Toni Candeloro is one of the leading Italian names in the world of Dance. He started his career at a very young age, as the protagonist in Family Portrait, created by Birgit Cullberg at the Arena Theatre in Verona. Between 1987 and 1990 he was the Principal Dancer for the Zurich Opera, where he interpreted roles choreographed by Uwe Scholz, as well as Mercurio in Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet, with Marcia Haydée and Richard Cragun. Alongside Rudolf Nureyev, he danced the pas de deux from The Wandering Companion, choreographed by Maurice Bejart. In 1991 he was the only Italian guest soloist at the Grand Gala at the Kirov in Leningrad (now the Mariinsky, St Petersburg). He was part of the Bonn Opera Ballet where, in 1993, he danced various principal roles to choreography by Valery  Panov, in particular,Petrushka, which was presented on tour in Moscow. In 1996 he returned to Bonn as a guest in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, choreographed by Youri Vámos. As a dancer and choreographer, he has been invited several times by Alicia Alonso to recreate the choreography of Michel Fokine for the National Ballet of Cuba. Amongst his partners, Carla Fracci, Luciana Savignano, Alessandra Ferri, Galina Panova, Anna Razzi, Eileen Brady and many others. Amongst his repertoire, he has danced Petrushka, The Spectre of the Rose, L’après-midi d’un faune, and Shéhérazade, subsequently deepening his research with some of the dancers and teachers from the last generation of Diaghilev’s circle, or with others who studied the roles personally with Tamara Karsavina, Alexandra Danilova and Alicia Markova. It is an environment that is congenial to Candeloro’s personality and culture, which have always distinguished his artistic choices and have made him one of today’s few choreographers painstaking and passionate enough to be invited by Alicia Alonso from the National Ballet of Cuba to dance Petrushkaand to recreate Le Carnaval, both by Michel Fokine, the most important of the Ballet Russeschoreographers. He is guest choreographer at major international theatres ranging from Europe to Russia, and at various academies including the Conservatoire National superieur de musique e de danse in Paris, and the Accademia Nazionale di Danza in Rome. He also guests at conferences and master classes in the most important Italian and European universities. He is considered by critics and public alike as an artist with the cultural power to bring the Dance to unlikely audiences, such as in 1995 in Sala Nervi in the Vatican, in the presence of Pope John Paul II; in 2009 he danced for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Dalai Lama on the occasion of the latter’s visit to Italy. Toni Candeloro has amassed a rich collection of dance memorabilia and artefacts, covering the period from the 1600s to the present day. He collaborates with the Associazione Michel Fokine and with prestigious museums, including The State Museum of Theatre and Music in St Petersburg, the Russian State Museum, St Petersburg, the Mart at Roveretto, Italy, the La Scala Museum in Milan, amongst others.