Our Roots
It was in 1964 that the collaboration between Paola Galliussi Ceron, athlete and dancer, and her husband Bruno, coach, physical trainer, and kinesiologist, gave life to the city’s first multidisciplinary center for dance and movement activities.
This was a project of both work and life that promoted dance in the region and saw Mrs. Paola pioneering, starting in the 1980s, new disciplinary languages such as Graham technique and modern-jazz dance, while also encouraging advanced training initiatives, performances, partnerships, and collaborations with all major regional and extra-regional institutions.
Role Model
Paola Galliussi Ceron’s experience in teaching classical dance gave rise to similar schools and programs in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto, and Lombardy, and she played a key role in spreading dance among children as both an educational and recreational activity, earning widespread recognition throughout the region.
Her unique way of communicating with young students is embodied in a personal method of introducing dance as a conscious moment of education and development. This method is based on daily practice with her students and on studies alongside internationally renowned pedagogical masters – among others Dolin, Hightower, Chauviré, Lifar, Van Dick, Thalia – combining academic technique guidelines with artistic and pedagogical experience that spans classical dance, modern disciplines, and folklore.
Pioneering Dance Education
Paola Galliussi Ceron played a leading role in promoting dance in Friuli, as from the very beginning she combined teaching with large-scale training initiatives and event organization during a period when opportunities were still very limited.
For example, the first regional workshops organized in the 1970s brought to Friuli personalities such as Anna Mascolo, Claudie Winzer, Brigitte Andretto, Arnaldo Angelini, Jacques Beltrame, and Sheela Raj. In the 1980s, this continued with Anna Maria Prina, Zwang Wan Mei, Joso Borcic, Sharon Bouch, Brian and Garrison, while expanding the audience for these extraordinary training events nationally and internationally, with summer sessions held in Lignano Sabbiadoro and advanced masterclasses at prestigious foreign centers, such as Rosella Hightower in Cannes.
Starting Traditions
Equally significant were the first performances staged with her students at institutional schools, the numerous editions of “Carnevale d’Amore” under the Loggia del Lionello, and the first dance expressions of Friulan culture in public squares: the “stajare” at Corte Savorgnan during the “Carnevale udinese” in 1981… leading up to today’s avant-garde projects in everyday, commercial, and green spaces.
GREEN AREA Paola Galliussi Ceron
The Municipality of Udine dedicated the green area of Largo dei Pecile to the memory of Paola Galliussi Ceron, pioneer of the choreutic arts, where at number 23 she founded her first dance school in Udine in 1964.
On October 3, 2020, during the inauguration of the green area, the Ceron family donated to the Municipality an untitled 1977 work by Dora Bassi — the artist’s last outdoor work, part of the Spazio e Specularità series (1975 - 1980).
Poetry and dance performances by Ksenija Martinovic and Matilde Ceron framed the greeting from Councilor Alessandro Ciani.
A red thread connects the two artists, Dora and Paola: two Friulian women, pioneers in their respective arts, who served their disciplines with originality and ingenuity, through the ideas, projects, and events they realized throughout their long professional careers across the region.
