A key figure in the international cultural network, Antonio Gnecchi Ruscone is a producer, organiser, agent, talent scout and consultant who has been involved in the world of dance for almost thirty years.
He began studying dance at the age of 17. Having moved to England at 13 to continue his high school studies in Surrey, at the age of 18 he received a scholarship from the Legat School of Dance in Sussex. Upon returning to Italy, he attended advanced courses with Liliana Cosi and Marinel Stefanescu as well as at the Teatro Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia, and shortly afterwards joined Carla Fracci’s company for a number of seasons.
He was 24 years old when he decided to leave the stage, making an important career move to achieve professional fulfilment in the performing arts and combine his love of dance and music with his organisational skills. He decided to put these skills at the disposal of artists with whom he began working as a consultant, agent and organizer. He became assistant to Joe Wishy, the documentary filmmaker of cultural programs for C.B.S. working at Polivideo in Locarno. During several trips to Japan and the United States he came into contact with other key players from the world ballet scene, including Alessandra Ferri, Patricia McBride, Jiri Kylian, Maurice Béjart and the very young David Parsons and Daniel Ezralow, with whom he formed an artistic partnership and friendship that has lasted to this day.
Those were the years in which he began to cultivate another artistic interest: that of drawing and sculpting bodies in motion. “Drawing is a warm-up exercise before transferring into material form that primordial and innate human need to move in space”.
In 1986 he set up his first exhibition in Milan and, with the proceeds from the sales of his works, he founded the AGR Associati agency.