Paola Cantalupo

Balancing between classical lyricism and contemporary reality, dance is a constant school of life offering the chance to express our deepest emotions through movement and time.

Paola Cantalupo trained at the Dance Academy of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan where she later began her career as a corps de ballet member. Winner of the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne in 1977, and of the Bronze medal in the USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson in 1979, she was hired by Maurice Béjart at the Ballet du XXe siècle, and then in 1980, by John Neumeier at the Hamburg Ballet.

In 1984, she continued her career as a Principal dancer at the National Ballet of Portugal where she performed the leading roles of the ballet repertoire including Gisèle, Swan Lake and La Bayadère. She joined the Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo by H.R.H the Princess of Hanover, where she performed until 2009. Her eclectic repertoire included major roles from the Ballets Russes (Sheherazade, The Firebird, Les Sylphides), works by G. Balanchine, A. Tudor, J. Kylian, W. Forsythe, R. Petit, as well as emblematic creations by Jean-Christophe Maillot (Romeo and Juliet, Nutcracker Circus, Cinderella, Beauty).

The Italian critics awarded her the Léonide Massine Prize in Positano in 1991, the Danza e Danza Prize in Venice in 1993, the Carrière Prize in 2001, and La Sfera Danza Prize for Didactic and Formation in 2024. She was appointed Knight of the Order of Cultural Merit of the Principality of Monaco in 2002 and Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2021.

Holder of the Certificate of Aptitude for the Functions of Dance Teacher, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture, Paola Cantalupo is regularly invited as a teacher or jury member, and was involved, from 2004 to 2017, as a member of the Artistic Committee of the Prix de Lausanne. She is an honorary member of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science (IADMS).

Artistic and Pedagogical Director of Ecole Supérieure de Danse de Cannes Rosella Hightower since 2009, Paola Cantalupo took on the same position for the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Danse de Marseille as of 2012, with a common project until 2019. It would then become Pôle National Supérieur de Danse Rosella Hightower, refocused in Cannes-Mougins.

Link: www.pnsd.fr