MARTA MELE

ALERT: On November 11, 2025, we will be at Rome Opera House at 3.30 pm for the guided visit.

The new course "Costume and in Theatre" (2025/2026) will start on October 14th, 2025. The course will be held on Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm and on Thursday from 2 pm to 4 pm in Aula Toesca.
 
 Course Structure
The aim of the course “Costume and/in Theatre” is giving space to a fundamental material element in the construction of the theatrical performance and in the definition of its poetics. In order to trace the value of theatrical costume, the course adopts first of all a historiographical perspective that starts from Ballet Blanc to focus on the climate of cultural renewal of the late nineteenth century - early twentieth century and on the seasons of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. This is a key moment of a reform aimed at stylistically unifying the various components of the performance, in which the various artists Bakst, Benois, Golovin, Roerich played a great role. If it is the ballet genre that is preferred thanks to its universal language, we will not forget to study also operatic and dramatic works. In the continuation of the course, the historiographical perspective will be combined with a thematic approach.  There will be therefore an opportunity to discuss the influence of theatre on fashion.

Aims of the course
The objective of the course will be to make students autonomous in the formulation of analyses on theatrical costume and in the ideation of creative projects to be implemented in future work activities.

Participation and requirements
No specific prerequisites required. Attendance is not mandatory, but it is strongly recommended. The lessons will combine theoretical explanations with video analysis and class discussions of personal and group research. It will be important to discuss together the viewing of productions currently on stage and to visit theater tailors.

Evaluation
Attending students will be tested on theoretical knowledge, but also on creative group or individual projects. Their evaluation will depend on the following criteria: participation in class (35%), midterm (30%), individual or group project (35%).
Non-attending students, i.e. those who have not achieved 70% of class attendance, will have to take an oral exam.

Bibliography
Donatella Barbieri, Costume in Performance. Materiality, Culture, and the Body, Bloomsbury Publishing, London-New York 2019.
Mary Davis, Ballet Russes Style: Diaghilev’s Dancers and Paris Fashion, London: Reaktion, 2010.
Lynn Garafola, Nancy Van Norman Baer, The Ballets Russes and Its World, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1999.
Elna Matamoros, Dance & Costumes. A History of Dressing Movement, Berlin, ZHDK, 2021.

Exam Dates

Extraordinary Session for the old students: 4 November 2025.
 
Winter Session: 8 January 2026, Aula a Vetri.

Reception of students
On Friday after the class, or by appointment writing to the Professor: Marta.Mele@uniroma1.it

Graduated with honors in "Literary and Linguistic Studies" at La Sapienza University of Rome with a thesis dedicated to ballets inspired by Alexander Pushkin's works, Marta Mele subsequently specialized in "History and Theory of Choreographic Art" at the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg. In addition to taking care of international relations for various events dedicated to dance, she translated from Russian the autobiography of the dancer Natalia Makarova for Gremese publishing house. She also edited the Italian edition of the book "Swans of the Kremlin" by the scholar Christina Ezrahi. After having participated in two conferences dedicated to the bicentenary of the birth of the choreographer Marius Petipa, she won the PhD competition in Music and Performing Arts of the La Sapienza University of Rome (34th cycle, tutor Prof. Vito Di Bernardi). On 23 September 2022 she received her doctorate with an "excellent" rating discussing a thesis entitled "Ballet in Leningrad between avant-garde and ideology", from which two essays have already been published in the scientific journal «Biblioteca Teatrale».

Research products

Essays
- M. Mele, La discussione su Le fiamme di Parigi (dicembre 1932): la transizione verso il “coreodramma sovietico” riflessa nei dibattiti dell’epoca, in Annuario del Dottorato di ricerca in Musica e Spettacolo della Sapienza Università di Roma (Parte Prima), «Biblioteca Teatrale» n. 136, Bulzoni, Rome 2022, pp. 87-105. (In Italian language)
- M. Mele, La codificazione dei processi compositivi del coreodramma sovietico. Il caso de La fontana di Bachčisaraj, in V. Di Bernardi (ed. by), L'opera coreografica e i suoi processi creativi, «Biblioteca Teatrale» n. 134, Bulzoni, Rome 2020, pp. 127-146. (In Italian language)
- M. Mele, Petipa attraverso lo sguardo di Natalia Makarova, in D. Gavrilovich, A. Corea (ed. by), Marius Petipa, lo Zar del balletto classico (1818-1910). Danza, musica, arte e società, UniversItalia, Rome 2019, pp. 161-170. (In Italian language)
- M. Mele, «Spjaščaja krasavica» na scene Rimskogo opernogo teatra, in Bulletin of Vaganova Ballet Academy, 1, 2019, pp. 27-61. (In Russian language)

Editing works
- C. Ezrahi, I Cigni del Cremlino, ed. by M. Mele, Gremese, Rome 2017. (In Italian language)

Translations
- N. Makarova, La danza, la mia vita, translated from Russian by M. Mele, Gremese, Rome 2015. (In Italian language)