Backstitch Residency 2025
ELENA VANNONI
ARTIST BIO
Elena Vannoni is an accomplished theatre director and set and costume designer with a rich background in the arts. She began her career by studying costume design at the Art Institute of Florence and later earned degrees in History of Music and Theatre from the University of Florence and Theatre Direction from the National Academy of Dramatic Arts in Rome. Her award-winning direction, including the 2005 National Prize of the Arts, highlights her talent. Notable works include Miss Julie by Strindberg and The Divine Mimesis by Pasolini. Elena draws from methodologies like Grotowski, Commedia dell’Arte, and Orazio Costa’s Mimesic Method, emphasizing physical performance. Her career has taken her globally, from Berlin to New York, where she earned a Master’s in Theatre Directing at Columbia University. Currently based in New York, Elena continues to work on various theatre projects, contributing her versatile artistic vision to the stage.
Artist Statement
” As a theatre director and costume designer, I aim to craft transformative experiences that transcend boundaries, ignite imaginations, and resonate deeply with audiences worldwide. Rooted in a rich artistic journey that spans continents and disciplines, I approach each production with unwavering dedication, a commitment to excellence, and a relentless pursuit of innovation. Through the transformative power of theatre, I aspire to foster empathy, provoke thought, and ignite change, forging connections that transcend language, culture, and borders. “
CURRENT WORK
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Bites is a theatrical offering—an open table of voices, fragments, and poetry. It does not confront the audience. It invites them into a suspended space, where violence, memory, hunger, and survival echo without resolution.
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Rhizome is a living, evolving performance that traces the hidden intelligence of the natural world through movement, sound, and collective experience. The project began in 2019 from an idea bydancer, choreographer, and neuroscientist Cecilia Fontanesi, who was inspired by the writings of Jeremy Narby on intelligence in nature and by the branching, decentralized growth of rhizomes and mycelial networks. What started as a solo performance has since expanded into a collaborative ecosystem of artists, researchers, and environments—shaped by each space it inhabits. Through a poetic structure of performative three phases, Rhizome invites the audience into a sensorial, participatory ritual—asking not only to watch, but to remember, reorient, and re-root themselves in the web of life.
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