it. His style is sober and essential, devoid of embellishments.
The light, as suggested by the title of the project, is treated not merely as a technical tool but as a narrative subject. It sculpts faces, defines the contours of memory, and guides the observer toward the meaning of the image. Influences from Italian neorealism, German photographic expressionism, and American documentary photography can be found throughout Bonciani's work.
Livorno, the city where Bonciani is based, plays a silent yet omnipresent role in his photography. It is never just a backdrop; it is a living body that he observes in its evolution—a city that changes, resists, and reinvents itself. In this sense, Sentire la Luce also serves as a visual historical archive, a shared memory.
Each photographic sequence in the exhibition is paired with a carefully selected musical piece, creating a synesthetic experience. The overall effect is one of an "emotional choreography" between sound and image, where every pause and rhythm change becomes an integral part of the meaning. This method is more akin to auteur cinema than traditional exhibition photography.
Throughout his artistic journey, Bonciani has been supported by his wife, Patrizia Fedi, a photographer with whom he founded P&P Bonciani Studios. From 2005 to 2020, he taught stage photography at the Teatro Goldoni in Livorno, where he reflected on the significance of artistic transmission in the digital age. While photography is now accessible to everyone, he warns that its depth of language risks being sacrificed for immediacy. In his courses, Bonciani emphasized the value of time—time to observe, to choose, and to wait for the right light.
His pedagogical legacy is rare, founded on attention and the ethics of observation. Bonciani has received numerous awards, including the prestigious first prize in Moscow and the Gold Medal of the President of the Italian Republic. His works have been exhibited in prominent museums and cultural institutions, including those in Cologne, Barcelona, and Moscow, highlighting the universality of his visual language that transcends local boundaries.
Bonciani’s photography speaks a humanistic language, understandable even to those unfamiliar with Livorno, as it is based on visual archetypes: labor, dance, gesture, and light. As he stated in an interview with Giornale della Danza, "The photographer's task is to capture the soul of the dancer."
Meanwhile, on May 6, 2025, at 5:25 PM, Rai 5 will broadcast the ballet Il giardino degli amanti by Massimiliano Volpini, featuring Roberto Bolle and Nicoletta Manni. This ballet premiered at Teatro alla Scala in 2016, opening the celebrations for the 225th anniversary of Mozart's death.
Set in the garden of a villa, the ballet features a chamber orchestra playing Mozart's quartets and quintets, with characters from Mozart's works, such as Figaro and Don Giovanni, emerging from the labyrinthine garden. The production blends reality and illusion, creating a dynamic and fast-paced atmosphere with a series of virtuosic dances.
Roberto Bolle, born on March 26, 1975, in Casale Monferrato, is an Étoile of Teatro alla Scala and a Principal Dancer of the American Ballet Theatre. He entered the ballet school of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala at the age of twelve and was named first dancer in 1996.
Bolle has performed globally, including at Buckingham Palace for Queen Elizabeth II and at the opening ceremony of the XX Winter Olympic Games in Turin in 2006. He has also been recognized as an "Ambassador of Good Will" for UNICEF and received various awards for his contributions to dance.
As Bolle continues to captivate audiences worldwide, his performance in Il giardino degli amanti promises to be a highlight of the ballet season, showcasing the timeless beauty of Mozart's music and the artistry of dance.
