Mirella Simoncini

Mirella Simoncini is a ballet dancer, journalist and dance teacher.

Simoncini was born in The Hague, Netherlands where she received her first ballet training at the private school of her mother: Mabel Alter (former-dancer at the Nederlands Dans Theatre). At age 12 she was invited by balletmaster Ivan Kramar to join the vocational dance department of the Nederlands Dans Theater with teachers a.o. Benjamin Harkarvy, Sonia Marchiolli and Phillip Taylor. She later studied in Brussels with Piotr Nardelli and at the Royal Ballet School in Antwerp.

She had a chance for a temporary career in radio and television. An injury made her decide to stop dancing full-time. She did not dance for quite a few years and developed an interest in journalism. Her first job was with the Dutch radio as a voice for 3FM DJ nl:Frits Spits and the programme De Avondspits. She became DJ for Radio 538 with the Green Report and reading Popmusic news for Erik de Zwart. Switched to the public channel as she got her own rock and metal show called 'Bad Grrrl' at 3FM for the Dutch broadcasting foundation Nederlandse Programma Stichting. She remained working for public broadcast companies for a while, with several radio and TV programmes including PARADISOlife live from Paradiso (Amsterdam), listen to an interview by Mirella Simoncini with Candy Dulfer here: NPS Output. She made radio documentaries for Radio 5 (Netherlands) (RVU, NPS) to find her way back to the professional dance/ballet scene, as she was making documentaries about dance and working for the Holland Dance Festival doing interviews in front of a live audience.

After leaving the radio and television scene, she became a balletteacher, a.o. for Danshuis Station Zuid and Danstraining Brabant, which is initiated by Productiehuis Brabant and organises daily professional dance classes. She also became the director of a well known private balletschool in The Hague.

Since 2003 she is artistic director for Summerschool Den Haag, which is the first international Summerschool in the Dutch city of the Hague. The programme is offering repertory workshops by prominent dancers and rehearsal directors, teaching works by a.o. Itzik Galili, Mats Ek and Ton Simons. And each year the Summerschool is collaborating with appreciated personalities in the international ballet scene. Guestteachers have been coming from a.o. the Nederlands Dans Theatre : Brigitte Martin, Fernando Hernando Magadan and Natalia Horecna. The Dutch National Ballet : Charlotte Chappelier and Tamás Nagy. the Royal Conservatory of The Hague : Monique Sand and Shirley Essenboom. Scapino Ballet Rotterdam : Keith-Derrick Randolph. Dance Works Rotterdam: Sara Erens. Cullberg Ballet : Lisa Drake. And Béjart Ballet: Yannick Boquin.

She has been committed to the Inspiration Project collaborating with Keith-Derrick Randolph (Scapino Ballet Rotterdam) and Maurice Causey (William Forsythe (dancer) and Netherlands Dans Theatre). Young dancers for this project came from different vocational dance schools including the Royal Conservatory of The Hague , AHK Nationale Ballet Academie Amsterdam and Codarts/Dance Academy in Rotterdam. The project received support by KORZO and the Nederlands Dans Theatre who offered rehearsal space. By the end of 2005 the Inspiration Project was invited by the RVD to produce a performance for the Dutch Queen Beatrix and her family. Simoncini created a special version of the Coppélia Spanish solo performed by dancer Charlotte v/d Reek (choreography by: Simoncini) after Marius Petipa. The performance was broadcasted live by the Nederlandse Omroep Stichting.

External links

• Mirella Simoncini
• Holland Dance Festival
• Royal Balletschool Antwerp
• Summerschool Den Haag
• Teachers at Danstraining Brabant
• de Avondspits
• Radio documentary by Mirella Simoncini
• Beeld & Geluid Radio history: Bad Grrrl
• 3FM & Bad Grrrl in NRC Handelsblad
• Nitin Sawhey Audio interview by Mirella Simoncini

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Name	Simoncini, Mirella
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Date of birth	1970
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