The event, organized by AIRDanza, will feature the Teatro della Memoria Ensemble with replicas of classical instruments in a program of music from Italian ballets of the 19th century

On 5 December at 4.30 p.m. the Biblioteca Vallicelliana in Rome will host Omaggio a José Sasportes celebrando la danza italiana, a celebration of dance scholar José Sasportes on the occasion of his 75th birthday. The event, organized by AIRDanza (Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sulla Danza), will open with the presentation by Silvia Carandini of the book Passi, tracce, percorsi. Scritti sulla danza italiana, edited by Alessandro Pontremoli and Patrizia Veroli.

An instrumental concert, Les Fleurs animées. Pagine musicali dai balletti italiani dell’Ottocento, will ensue. The program will feature music by some of the best known 19th century ballet composers – Cesare Pugni, Paolo Giorza, Peter Ludwig Hertel and Costantino Dall’Argine – performed on replicas of period instruments by Il Teatro della Memoria Ensemble: Giancarlo Ceccacci (violin), Federico Marincola (guitar), Angela Paletta (oboe), Andrea Toschi (bassoon and orchestration).

The event will close with a presentation by Francesca Beatrice Vista of the exhibition Passo dopo passo. Walter Toscanini e la danza italiana curated by Francesca Falcone and Patrizia Veroli. The exhibition, that has been awarded a medal by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano, will be open from 5 to 21 December 2012 (9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday–Saturday).

Press release (in Italian)

Biblioteca Vallicelliana – Salone Borromini
Roma, Piazza della Chiesa Nuova, 18
5 December 2012 – 4.30 p.m. – free entrance