Marcello Angelini has served as Tulsa Ballet Artistic Director since 1995, following a distinguished career as a principal dancer and guest artist with some of the most renowned troupes in the world.
Angelini’s studies began at home with his father in Naples, Italy, and continued through graduation from the Kiev Institute of Dance in the former Soviet Union on a full scholarship.
His professional career as a dancer began in 1979 at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino where he became soloist in 1981. He was a principal dancer with Deutsche Oper Berlin, England’s Northern Ballet Theater, Ballet West in Salt Lake City, Les Grands Ballet Canadiens in Montreal and the Cincinnati Ballet.
Angelini danced leading roles in most of the classical repertoire, including Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and Cinderella. His contemporary leading roles include Death in Death and the Maiden and the valet in Birgit Cullberg’s Miss Julie.
At Tulsa Ballet, Angelini’s artistic policy aims to preserve the classical repertoire of the 19th and 20th centuries while presenting works by the top contemporary choreographers of our time. After 30 years under Angelini’s leadership, Tulsa Ballet enjoys an international repertory representing the world’s leading choreographers and an international roster of dancers. He has brought to the company’s repertoire dozens of Oklahoma, American and world premieres from some of the top dance makers.
Angelini opened The SemGroup Center for Dance Education in Brookside, The Hardesty Center for Dance Education and built Studio K to focus on creating new works in Tulsa and exporting them around the globe.
National and international touring is a major focus for Angelini. The company has appeared in five countries and performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and The Joyce Theater in New York.
Angelini has received the Oklahoma Governor’s Arts Award, the Harwelden Award and the 2017 Kennedy Center Arts Advocacy Award. With his wife, Daniela Buson, also a gifted dancer, he won the first National Italian ballet competition and the Golden Rose for the most promising Italian dancer.
Angelini and Buson are the proud parents of identical twin sons Alessandro and Valentino.
