What is the best thing that I love about my work?

The simplicity and the complexity that melt together. I think one of the beautiful things is the possibility to connect with myself (body and mind) and with people and things are around me. I can be alone. I can be with other people. I can be in a room or I can be in a forest. And the change of prospective I can discover. There are many things I love about being a dancer actually, hard to pick just one.

What is my idea of perfect happiness?

Well, “perfect happiness” contains two concepts I think about all the time. I am wondering about what happiness does really mean. I am not so sure that a perfect happiness exists, I think “happiness” deals already with something we could call “perfection”, that, in my opinion, is very individual.
Feeling the beauty. This could be an idea of happiness.

What is my greatest fear?

To not being able to find myself, when I lose myself.
To lose people I love.

What is the trait that I most deplore in myself?

Sometimes I am too touchy. It is hard for me to let go.

Which living persons in my profession do I most admire?

Ohad Naharin.
Signe Koefoed.
Ursina Tossi.
Antje Pfundtner.
Dor Mamalia.
Keren Rosenberg.

What is my greatest extravagance?

Am I extravagant? I don’t know if have extravagance. Or better to say, I do things that come natural to me, so I don’t know which are my extravagances.

On what occasion would I lie?

I do not believe in lies.  They never bring something good. I think being honest is one of the best gift we can give ourselves and people. Being honest with ourselves, in our thoughts and in our movements, allows us to go deeper, to discover ourselves and to be more conscious, so that we could be more available and open with other people and we could face things that happen around us.

What is the thing I dislike the most in my work?

Physical and mental tiredness. Pain.
Going away from people I love.

When and where was I the happiest, in my work?

I think there was not a moment when I was the happiest, but a lot of small moment when you feel grateful and happy while you are dancing. It surprise yourself, because you never know when these moments will come to you. You can feel sad and the second immediately after, you feel something you could say it is happiness. And it’s already gone. Something that deals with light, lightness, air. I can’t really explain it. It just happens.

If I could, what would I change about myself?

I constantly lived with the belief I had always to change something about myself. And I came to a point I didn’t allow myself to really know me and to accept me and this brought me to go through heavy times and I collapsed. The work I am doing with myself, at the moment, is to accept myself, first of all. And then, of course I can change something I don’t like, for example my being too touchy and my feeling of heaviness. Sometimes I feel it on my shoulders, on my chest, in my head.

What is my greatest achievement in work?

Connection(s). Share.

Where would I most like to live?

There are several places I would like to live, for a while. Now, I like to live in my hometown, in Apulia.

Where is my treasured possession?

My memories.

What is my most marked characteristic?

My smile, according to what people tell me.

What is my most inspirational location, in my city?

My house’s terrace. You have a breath-taking view. You can feel part of the universe. I missed it a lot when I lived abroad.

What is my favourite place to eat and drink, in my city?

My kitchen.

What books influenced my life and how?

“Seven brief lessons on Physics” by Carlo Rovelli. It helped me to open my eyes and my mind, to understand many things about human being and about the world.
“Come mi batte forte il tuo cuore” by Benedetta Tobagi. A book that is going through history, trying to understand why a father should die because of political reasons, trying to metabolize a loss.
“A choreographer’s handbook” by Jonathan Burrows. It helps me a lot to have a bigger view of choreography and working.
“L’arte di essere fragili” by Alessandro D’Avenia. It gave me worlds to explain what I was not be able to say.
“Il dolore” by Giuseppe Ungaretti. The topics Ungaretti deals with, touch several sides of the life of the human being as an individual and as an individual in the world.
“De tranquillitate animi” by Seneca. It helped me to focus on the essentiality.
“Dubliners” by James Joyce. I have reflected more on the sense of reality and on Joyce’s concept of “epiphany”.
“The way of the bow” by Paulo Coelho, together with the amazing illustrations by Christoph Niemann. I found inspiration and I focused to many small details.
“A thousand splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini. What to say about this book…
“Venuto al mondo” by Margaret Mazzantini. The same…I did not speak for one week, after I finished to read it.
And a lot of poetries!

Who are my favourite writers?

I don’t think I have favourite writers. I mean, I like to read a lot of different books and writing styles depending on the moment I am living.

You only die once. What music would I listen on my last day?

Hard to choose one music! I think a song my mother composed for piano and that she always plays since we were children.

Who are my heroes and heroines in real life?

My grandparents and my parents, definitely!

Which movie would I recommend to see once in a lifetime?

“The legend of 1900” by Giuseppe Tornatore.

What role plays art in my life and work?

I can’t split art from my life and work.

Who is my greatest fan, sponsor, partner in crime?

My mum!

Whom would I like to work with in 2018?

My friend and beautiful dancer Hedda.

Which people in my profession would I love to meet in 2018?

I met Ohad Naharin in his Masterclass on the 21^st of April and I couldn’t be more happy, grateful and excited than that.

What project, in 2018, am I looking forward to work on?

I have already some ideas and pieces in my head I look forward to start and develop them.

Where can you see me or my work in 2018?

Still working on it, you can have a look on my Facebook page to be updated.

What do the words “Passion Never Retires” mean to me?

Once I wrote this to my mum: ‘ Sometimes it’s really heavy, it’s always trying to make sense of who you are, sometimes it’s a struggle with life, others an acceptance, trying to understand systems and structures, not feeling present, searching for energy that escapes, finding it and letting it go and taking it up again, knowing that there is freedom somewhere in my body but not being able to reach it all the time, but there are also moments of pure joy, lightness, unexpected connections, of presence and openness and gifts, moment in which you can rest. And for all this, for the pain and the happiness, for the strength and the abandonment, for the crisis and the meeting, for the abstract and the concrete, for the value and the loss of value of a movement or a thought, for the dissatisfaction and satisfaction, for life and death and for love, for all this it is worth it and I know that I will never be able to step back, because what I can and do I want to do is to continue to explore, perhaps without even coming to an end, a point where everything comes together and you have a clear and complete view, or maybe yes. I want my work to be focused on this research, in relation to myself and in relation between myself and the others, the particular and universal.
We will arrive somewhere. We are already somewhere’.
I think it means something like that.

How can you contact me?

On my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/robertaceppaglia.artist/
Or my email robertaceppaglia@gmail.com
I have also a big passion for photography, you can have a look to some shots https://www.flickr.com/photos/135725192@N06/