Adria Ferrali is the Artistic Director, President, and founder of the Cultural Association New Dance Drama. She is the visionary creator behind the DAP FESTIVAL Danza in Arte a Pietrasanta, where for nine years she has been Artistic Director and Producer, creating groundbreaking interdisciplinary productions that fuse dance, sculpture, and music.

 

Her career spans continents and traditions, drawing from the rich legacies of modern and contemporary dance. She began her journey with the Martha Graham Dance Company and the Pearl Lang Dance Theater, where she embodied iconic solo roles from the Graham repertoire. Ferrali has been honored with the Nijinsky Award for best dancer and choreographer at the National Opera in Kyiv. She has also worked alongside legendary artists, serving as Yuriko’s assistant at the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam.

Ferrali has been a guest teacher and choreographer at the Royal Danish Ballet School in Copenhagen, taught at the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and served on the faculty at the University College of Dance in Stockholm. In the U.S., she restaged Graham masterpieces such as "Diversion of Angels" at the Boston Conservatory and "Steps in the Street" at Skidmore College, with assistance from Martha Graham Resources. Additionally, she served as the resident choreographer and teacher at the Montgomery Ballet and taught at Alabama State University.

Ferrali has an international profile, having served as President of the Jury at the VII International Contest for Choreographers and Ballet Masters in Novosibirsk. She has also served as a guest choreographer and visiting professor at Kemerovo State University of Culture and Arts in Siberia. Her professorships in contemporary dance include positions at Balettakademien Göteborg Folkuniversitet, and she has worked extensively in cities such as Berlin, Cologne, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Ravenna, Cremona, Milan, Bergamo, Florence, and Rome.

Her choreographies have been showcased on some of the world's most prestigious stages, including the Royal Danish Theater, the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington D.C., the National Opera House in Kyiv, the Thalia Theater and Stora Teatern in Göteborg, the Davis Theater and the Museum of Modern Art in Montgomery, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Teatro Greco di Roma, and festivals such as Estate Regina, La Versiliana and Pietrasanta in Concerto.

 

In 2013, Ferrali was appointed Director of the Modern Dance Department at Alabama River Region Ballet, and in 2016, she served a Visiting Professor at Troy University in Alabama.

 

Ferrali’s signature legacy lies in DAP. Under her direction, she has commissioned and produced performances in collaboration with

• Danish Choreographer Sebastian Kloborg with Sculptor Jørgen Haugen Sørensen

• American Choreographer Kevin Stea with Sculptor Manolo Valdés

• Brazilian Choreographer Miriam Barbosa with Sculptor Pablo Atchugarry

• Italian Choreographer and dancer Tamara Fragale with Sculptor Fabio Viale,

• Taiwanese Choreographer PeiJu Chien-Pott with Japanese Sculptor Kan Yasuda,

• Russian Choreographer Kseniya Mikhaeva with Sculptor Giuseppe Veneziano

• Chinese Choreographer Chien-Ming Chang with Sculptor Stefano Bombardieri

• Norwegian Choreographer Thomas Johansen with Sculptor Flavio Lucchini

• American Choreographer Rena Butler with Sculptor Brice Esso

Her latest curatorial gestures include staging Martha Graham's “Extasy” and curating a lecture-demonstration at Susanna Orlando Art Gallery, and producing a “Madame Butterfly” reinterpretation by Taiwanese choreographer PeiJu Chien-Pott. Through DAP, Ferrali has established an avant-garde platform where visual and performing arts merge — connecting local heritage with international creativity in one of Tuscany’s most celebrated cultural landscapes.

In 2026, she is nominated as Artistic Director of the Competition David di Michelangelo, Dance Prize Città di Firenze, which will take place on May 9th and 10th at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy.