Compagnia Excursus

Artistic direction Ricky Bonavita and Theodor Rawlyer
Sponsored by the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (Ministry for the Arts)

Excursus or ‘wandering’ is a metaphor for Ricky Bonavita’s choreographic discourse, for its rarefied atmospheres, its gestuality, which draws on daily life, but is then transfigured as surreal and stylised expression.
The company was founded in 1994 in Rome, Italy, but often works in joint productions in Switzerland. This double identity is expressed through its two co-founders, Ricky Bonavita and Theodor Rawlyer, and also by ever more frequent participation in Dance events in the two countries. (Festival Invito alla danza, ’96 and ’98, Roma; Festival de la Cité, Lausanne ’99; Festival Italiarte 01, Roma, etc.) For its own productions, the company has been granted subsidies and support from State and private bodies in the two countries. (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Altran Italia, the City of Biel/Bienne, the Canton of Berne, Pro Helvetia, etc.)

Some company performances in recent years.
Festival Civit'Arte '95, C. di Bagnoregio - Bellini Danza Festival, Napoli 95 - Festival "Invito alla Danza", Roma 96/98 - Festival "Settembre al Borgo", Caserta 96 - "Prix Volinine", Paris (F) 97 - Volkshaus, Biel-Bienne, (CH) 97 - Neuchâtel Dance Festival (CH) 98 - Montreux Dance Festival (CH) 98 - Aula der Gewerbeschule, Biel/Bienne (CH) 99 - Festival de la Cité, Lausanne (CH) 99 - Festival "La danza da bruciare", Roma 99/02 - Festival Nostradea, Bologna 00 - Théâtre Iseïon, Montpellier (F) 2000 - "Incontro danza3" ISR (Istituto Svizzero di Roma), Roma 00 - Kulturhallen/Dampfzentrale, Bern (CH) 97/00 – Théâtre Palace, Biel/Bienne (CH) 00 – Schadausaal, Thun (CH) 00 - Festival "Nuova Danza", Cagliari 00/01 - "Saltantes" 2001 - Festival "Italiarte", Roma 01 – Rassegna “Che danza vuoi?” Teatro Greco, Roma 01/02/03/04 – Festival “Il Gesto e l’Anima – Italiadanza 01”, Torino 01 – Teatro di Pisa, Pisa 02 – Danza di Pace, Napoli 02/04 - Festival di Siracusa, Noto 02 – 2500 Kultur-Culture, Biel/Bienne (CH) 02 – Teatro Comuna Baires, Milano 02 – CivitaFestival 03, Civita Castellana - Festival Barocco, Sutri 03 - Rassegna “Un viaggio oltre le note” VIII ed., Castel San Giorgio 04 - Rassegna ”Summer Ballet 2004, Spello 04 – Galà Spazio Étoile, Roma05 etc.


Ricky Bonavita

He trained in classical dance and then specialised in techniques of contemporary dance (Limòn, Cunningham, Nikolais). He works as a soloist in various Italian companies, and has toured in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, in Asia, in North and South America and in Australia. . In 1988, after a long sojourn in Paris where he met C.Carlson, P.Goss, J.Gaudin, and J.Cebron, he began his choreographic work, winning first price for his pas-de-deux Excursus at the Singolari di danza competition run by the Spaziozero Theatre in Rome. Since then he has written various choreographies, both for his own company and as guest choreographer for other companies in Italy and abroad.

In 1994, together with the Swiss dancer Theodor Rawyler, he set up the dance company Excursus, which rapidly gained recognition at national and international level, and received both public and critical acclaim. For both their creative and didactic projects, support has been forthcoming from the most important State and private bodies in Italy and Switzerland (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Regione Lazio, Provincia di Roma, Comune di Roma, Pro Helvetia, Cantone di Berna, Città di Biel, etc.). The company has also received funding and sponsorship from private foundations, and several invitations for artistic residencies for specific productions.

For Ricky Bonavita, his own company represents the ideal vehicle for pursuing his personal creative and choreographic development, mixing technical codes with the dynamics of multiform movement, creating dance that is immediately communicative - where gesture and linear abstraction, drama and the use of space and rhythm, lyricism and stylisation of form are all woven together with the poetry and emotion of the themes represented. As the choreographies follow one upon the other, the artistic direction, interaction with the scenographic and visual elements and collaboration with the contemporary composers of the music, are further explored, becoming more and more vital.

Ricky Bonavita’s teaching commitments in the field of contemporary dance have also grown over the years, he runs courses and seminars on technique, and workshops concentrating on his own repertoire and on improvisation and composition in general. In Rome he runs professional courses in contemporary dance technique at I.A.L.S. and the Centro Danza Mimma Testa, and produces choreographic projects for the Accademia Nazionale di Danza in Rome. He teaches in several centres in Italy and abroad, and holds regular workshops at the Akar Modern Dance Studio in Berne, Switzerland, and at the Summeracademy Mudance, at Villersexel in France. In 1998 he also worked as guest choreographer in the Cairo Opera House in Egypt.

In his role as guest choreographer and teacher with the Accademia Nazionale di Danza he took part in the 2003 Maratona Didattica with Crossings, in the Premio Roma of the same year with Dust, and with Motus and Angels, two pieces, the first of which was a finalist in the Premio Nazionale per le Arti 2003, and which jointly received third prize in the fifth Serge Lifar International Ballet Competition held at Kiev, Ukraine, in 2004.
He is regularly called to participate in the examining boards of many dance schools in Italy, and to serve on the juries of various contemporary dance competitions.


Theodor Rawlyer

Theodor Rawlyer began his dance training in Berne with A.Parekh, studying the main techniques of contemporary dance (Graham, Limòn, Cunningham, Goss). He has also studied dance-mime (L. Kemp), release technique, Dalcroze rhythmics, theatrical expression (Théâtre Populaire Romand), music (G.Selsi). He trained as a dance therapist with M.Fux, J. Salkin and A. Catalano. From 1984 to 1993 he was a dancer with the Danzacompagnia Anna Catalano. In 1997 he was guest artist of the Canton of Berne in Biel/Bienne. As co-author of the projects of the Compagnia Excursus, together with the choreographer Ricky Bonavita, Theodor Rawlyer contributes to an original synthesis, reworking cultural derivations from the North and the South of Europe. He also has various teaching commitments in contemporary dance, and is involved with various projects setting up dance workshops in a social and therapeutic context; working with the Councils of the City and the Province of Rome, with the Health Authority ASL RME, and also with the Education Authority of the Canton of Berne.