Andrea Francalanci was a dancer, musician, teacher, choreographer and scholar of the theory and the performance of early dance. He was one of the first Italian scholars to devote himself to the rediscovery of Renaissance dance, subsequently becoming one of Europe’s leading experts on dance in the Italian Renaissance. While attending early music courses at Urbino as a recorder player, he met American-born dance historian Barbara Sparti and became interested in early dance. He graduated from the University of Florence in 1982 with a thesis entitled La danza di corte nel Quattrocento italiano. In 1983 he obtained the diploma of Licentiate in Early Dance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
From 1978 onwards he participated in the most important music festivals of the time, particularly those dedicated to early music and dance. In 1983 he founded his own dance company, Il Ballarino, named after Fabritio Caroso’s dance treatise. He collaborated with music directors Sergio Balestracci, René Clemencic, Alan Curtis, Gabriel Garrido, Philippe Herreweghe, Andrew Parrott and Anthony Rooley, among others. He also collaborated extensively with Francine Lancelot and her Baroque dance company, Ris et Danseries, of which he was also guest choreographer. A regular participant in conferences devoted to early dance, he produced several scholarly writings.
His work for television includes choreographies for Mantova Festa a corte, a Rai Uno special production of 1988, featuring stars of the international dance set such as Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, Carla Fracci and others, and forLa Pellegrina: The Florentine Intermedi of 1589, a 1989 Thames Television production that won the Prix Italia in 1990.
A much sought-after teacher, he gave courses and workshops in the main centers for early dance. He was Visiting Professor at the Centre de Musique Ancienne in Geneva and regularly taught Italian Renaissance Dance at the Sorbonne. Andrea Francalanci died in Paris, at the height of his career, on January 14, 1994.
The collection is 12 linear The bulk of it consists of professional papers including materials regarding his choreographic works created for European and American productions (programs, brochures, choreographies, notes, music scores, clippings, correspondence, photographs, project descriptions and related material. The collection also includes transcriptions, photocopies of 15th to 18th century dance treatises, brochures, posters, photographs, and correspondence with colleagues, producers, and institutions.