Our Vision

MMD’s Manifesto wants to promote and support a new idea of collaboration between the two worlds of Dance and Music with the aim of supporting a new generation of artists.

Dance and Music are the physical and metaphysical representations of the ancestral rhythm; since the beginning of time, every culture has expressed itself through their symbiosis.

MMD was formed to recreate the same synergy among people that has always existed between these two arts. Collaboration and sharing information and experiences are its founding principles. MMD believes in a new synergy between the artists of today’s Dance and Music Worlds – teachers, dancers, choreographers, ballet masters, directors, pianists, percussionists, conductors, composers – to support, educate and prepare a new generation of youngsters.

The union between the disciplines of Dance and Music produces one of the most powerful expressions of human and (of course) artistic communication. To achieve this, MMD wants to put in place all of the artistic and educational activities required to achieve this all-important synergy. Therefore, MMD invites the artists of today to join its ambitious project for the artists of tomorrow.

MMD aims to:

2. Encourage the sharing of information between musicians and dancers

3. Compare and highlight the respective problems of these professions and offer solutions

4. Build a new image of the relationship between professional figures based on reciprocal collaboration, and disseminate new working practices for teaching and learning founded on the synergy between Dance and Music

5. Develop communication strategies to optimise the relationship between professionals and make the workplace more productive and enjoyable

6. Facilitate interactions between dancers and musicians in order that they can better understand each other’s needs

7. Improve working conditions for musicians and dancers

8. Re-establish the role of music and dance musicians, in order to make the profession more attractive

9. Organise meetings, round table discussions, and debates as well as workshops and similar events between dance and music professionals

10. Promote initiatives that aim to develop future generations of artists, encouraging a complete development of the self through the support of Music and Dance

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THE SIGNATORIES

LUCA TIEPPO
(MMD, Artistic Director; former Head of Pianists, Elmhurst School for Dance)

MASSIMILIANO GRECO
(Académie Princesse Grace, Principal Pianist & Head of Music)

EMANUELE LUCCHISANI
(Ecole Supérieure de Danse de Cannes Rosella Hightower, Pianist)

SANDRO CUCCUINI
(TBM Project, Pianist & Composer)

KIM HELWEG
(Royal Danish Ballet, pianist & composer; Ankerstjerne Music Company, director)

DR SUZANNE KNOSP
(University of Arizona, School of Dance, Music Director)

STEFANIA DI COSMO
(international maître de ballet)

GABRIELLA CAVALLARO
(Liceo Coreutico Bonporti Trento, ballet teacher)

PIA RUSSO
(international maître de ballet)

LESLEY SHEARER
(Metropolitan School of the Arts, director of ballet)

DIANA TAVERNIER
(School of the Balletto di Roma, ballet teacher)

NICOLETTA CABASSI
(international contemporary dancer & choreographer; founder of Lubbert Das)

MATTEO TRIMIGNO
(author of the textbook “Piano compositions for the dance lesson”)

IRINA SOROKINA
(journalist, music critic & pianist)

BRUNO CARIOTI
(former Director of Accademia Nazionale di Danza, Rome)

MARCELO SPACCAROTELLA
(Teatro alla Scala, conductor & pianist)

LUCIA GEPPI
(international maître de ballet)

KATHRYN BENNETTS
(international Forsythe coach and choreographer)

VALENTINA BALDASSARRE
(Opera di Roma, pianist)

MARCO ARIANO
(Accademia Nazionale di Danza, percussionist, performer, intermedia experimenter)

VALERIA VITATERNA
(Liceo Coreutico Rome, teacher in Music Theory and Practice for Dance)

ILJA LOWEN
(international maître de ballet)

LUIS CARMONA
(international pianist & composer)

JULIJA ANTONOVA
(Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, pianist & concertmaster)

ALVARO LOPES FERREIRA
(Conservatorio L’Aquila, former director Master’s in Music Accompaniment for Dance)

YAWEN WANG
(pianist & founder of Ballegro!)

DEBORA GUERRINI
(Liceo Coreutico Azuni, Sassari, teacher in Music Theory and Practice for Dance)

LORETA ALEXANDRESCU
(Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, ballet teacher)

MASSIMO CARRANO
(Accademia Nazionale di Danza, lecturer in music and dance relationship)

GRAZIA GALANTE
(Ballet du XXe Siècle, former etoile; contemporary dance teacher)

ALESSANDRA PASQUALI
(international maître de ballet)

ROSE ALICE
(former artistic director of Contemporary London Ballet Company – International Arts Collective)

GIULIA ROSSITTO
(Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, teacher)

FRANCESCO RAGNI
(Liceo Coreutico, Arezzo, pianist)

ALEX FOAKSMAN
(Boston Ballet Company, principal solo pianist)

KAREN CARRENO
(Ricky Mountain Ballet Theatre Montana, musical director)

BARBARA COCCONI
(international pianist; author of the textbook “Notebook of a ballet pianist”)

MARIANA PALACIOS IZAGUIRRE
(Svenska Balettskolan Gothenburg, pianist & wavedrummer)

SANDRA STOJANOVIC
(international pianist & professor)