Genova-born Paola Cantalupo has been passionate about dance from her childhood, which she spent in Milan. Having entered the Scala Theatre Ballet School at the age of 11, she then started dancing in the corps de ballet and was awarded the Prix de Lausanne Gold Medal in 1977. Rosella Hightower was part of the jury as well as Violette Verdy.

After obtaining a Bronze Medal at the Jackson International Ballet Competition in the USA, the young Italian ballerina felt the need to broaden her horizons again and left the Scala Theatre in 1979 to join Maurice Béjart’s Ballets of the 20^th Century in Brussels.

She was noticed by John Neumeier as he visited the company as a guest choreographer and in 1980 he asked her to join the Hamburg Ballet under his directorship.

She met Jean-Christophe Maillot and Jean-Yves Esquerre and, like many others, used to travel to the International Cannes Dance School for its summer workshops.

She remained in Hamburg for three years, exploring the universe of contemporary dance through training courses on Marta Graham and José Limon techniques.

She then moved to New York where she worked for one year with one of Cecchetti’s former pupil, Margaret Craske. Under her direction, she explored the classical ballet heritage and the universe of the Ballets Russes.

Back to Europe in 1984, she joined the National Ballet of Portugal as a principal dancer and performed the leading roles in the repertoire.

Four years later she joined the Monte-Carlo Ballets, upon Jean-Yves Esquerre’s request and under his directorship, as a soloist.

A year later, in 1989, she was nominated étoile by HRH The Princess of Hanover.

While Jean-Christophe Maillot was appointed Director and choreographer in 1992, she pursued her exceptional career and kept receiving awards: the Léonide Massine Prize in Positano in 1991, the Danza e Danza Prize in Venice in 1993, the Carrière Prize in Italy in 2001 and a nomination as Chevalier de L’Ordre du Mérite Culturel in the Principality of Monaco in 2002.

Her eclectic repertoire includes the Ballets Russes’ greatest roles (Shéhérazade, The Firebird, Les Sylphides), works by G. Balanchine, A. Tudor, J. Kylian, W. Forsythe and R. Petit, as well as Jean-Christophe Maillot’s most famous creations.

In the meantime, Rosella Hightower, who had remained very close to her former pupil, Jean-Christophe Maillot, was following Paola’s evolution in the numerous ballets created by the choreographer and invited her to dance in several school shows as well as to be part of the school jury during its exams.

At the time, teaching increasingly appealed to Paola and she started to explore the “French school” basics.

Wishing to pass on the heritage she had once received, from her masters but also from the guest teachers who trained her.

She obtained her Dance Teacher Certification then started to teach and coach for the Prix de Lausanne competition where she became a member of the Artistic Committee, which gives her the privilege to witness the performances of dance schools on a worldwide scale and come across various pedagogical approaches.

In 2008 she passed the coveted Certificat d’Aptitude (C.A.) aux Fonctions d’Enseignement which allows the holder to manage a conservatoire.

She was appointed Artistic and Pedagogical Director of the ESDC in January 2009 and pursued her career until 3 October of the same year. On that day, she made her official farewells to the stage in the role of Cinderella, upon a gala evening in her honour, in the presence of HRH The Princess of Hanover and her Cannes pupils.