Francesca Merolla, born in Italy in 1993, studied between Rome, surroundings and Canada, where she had the opportunity to have a very diverse training, that includes classical ballet, hip-hop, some acrobatics and jazz. In 2013 she undertook her professional education at Iwanson International in Munich. Graduated in 2016 she immediately began her apprenticeship by ZfinMalta National Dance Company, during which she started the collaboration with Marianne Reynaudi for the creation of ‘TAPIOCA’, a duo-work that was presented in Munich, Belgrade and Malta.
For the 2017/2018 season she joined the stable company of Volkstheater in Rostock, where she had the pleasure of working in the production ‘Chronos’ of Elias Lazaridis. Since 2018 Francesca has been working as a freelancer for the ‘Chopsticks’ project directed by Khai Ngoc Vu which debuted in Berlin in November 2018, for the Song of the Goat Theater, in ‘ISLAND’, a production by Ivan Pérez and Grezgorz Bral and for B’cause Dance Company with the productions ‘Home Sick/Sick Home’ and ‘Faceless/ less face’ by Bartek Woszczynski, who toured Poland and Denmark. Later she worked in Stuttgart for the productions ‘Um poic mais de Amour’ and ‘Roof Top 0711’ with Azimuth Arts and Dance Ensemble.
During Covid she got the opportunity to work and perform for the project – Invisbe dances, Art after lockdown- a concept by Elisabeth Schillling and got the foundings to research on her own project – To my roots, unknown.- that was presented in Cologne at La Corrupta dance festival. Currently based in Cologne she worked with the collective DENCUENTRO for the dance piece SIN`PA, presented in the Favoriten Festival 2022 in Dortmund and in the Tanzfaktur Rehin Festival 2022.
In few occasion she had the opportunity to dance in music videos for the songs, ´Time to grow´ by Les Enfants Sauvage, Lady Gender Gaga – Alles wird sich gendern (Glottisschlag) | Die Carolin Kebekus Show and -My body is the only place – by Kira Hummen.
Between different productions Francesca dedicates herself to develop her own way of training, which is focused on the physical approach to oneself body and the space in relation and contact with the others. Elements of floorwork, partnering work and acrobatics are the focus of the practice, which has been shared in professional contexts, like Profitraining Köln and Tanzxchange Münster. She has been teaching in Poland, Germany and Italy.