MA Dance Teaching and Facilitating (due to finish in 2024)
MA in Performance with Distinction
BA Hons in Contemporary Dance with First Class
Additional qualifications
Therapeutic Massage Therapist
Certified Coach for the Co-active Fundamentals (CPCC), Co-Active Training Institute
Role and responsibilities:
Lecturer in Performance, Contemporary Techniques, Contact Work and Rehearsal Director during student performance periods.
I have always been a very active child so my mum, driven by the desire to have some quiet time in the house, took me to Ballet classes. I immediately fell in love with the freedom of movement and the possibility to express myself in any way I wanted. And then I had my first experience of being on a stage…. feeling the lights, seeing the dark of the auditorium, the costumes and above all that exhilarating feeling of being completely present in the moment and having the power to connect with different people through performance. I loved that feeling and I still do, the infinite sea of possibility, of allowing strangers to connect and experience something special through dance. I think that there is very little that compares and I enjoy enabling other people to experience that exuberant feeling.
Moving to London by myself when I was 19 was a life-changing moment for me, which challenged and enriched me in equal measure. It marked the beginning of a wild adventure that is still carrying on. My passion now is about diversifying and nurturing the new talents who will shape the future of dance and theatre and act as a springboard for what those future generations want.
I have two young sons and I now feel like my mum must have felt when I was little…. I am ready to take them to dance classes just so that I can have some quiet time in the house.
Azzurra is an experienced performer and educator, Lecturer in Dance and Curriculum Lead for Performance. Azzurra teaches across the UG and PG courses at NSCD teaching and facilitating learning in contemporary dance techniques, performance and research practice. Azzurra holds a BA (hons) Contemporary Dance and MA in Performance, in addition to an MA Dance Teaching and Facilitating. Azzurra has held the role of Programme Leader for the Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) at NSCD and Rehearsal Director for Vincent Dance Theatre. Azzurra’s research interests are in the field of Performance Practice and Pedagogical Practice – empowering students through reflective practice and embodied approaches to teaching and learning, and dialogues around women/mothers in dance. In 2021, Azzurra held an Open Forum event looking at Motherhood in the Arts.
Azzurra is an independent dance artist who has worked in the UK, Belgium, China and Italy as a performer, choreographer, rehearsal director and producer in dance for the last 20 years. She has made work both as a solo artist, and within the dance collective, Sardoville. Her work has been supported and commissioned by Arts Council England and other Yorkshire-based bodies. Azzurra was nominated in the category of ‘Outstanding Female Performer (Contemporary)’ by the Critics’ Circle Award and she was awarded the Leadership Mentoring Scheme from One Dance UK.
Azzurra was born in Florence where she started her training in Ballet and Contemporary. She moved to the UK to continue her studies at London Contemporary Dance School. In 2006-07, she was part of Edge Dance Company. Whilst there, she began working professionally as a freelance artist. During that time, Azzurra worked with Rosemary Lee, Jonathan Lunn, Freddie Opoku-Addaie, English National Opera and the Royal Opera House. In 2008, she joined Henri Oguike Dance Company and in 2009, she moved to Phoenix Dance Theatre. During her time there she danced with many choreographers, including Lost Dog, Douglas Thorpe, Alitta Collins, Sharon Watson, Richard Alston and others. In 2012, she worked with Akram Khan Company and from 2013 she freelanced, working widely across Europe and Asia with choreographers such as Kim Brandstrup, James Cousins, Jorge Crecis, De Nada Dance, Opera North, Vincent Dance Theatre, Judith Clijster and Luca Silvestrini, amongst others.
