The Performing Arts – Choreography specialisation within the Faculty of Theatre at the George Enescu National University of Arts, Iași (UNAGE Iași), in partnership with the Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Art (ICMA), organised, between 13 and 15 November 2025, at the Uzina cu Teatru Hall (Theatre Factory) of the Vasile Alecsandri National Theatre, Iași, the Contemporary Lab workshops led by choreographer Fabio Crestale.

Fabio Crestale trained with Ballets de Toscane in Florence and subsequently continued his professional development at international centres such as Steps and the Alvin Ailey Dance Center in New York, Columbus in Zurich, and the Laban Centre in London. He has danced for Doppio Movimento, Steptext Dance Company, La Petite Entreprise, Richard Siegal’s company, and Laurence Fanon’s Compagnie Baroque en France.

He has worked alongside Mats Ek for the company Eko Dance Project, and has performed at the Paris Opéra in Maurice Béjart’s Boléro, Jean-Guillaume Bart’s La Source, as well as in opera productions such as La Damnation de Faust and La Traviata. He has danced L’Oiseau de feu as a guest soloist with Mandala Dance Company in Rome.

Crestale began his choreographic work in 2009 with his first duo, duo entità. He subsequently founded the company iFunamboli, with which he has devoted himself to choreography. Together, they have created more than fifteen short pieces and four full-length works, including his most recent creation, Outdoor.

For cinema, he has created the choreography for Let’s Dance, directed by Ladislas Cholla, and for Tout simplement noir, directed by Jean-Pascal Zadi and John Wax. He also choreographed and performed in Jalouse, directed by David Foenkinos and Stéphane Foenkinos, and appears as a dancer in the recent film by Olivier Assayas, choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj.

His work is characterised by a subtle combination of conceptual contemporary dance and storytelling. He employs the theatricality of movement and conceives the stage as a space of expression for himself, but above all for his dancers. The dancer’s voice forms an integral part of his choreographic research. For him, creation is an exchange in which each participant both gives and receives, and moments of dance are to be fully lived in the intensity of the present.

Workshops coordinated by Associate Professor Lorette Enache, held as part of the project International Promotion of UNAGE Iași in the Digital Environment and the Consolidation of European Values in Arts Education through Collaboration with Partner Institutions, funded by the Romanian National Commission for the Financing of Higher Education (CNFIS) through the Institutional Development Fund (FDI), under grant no. CNFIS-FDI-2025-0300.

Project Director: Professor Cristian Nae.