Thomas Martino

Thomas began his professional training in 2011 through the Agora Coaching Project under the direction of Michele Merola and Enrico Morelli. Between 2012 and 2015, he worked as a performer with several Italian contemporary dance companies and independent productions. In 2016, he joined the ballet of Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, under the direction of Karl Alfred Schreiner. During his time with the company, he worked with choreographers including William Forsythe, Marco Goecke, Damien Jalet, Marina Mascarell, Lukas Timulak, Eyal Dadon, and Stijn Celis. In 2019 he joined Ballet Theater Basel. There, he performed works by Richard Wherlock, Johan Inger, Alexander Ekman, Sharon Eyal, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Andonis Foniadakis, Hofesh Shechter, Imre and Marne van Opstal, and Marcos Morau. From 2023 onwards, he expanded his artistic practice by collaborating as both performer and assistant with choreographers such as Edward Clug, Imre & Marne van Opstal, and Drew Jacoby, while simultaneously developing his own choreographic voice. In the same year, he joined Ishida Dance Company in Austin, Texas, establishing an ongoing collaboration that further strengthened his international presence.

Also in 2023, he made his choreographic debut with Lighea, a duet that quickly gained international recognition. The work received awards in Hannover, at the Straybird Platform in Taiwan, and at the Burgos–New York International Choreography Competition, and was also selected for the Rotterdam International Choreography Competition (RICC). In 2025, Martino created Red Dots for Ekodance Project, directed by Pompea Santoro. That same year, he was invited to participate in the DNAND project at the National Academy of Dance in Rome, where he created SEN for the undergraduate students. Following the success of the project, he was invited back to create Blind Wave for the Academy’s 2026/2027 end-of-year production. In 2026, he created Purgatorio for the Szeged Contemporary Dance Company under the direction of Tamás Juronics. During the same year, he collaborated with Edward Clug as assistant and performer for the opera Castor & Pollux in Geneva and staged Mommy, Look by Imre & Marne van Opstal at Nationaltheater Mannheim. In 2027, he will be responsible for the restaging of Edward Clug's Faust for Ballett Dortmund.

(Information as of July 2026)