Julianna Donadio
Julianna Donadio started her ballet studies at the Academy of Dance Arts in New Jersey where she took multiple Royal Academy of Dance exams and passed with distinction. Afterward, Julianna went on to study year-round at the Joffrey Ballet School New York, The School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center, and at the San Francisco Ballet School. While at the Joffrey Ballet School she performed in The Nutcracker under the guidance of Gelsey Kirkland. At the San Francisco Ballet School Julianna performed in the San Francisco Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker. At the School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center she studied Balanchine repertoire directly from the New York City Ballet lineage. Her summers were spent at The Juilliard School, American Ballet Theater, Complexions Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Ballet Arizona, PNW Contemporary Ballet, Orlando Ballet, and Joffrey Ballet.
Julianna became a founding member of the Ballet Arizona Studio Company and continued to dance with Ballet Arizona and Ballet Tucson. While at Ballet Arizona, Julianna danced in many Balanchine works under Ib Anderson’s direction such as Walpurgishnact, Four Temperaments, Serenade, Episodes, and Western Symphony. She has danced in classics and new works in professional productions such as The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, La Bayadère, Cinderella, Paquita, Gilbert and Sullivan, The Nutcracker, Le Corsaire, Jekyll and Hyde, Napoli, Konservatoriet, Ib Andereson’s Symphonie Classique and more.
Praxis Statement
My practice circulates around professional dance, healing, and movement practices. I am a teacher, researcher, and former professional dancer; therefore, I blend my experience at the back and front of the studio to evolve dance communities, those new to the movement, and those looking for healing modalities. While doing so, I am interested in the creative undertones of these experiences and viewpoints. I choreograph and curate work from a place of somatic feeling and therefore am interested in finding these innate senses in the larger dance community.
Julianna holds a Bachelor's degree in Behavioral Science (concentrations in Psychology and Sociology). In addition, Julianna has two yoga certifications and is a qualified physical therapy technician. She received her Masters in Somatic Psychology/Professional Dance Practice from Middlesex University London in 2020. Julianna currently is on faculty with the Colorado Ballet and teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Research Interests
My research is inclusive of three primary lenses of scope. These are somatic undertones in professional ballet, how dance can be a healing sense of community after trauma, and how creative choreography or work reflects these feelings or life experiences. I am interested in seeing how we can bring more of the innate, intrinsic feeling sensitives into professional ballet institutions and see how that may influence dancer's longevity and dance communities' future. I am hyper-aware of the tone we are curating as artists, and I am looking to offer more creative expression and awareness to dancers. I am interested in creating a format or pedagogy that helps dancers find more embodied or somatic-type experiences in which they can take into their professional careers and beyond.
https://www.juliannamae.com/