The Swiss choreographer was born in Baltimore, USA, and studied dance with Marika Besobrasova in Monte Carlo. As a young dancer, she collaborated with the Frankfurt Ballet, where she danced classical repertoire while also working with important contemporary choreographers, such as Jiří Kylián, Uwe Scholz and William Forsythe. In 1990, she joined the Choreographisches Theater before starting CocoonDance, her own company, 10 years later with the dramaturge Rainald Endrass. In 2012, CocoonDance established a junior company, which was invited in both 2016 and 2019 to Tanztreffen der Jugend as part of the Berliner Festspiele. Rafaële Giovanola has an abstract understanding of dance, similar to that of contemporary visual arts. Her work is about creating images that do not immediately reveal their meaning but stimulate different perceptions. In addition to her own choreography and numerous commissions, including works for Dance Company at Theater Osnabrück, Zentrum für Zeitgenössischen Tanz (ZZT) in Cologne and tanzmainz during the 2021/2022 season, she also teaches around the world, including at tanzhaus nrw in Düsseldorf, Theater St. Gallen, Staatstheater Nürnberg as well as for the Ewgenij Panfilow Company, the Perm Ballet School (Russia), the choreographic centre Donko Seko Bamako (Mali) and at Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts in Bangalore (India). Picture: Joerg Letz

CocoonDance was founded by choreographer Rafaële Giovanola and dramaturge Rainald Endrass in 2000. Since 2004, the company has performed and directed the dance division at Theater im Ballsaal, which receives institutional support from the federal city of Bonn. The company is defined by a diverse, international and interdisciplinary network, and is regularly involved in cultural and educational activities as well as promoting young talent through its own junior company and artistic education. The company’s roughly 40 evening-length productions have been commissioned as guest performances on five continents and awarded multiple prizes, including the sponsorship grant from the canton of Valais. In 2018 and 2020, CocoonDance was represented at TANZPLATTFORM DEUTSCHLAND, the most important contemporary dance biennial in Germany. During their three-year residency from 2016 to 2019 at Théâtre du Crochetan in Monthey, CocoonDance not only strengthened its connection to Switzerland, but also initiated an important local artistic project: Cie. Junior, a second company for young talent. The company aims to provide young people in Valais with low-threshold and individual access to contemporary dance. CocoonDance has served as Artiste associée at Théâtre du Crochetan since 2020, where it also provides advisory services for different types of dance education and audience development. Picture: Alessandro de Matteis