Atacama Dance Company was born from the meeting of the dancer and choreographer Patrizia Cavola and the dancer, choreographer and actor Ivan Truol in 1997. Since October 2009, they have been the Artistic Directors of the company’s artistic residency, the Centre of Training and Production La Scatola dell’Arte in Rome. They have also had the Artistic Direction for the Paesaggi del Corpo – International Contemporary Dance Festival since 2019 and District Dance Festival in Rome since 2022.

Atacama is recognized and financed by MIC Ministero della Cultura (Ministry of Culture).

 Atacama’s works, choreographed by P. Cavola and I. Truol, to date are: 

“Dal Sud” (“From the South”), 1997, a creation for two dance-actors 

“Sguardo rubato” (“Stolen Glance”), in two versions: 

– an urban dance version in collaboration with “Festival Danza Urbana”, Festival Internazionale di Danza per Strada e Danza-Architettura di Bologna 1998 

– another version for theatre 1999, a creation for four dance-actors 

“La Cama” (“The Bed”), 2001, a creation for two dance-actors 

“Istruzioni per rendersi infelici” (“Instructions to Make Ourselves Unhappy”), 2004, a creation for four dance-actors 

“Caos” (“Chaos”), 2006, a creation for seven dance-actors “L’Ambito” (“The Ambit”), 2007, a creation for two dance-actors 

“Esposta” (“Exposed”), 2010, a creation for three female dancers, in collaboration with CORE – Coordinamento Danza Contemporanea e Arti Performative del Lazio for the project Officina COREografica 2010, co-produced by Regione Lazio Assessorato Cultura Arte e Sport. 

“Rosso Carm-inio”, 2011, a performance for one dance-actress. 

“Galleggio, annego, galleggio” (“I Float, I Drown, I Float”), 2013, a creation for five dance-actors, co-produced by Regione Lazio, Assessorato alla Cultura Arte e Sport. 

“Come un bambino abbandonato nello specchio dell’armadio” (“As a Child Abandoned in the Wardrobe Mirror”), 2014, a creation for seven dancers 

“Io, lei, me” (“I, Her, Me”), 2015, a creation for one female dancer 

“Cappuccetto Rosso – C’era una volta il lupo e la fanciulla” (“Red Riding Hood – Once Upon a Time… The Wolf and the Maiden”), 2016, a creation for three female dancers 

“Migranti” (“Migrants”), 2017 creation for four dancers realized with the contribution of Regione Lazio – Assessorato alla Cultura e Politiche Giovanili (Lazio Region – Department of Culture and Youth Policies) 

“Tu Mia”  (“You Mine”) 2018 a creation for two dancers  realized with the contribution of Regione Lazio – Assessorato alla Cultura e Politiche Giovanili (Lazio Region – Department of Culture and Youth Policies)

“Il Brutto Anatroccolo” (“The Ugly Duckling”) 2019 creation for four dancers

“La Danza della Realtà”  ( The Dance of Reality) 2020  a creation for five dancers  realized with the contribution of Regione Lazio

” Sine Tactu” 2021  a creation for five dancers  realized with the contribution of Regione Lazio

” Altrove oltre il Mondo” ( Elsewhere Beyond the World) 2022 a creation for five dancers  realized with the contribution of Regione Lazio

In 2007, Atacama’s performance “Istruzioni per rendersi infelici” won the prize Premio “Teatro” Città di Aversa 2007, Premio Speciale Compagnia Vincitrice. 

The film of the performance “La Cama” won the first prize in the national competition CONCORSO NAZIONALE VIDEOMAKERS FIORIdiTESTA 2007, and was listed in the 2003 edition of Coreografo Elettronico Festival; it was also a runner-up at the Film Festival of Lenola in 2003 and won the first prize for the best soundtrack at San Giò Film Festival in 2004. 

In addition to producing the creations of the choreographers founders of the company, in recent years Atacama has been supporting the production of projects by other choreographers, who are close to their poetic quality and to their research path and who were already often part of the artistic project of the company as dancers: 

“È inutile scrivere sulla sabbia il vento non sa leggere” (“It’s Useless to Write on the Sand, the Wind Can’t Read”), 2009, by Rozenn Corbel 

“Tra danza, vino, musica e viceversa” (“Between Dance, Wine, Music and Vice Versa”), 2009, by Rozenn Corbel 

“Improbabilon Night”, 2009, by Improbabilon 

“Aprile” (“April”), 2010, by Improbabilon 

“Verde pisello” (“Pea Green”), 2011, by Marco Ubaldi

“Don’t Crash in case of Fire”, 2011, by Sara Simeoni

“Holy Skin and Lazy Bastard”, 2012, by Sara Simeoni

“Verdina Stella”, 2012, by Oretta Bizzarri 

“II Change”, 2014, by Francesca B. Vista 

“Sleep Elevation”, 2015, by Mariella Celia 

“Frida Am I”, 2015, by Federica Gumina (choreographed by Patrizia Cavola and Federica Gumina) 

“Il Viandante” (“The Wayfarer”), 2016, by Carmen De Sandi (Sinespazio Dance Company)

“L’Ora del the“ (“Tea Time”), 2016, by Carmen De Sandi (Sinespazio Dance Company) 

“Col corpo capisco #1” (“Through My Body I Understand #1”), 2015, by Adriana Borriello 

“Col corpo capisco #2”(“Through My Body I Understand #2”), 2016, by Adriana Borriello (premiered at Biennale Danza di Venezia 10° Festival Internazionale di Danza Contemporanea) 

“Espo: Singolare Plurale” (2018) by Giovanna Rovedo

“Deep Purple Rain Man on Fire Fox Trot” (2018) by Giovanna Rovedo

“Da consumarsi preferibilmente entro Best Before” (2018) by Valeria Loprieno

“Intuition 1” (2018) by Riccardo Guratti

“Duo Goldberg”, 2018 by Adriana Borriello, debut at Napoli Teatro Festival in June 2018 

“Forest” (2019) by Riccardo Guratti

“La Conoscenza della non conoscenza”, (2019) by Adriana Borriello

“Semix 2.0” (2019) by Davide Romeo – Uscite Di Emergenza

“Imprinting – Esporsi non sarà più la stessa cosa.”  (2020) by Davide Romeo – Uscite Di Emergenza

“Physics of Vulnerability” (2020) by Davide Romeo – Uscite Di Emergenza

In 2007 Atacama was among the founders of CORE – Coordinamento Danza e Arti Performative del Lazio, and Patrizia Cavola was a member of its board of directors from 2007 to January 2011. 

Atacama is a member of AIDAP Production section within AGIS FEDERVIVO. 

Atacama’s choreographers Patrizia Cavola and Ivan Truol teach regularly in Rome at La Scatola dell’Arte and they often hold workshops in many Italian cities. In Rome they have also taught at Duncan 3.0, DAF, AIAD (Accademia Internazionale Arte Drammatica – Teatro Quirino Vittorio Gassman), Q Academy Nuova Accademia Internazionale Arte Drammatica Teatro Quirinetta, Accademia Arte Drammatica Cassiopea. They held many workshops for professional dancers at I.A.L.S. Istituto Addestramento Lavoratori dello Spettacolo in Rome. They were invited as guest teachers at the Instituto de Estudios Secundarios de la Universidad de Chile in 2010, at Liceo Coreutico di Teramo (Italy) in 2014, at Liceo Coreutico Convitto Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II, Rome, from 2016 to 2018 and at Liceo Coreutico I.I.S. F. Filelfo di Tolentino (MC) in 2018.

Atacama has been in charge of the Artistic Direction for the Dance Section of Teatro Tor Bella Monaca in Rome from 2013 to 2019. Patrizia Cavola has directed Paesaggi del Corpo – International Contemporary Dance Festival, sponsored  by Regione Lazio since 2020 and by MIC Italian Ministry for Culture since 2022.
In 2022 Atacama directs District Dance Festival in Rome, sponsored by the Municipality of Rome.

Atacama is a space for study, research, experimentation and creation. 

Our creative work is inextricable from the development of a personal choreographic code, dance style and poetical expression. Our research is oriented to the creation of a physical kind of theatrical experience, in a multidisciplinary border zone where movement and dancing, vocal expression, text and music (and any other artistic form that might prove necessary during creation) interact and mingle. 

The main interest is the blending of different forms of expression. 

The centre is the body with all its possible expressions. Our way of practicing dance is not the reproduction of a prearranged code or of an acquired technique, it aims instead at the creation of a language in constant development through research, experimentation and the mingling of different dance techniques and other physical practices. Special attention is devoted to the study and research of the “qualities” of movement. Our scope is that movement must be a vehicle of meaning. We want to follow the writing of movement from the immobility and the essentiality of a minimal gesture to the energy and the risk taking demanded by a movement of high athletic standard, to unite the everyday with the acrobatic. 

We are working to find a way of dancing that is the expression of being, which is lighted by the flow of feeling, which can communicate, move, inflame. 

We are working for a theatre of action, based on the strength of the performers, on the quality of their presence, of their physical work. 

An essential element of our research is the relation with music, born from the meeting with the composer Sergio De Vito and his group Epsilon Indi, which has developed into a long and fruitful collaboration.