After working with prestigious international companies and artists such as Sasha Waltz & Guests, Batsheva Dance Company, Benoit Lachambre, Ohad Naharin, Emio Greco/PC and Yasmeen Godder amongst others, Israeli choreographer and performer Matan Zamir and Italian Nicola Mascia founded the Berlin based collaborative duo matanicola. Well known for their unique choreographic style and signature, their
work deeply engage in questioning and redefining the boundaries of cultural and social definition, gender and national identity, highlighting the “queer”, the “other” and the alternative. Their body of work so far, includes seven productions: UNDER (Kurt Jooss Prize 2007), created in 2005 in collaboration with Israeli choreographer Yasmeen Godder, LADIES FIRST (2007), WHAT ON EARTH (2010), PIECE OF ME (2011), TO THIS PURPOSE ONLY (2013) for and with the Italian company Fattoria Vittadini, BODIESLANGUAGE (2014); BLEACH (2015) for and with Theater Thikwa; as well as an ongoing improvisation series: VERSUS (2006-on going) and INTERVENTION (2012-on going). Their work has been commissioned, co-produced and supported by Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Sophiensaele, Tanz im August – Internationales Tanzfest and Radialsystem V in Berlin, Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V., European Association for Jewish Culture, Goethe Institut and Grand Theatre Groningen, Theater Freiburg amongst others and extensively presented in international festivals. In 2012, they have been invited by the Festival Les Grandes Traversées in Bordeaux, to curate the twelve edition of the festival entitled MATANICOLA’S MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR. As duo, they have been also collaborating, as choreographers and performers, in music videos and live shows with artists such as Peaches, Hanayo and Mignon amongst others. Besides choreography and performance, matanicola regularly teach classes and their intensive movement research workshop THE “UNLEARNING” PROCESS
