Luciano Cannito

In January 2003 he made his first feature film "La lettera", produced by Zeal, awarded and sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Culture as "film of National Cultural Interest". At the moment "La lettera" is distributed by Minerva International. Luciano Cannito started his carrier in theatre at the age of 11, in Naples, interpreting many children's roles in works by Scarpetta and De Filippo. Since then he has never interrupted his artistic training as well as his professional career. Seven years of studies of piano, eight years of dance training, three years of singing, degree at the University of Naples in Italian and Latin Literature. During his studies he was also working in several theatre plays, ballets, musicals (more then two hundred shows of Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar). From the age of 20 to 28, he worked in Israel, Germany, Austria, Italy as a dancer, with some brief interruptions as an actor for commercials and television fictions (amongst others in Italy in the film "Passi d'Amore" directed by S. Sollima and produced by RAI 1). In 1986, at only 24 years of age, he started his parallel career as choreographer and director, making the show "Spin" produced by the Posthof Theatre In Austria. In 1987 he created Napoli Dance Theatre Company with which he represented Italy at the 1987 edition of the International Tanz Festival. From 1992 to 1995 he was the Artistic Director of Balletto di Napoli, and with this Company touring in Canada, Austria and Israel. From 1993 to 1996 he was Artistic Director at Petruzzelli Theatre in Bari. From 1996 to 1998 he was Artistic Director of Balletto di Roma. From March 1998 to December 2002 he was Artistic Director and resident choreographer of the Ballet Company of the Teatro San Carlo Opera House in Napoli, Italy. His works have been performed and co produced by the most prestigious theatres and festivals. Amongst them La Scala Theatre in Milan, the Lincoln Center of New York, The San Carlo Opera House of Napoli, The Opera of Rome, the Place des Artes in Montreal, the Grand Theatre of Bordeaux, the festival Roma-Europa, the Opera Theatre of Tel Aviv, the Hamilton Great Hall in Ontario, the Ryerson Theatre in Toronto, the National Theatre of Ankara, the Bat Dor Dance Company of Israel, the Olimpico Theatre of Rome, the Teatro Regio of Parma, the Balletto di Roma, the Santander Festival in Spain, the Verdi Theatre in Pisa and in Padua, the Teatro Nuovo di Torino, the National Opera Theatre of Tbilisi, the Tulsa Ballet in Oklahoma, the Opera Theatre of Trieste, the Theatre de l'Opera de Avignon, the Estonian National Theatre, the Orange County Performing Center of Los Angeles. He won the award of WWF "Notte a Napoli" for his choreography (1988), the International award "Le Fontane di Roma" at Argentina Theatre (1991), the International Television Award "La Grande corsa" together with Simon Estes, Barbara Hendricks and Ravi Shankar (1992 RAI 2), the International award "Premio internazionale Gino Tani per le arti dello spettacolo" (1993) at Sistina Theatre in Rome, Danza & Danza Prize (2001), the Positano Prize (2002), the Vignale Prize (2003). He has been invited to represent Italy in Bruxelles, at the International Festival de Dance (1988) and in London by the Culture Department of European Community for his seminar and stage " Stories without words. The power of the body language" (1994). His creations in tour to Canada, France, Switzerland, Israel, Taiwan, United States have always been a great success of critic and public. Some of his works have been performed more than 100 times around the world as Marco Polo, Cassandra, Amarcord, Five Seasons, Mare Nostrum, Barbie's World. His productions have been interpreted by stars as Viviana Durante, Maya Plissetskaya, Vanessa Redgrave, Eric Vu An, Massimo Murru, Raffaele Paganini, Margaret Illmann, Vladimir Derevianko. In 1995 he produced (script, choreography and direction) the theatre remake of the musical film "An American in Paris" premiered at Sistina Theatre of Rome, making box office hit in the Italian theatre season 1995 and in great demand also for the 1996 season. In 1997 he produced (script, choreography and direction) a new Italian edition of the musical "The Beauty and the Beast". In 1998 he directed the play "fast love" premiered in Rome and Carmen in Turin. In June 2000 he restaged for La Scala Theatre in Milan his theatre production "Amarcord", based on the Oscar awarded film by Fellini, on music by Nino Rota. In the same year he created ROC.COM for San Carlo Opera House of Napoli using new technologies for virtual sets and live music by a rock band. In March 2001 he restaged Cassandra for San Carlo Opera House. In July he made a new creation for the Todi Festival on Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi. Still in 2001 he toured with La Scala of Milan in United States with Amarcord in New York and Los Angeles. From the year 2002 and 2003 his productions have been performed at the National Theatre of Estonia, at the Opera Theatre of Avignon, at the Verdi Opera Theatre of Trieste. All together till today Luciano Cannito, at the age of forty-one, has produced more than 45 ballets, three musicals, directed five plays, four video clips, and several works for the Italian broadcast Television. His works are already scheduled for the coming seasons in Italy, Argentina, Estonia and Germany.