ROBERTO BAGNOLI — International

Roberto Bagnoli grew up in Rome, where he was first introduced to folk music and dance, eventually taking part in several performances and teaching dance classes. He subsequently studied various forms of folk dance in workshops throughout Europe, Israel, and North America under the guidance of renowned choreographers and teachers. Roberto lived for many years in Reggio Emilia in Northern Italy, considered to have one of the most important dance communities in Italy.

From 1995 to 2003, he performed as a dancer and choreographer with the Terra di Danza Dance Company and was involved in the production of Raggi di luna Italiana and Capriccio Italiano (Italian dances), GiroGiroMondo (dances from around the world), Keltic Emotion (Celtic dances), Mazal Tov (Israeli dances), and Ethnos (international folk dances).

He is the founder of Folk Atelier Reggio Emilia (FARE), devoted to the development and conservation of folk dance heritage. As director of FARE, he is in charge of organizing and conducting folk dance classes, workshops with Italian and foreign specialists, and of the performing sector, staging various performances, parties, and dance gatherings.

He currently organizes two dance camps in Europe: Balkanot (Balkan and Israeli dance) and Camp Yofi (Israeli Dance).

Roberto moved recently back to Rome, where he teaches weekly classes of Balkan and Israeli dances. He also conducts monthly sessions in various cities in the north of Italy besides conducting workshops and seminars throughout Europe, the United States and Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan.

PETUR ILIEV — Bulgarian

Petur Iliev is a graduate of the Bulgarian National School of Dance Art and holds a B.A. from the Bulgarian National Institute of Choreography in Sofia, Bulgaria.

He began his professional career as a Principal Dancer of the Kutev National Dance and Music Ensemble before continuing his training at the National Dance Institute in New York where he studied under the guidance of Jacques d'Amboise. Afterwards he served as the Artistic Director of Westwind - one of the first dance companies in the US whose mission was to present to the American audience the richness and diversity of ethnic dance.

In 2003 Iliev joined the summer faculty of the renowned School of Pacific Northwest Ballet and two years later was hired by the School of Ballet Chicago. Most recently he taught at Kansas City Ballet School.

All along he has been conducting master classes and creating choreography for professional and non-professional dance companies in the U.S. and Canada. With this invaluable experience in hand he resumed his activity in Bulgaria in 2008 through the various programs of his foundation established in the same year. The Iliev Dance Art Foundation has since been running several highly successful educational programs: Spring and Summer Intensives featuring five different dance styles, a solid scholarship program for summer training in the US, and a program for children, targeting youth from underserved communities.

Since 2020 Iliev has been teaching Ballet and Jazz at Purdue University.