Daniele Finzi Pasca was born in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1964.
Director, author, choreographer, and clown, Daniele moved in 1983 to India, where he worked as a volunteer looking after the sick. Upon returning to Switzerland, he founded Teatro Sunil, which he still heads to this day. His lifelong fascination with clowning led him to meet Maria Bonzanigo, and they worked on a theatrical technique that they would call "Teatro della Carezza".
Finzi Pasca was sentenced to a short stay in prison for acting as a conscientious objector, and during that time, he put the finishing touches to his trilogy dedicated to "escape". One part of this trilogy was Icaro, a monologue for an only spectator. Interpreted by Finzi Pasca, and performed for more than 19 years in six different languages, Icaro has been presented around the world. The years that followed saw Finzi Pasca create and direct some 25 shows with Teatro Sunil and write and direct for Cirque Eloize Nomade and Rain. After the success of Rain on Broadway, he was nominated Best Director for a Drama Desk Award in New York. In 2003 the Cirque du Soleil asked him to write and direct their new itinerant show, Corteo, which opened in April 2005.
He created and directed the closing ceremony of the XXth Olympic Winter Games in Torino in 2006. The following tear he won the Swiss Award and created Nebbia (Cirque Eloize in co-production with Teatro Sunil).
In 2008, he received the Swiss Theatre Prize in recognition for all his works.
In 2009, he co-founded with Julie Hamelin « Inlevitas », a company for the development of new projects, including film and operas. The first step of this adventure was the direction of L´amour de loin for the English National Opera.
Daniele has been commissioned by the Chekhov International Theatre Festival in Moscow to direct the show opening the 150th celebration of Chekhov's birth, in 2010. The premier of “Donka, a letter to Chekhov”, was performed on 29th January in the Mossovet theatre of Moscow.
Casagrande has published his collection of short stories entitled Come Acqua allo specchio as well as the complete script of Viaggio al Confine.
In 2009 “Daniele Finzi Pasca: theatre of the caress”, an interview written by Facundo Ponce de León was published by FPH. Nowadays Daniele is working on his first film, Piazza San Michele and has been invited by the National Opera from Taiwan to write a play about Mazu, the goddess of the sea.
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