With the goal of creating a future regional center of higher education in Dance, the Ecole Supérieure de Danse de Cannes Rosella Hightower (ESDC) and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Danse de Marseille (ENSDM) have established a partnership and a common artistic and educational direction for their respective higher education programs, entrusted to Paola Cantalupo.
Building on the current advanced training offered by ESDC Rosella Hightower and ENSDM, the histories of each school, their complementary educational potentials, and their existing partnerships with the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis and the University of South Toulon Var, this regional offering will be unique and will develop a coherent educational project, naturally embedded within the Mediterranean region.
As she has done in Cannes, Paola Cantalupo will construct the common higher education project on a versatile classical-contemporary training for all students, with a pursuit of excellence, personal development, and a constant alignment with the realities of the working world.
The existing Ballet Junior structure in Cannes for the third year of preparation for the National Superior Professional Diploma (DNSP) for dancers, with the Cannes Jeune Ballet, will be one of the main tools for professional practice within this joint advanced training offer.
This rapprochement and the common project will, on the one hand, optimize connections with professional networks in a region rich in its choreographic history and energized by numerous and high-quality professional actors, and on the other hand, develop bridges with other regional higher education programs in the performing arts.
Simultaneously, ENSDM has initiated the recruitment of the director for its initial curriculum, which will be developed within a common institutional educational project.
The new Director of Choreographic Studies for the initial cycle is Omar Taiebi, who trained in classical dance in Paris and began his professional career at the Paris Opera, under the direction of Rudolf Nureyev.
Holder of the State Diploma (DE) in 2001 and the Certificate of Aptitude in Dance Teaching (C.A.) in 2008, he will work closely with the Artistic and Educational Director of the higher cycle, Paola Cantalupo, ensuring the pedagogical coherence of all educational programs.
