The Association was founded in 1986 from the artistic collaboration of several dancers: Donatella Altieri, Giulia Ferrari, Claudio Ronda, Pia Russo, Leila Troletti.

Historically well-defined features of the Association are and remain the focus on the interdisciplinarity of projects, understood as a plurality of expressive languages; a strong connection to the local area; a deep vocation and commitment to promoting dance culture; and support for young choreographers.

With the aim of fostering a lively and dynamic project closely connected to its territory while being simultaneously open to national and international perspectives, since the beginning of its activity, the Ballet Association formed its own company, which in November 1990 was named Fabula Saltica, creating an original artistic path open to the continuous evolution of contemporary dance. From 1990 to 1997, Gheorghe Iancu, Robert North, and Robert Cohan alternated as the company’s main choreographers.

Research and an entrepreneurial model are the distinguishing features of the Association’s work, which, after over thirty years of continuous activity, has achieved a level of organizational and artistic maturity and stability.

Since 1996, the Association’s activities have been supported by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, the Veneto Region – A.R.CODanza, the Province of Rovigo, and the Municipality of Rovigo.

It is a founding member of the Rovigo Festival Association.

It is a founding member of A.R.CODanza.

Since 2018, it has been the promoter of the project La Fabbrica dello Zucchero.

Fabula Saltica is one of the few contemporary dance companies that has been continuously active and for the longest time in Italy. It is a key point of reference for organizing dance performances in the Veneto Region.

For over 30 years, it has engaged in significant activities to raise awareness about dance, presenting innovative performances to thousands of spectators in the city of Rovigo, thanks also to a fruitful collaboration with the Teatro Sociale, as well as in the surrounding Province, in the Veneto region, throughout Italy, and even internationally. The company is driven by the ideal goal of attracting new audiences to dance and affirming the power of dance to positively, constructively, and creatively influence the daily lives of every spectator.

Within Fabula Saltica, each new project is not approached as mere work but as a core of thoughts, secrets, and emotions to be explored and understood. Dance and choreography are seen, experienced, and practiced not just as “things” to be done but as worldviews that precisely define who we are.

With constant attention to the interdisciplinarity of projects, understood as a plurality of expressive languages, the company seeks its roots in the past, aiming to enhance the literary, artistic, and musical heritage (still not fully explored) of great authors, interpreting them through new challenges and adventures in a dialectical cultural project that engages with the questions that have been the subject of reflection for centuries, rewriting the already known in radically different forms.

Fabula Saltica is firmly established in the Italian dance scene, the current approach is contemporary, the performances are original and accessible to everyone, performed by dancers who are always generously acclaimed. Over the years, the company’s creative continuity has maintained some fundamental elements: original music, careful study of sets, lighting, and costumes, thoughtful research into sources of inspiration, all accompanied by appropriate and gradual innovation in languages, through the use of new technological elements.

Through its performances and educational activities, the company reaches all audiences, encouraging discovery, stimulating imagination, making dance accessible, and sharing its passion for this art form in a meeting between choreography, performers, and audience.

The company’s performances have been staged not only in Italy but also in Finland, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Russia, the USA, and South Korea, Perù.

Artistic Direction:

Claudio Ronda has been in charge of the artistic direction of the Fabula Saltica company since 1998, also serving as the main choreographer. He oversees, coordinates, organizes, and directs the company’s projects, together with other collaborators, based on a feasibility analysis and with a focus on sharing and participation. After gaining significant and qualified experience in artistic direction and consulting, both with the company and other public institutions and private foundations, he has contributed in these challenging years to maintaining, consolidating, and developing the company, as well as initiating new residency projects, especially aimed at young choreographers.

In his work, he always draws deep inspiration from the music and stories that inspire him, seeking, together with the dancers, an original and versatile movement that is profoundly human and accessible. Over the years, he has managed to attract and activate valuable collaborations to nurture performers and talents. His interest is particularly focused on involving Italian composers, set designers, and artists to create better works of art, achieved in a climate of deep and shared understanding to keep the challenge of creative innovation alive and continuous, in an attempt to understand how the world around us can shape, influence, and change our very existence.

“To observe and question, together, the surprising mutability of the world and people, and in this process, delve into thoughts and emotions, analyze psychological traits, behaviors, and ways of relating. This journey, which we believe is stylistically coherent and attentive to contemporary creation, solid in its structure, essential, modern, understandable, and moving, is one that creates performances to remember, even for just a single sequence, a single moment.” – Claudio Ronda

Artistic and Organizational Staff

Administration: Mara Zanirato
Promotion: Claudio Pisa
Press Office: Beatrice Tessarin

Technical Team

Technical Manager: Gianluca Quaglio
Website developed by: Alice Rossato

Artistic Collaborations

For the realization of its artistic projects, Fabula Saltica has collaborated and continues to collaborate with various professionals whose expertise helps to renew and enrich the company’s new dance repertoire:

Choreographers

Vito Alfarano, Gabriella Borni, Robert Cohan, Harold de Hart, Gheorghe Iancu, Ismael Ivo, Valentina Massini, Orazio Messina, Fabrizio Monteverde, Massimo Moricone, Nicolas Musin, Robert North, Nicolae Pantazi, Thierry Parmentier, Loris Petrillo, Pascaline Richtarch.

Guest Dancers

Michela Barasciutti, Alessandra Celentano, Paul Chalmer, Laura Contardi, Cyrille De la Barre, Gheorghe Iancu, Ismael Ivo, Monique Loudières, Alessandro Molin, Thierry Parmentier, Luciana Savignano, Karl Alfred Shreiner.

Directors, Set Designers, and Costume Designers

Gabbris Ferrari, Antonio Petris, Alessio Pizzech, Fabrizio Plessi, Rinaldo Rinaldi, Luisa Spinatelli, Ivan Stefanutti, Giulia Zuolo.

Actors and Musicians

Alfio Antico, Felice Casciano, Elena Croce, Giulia Lazzarini, Luigi Marangoni, Enrico Rava, Tony Scott, Andrea Zanforlin.

Composers

Claudio Ambrosini, Edoardo Bennato, Giorgio Bertinelli, Harold Blake, Massimo d’Amico, Giorgio Gaslini, Paola Magnanini, Carlo Pedini, Simone Pizzardo, Enrico Rava, Paolo Silvestri, Giovanni Sollima, Marco Tutino, Paolo Zambelli.