Alessio Carbone brings 12 Nairobi students to Orsolina28 to dance with Guillaume Diop
The week-long residency ends with Still I Dance – Rising Together, a free performance at the foundation’s Teatro The Eye in Moncalvo on Saturday 7 November.
Twelve students from the Still I Rise International School in Nairobi, Kenya, are coming to Italy for a dance residency led by Alessio Carbone, former principal of the Paris Opera and now artistic director of Balletto di Venezia. Their stay at Orsolina28 Art Foundation in Moncalvo culminates in a performance, Still I Dance – Rising Together, at the foundation’s Teatro The Eye on Saturday 7 November 2026 at 19.30.
The project brings together Orsolina28 Art Foundation ETS, Carbone and Still I Rise, an international non-profit that gives the most vulnerable children a free, first-rate education. It grew, the organisers say, from the belief that dance can be far more than an artistic discipline – a universal language that encourages self-expression, meetings between cultures and personal growth.
The residency
From 1 to 8 November the students will work with Carbone and a team of guests from the international scene: Guillaume Diop of the Paris Opera, Abou Rutayisire of Ballet de Barcelona, and the pianist and composer Touve Ratovondrahety. Aurora Denaro will teach hip hop and street dance, and Carlotta Bolognese is offering a musical theatre workshop.
Through choreographic workshops, movement sessions and activities shared with students of Scuola28, the foundation’s dance school, the participants will explore new ways of expressing themselves and get a first taste of the professional dance world. The 7 November performance will share what they have made during the week, with the young dancers as active creators rather than simply performers. Nicolò Govoni, CEO of Still I Rise, will be in the audience.
From Mathare to Moncalvo
Carbone’s collaboration with Still I Rise began in 2024 with fundraising initiatives and introductory dance workshops for the Nairobi students. The school, in the city’s Mathare district, offers the International Baccalaureate free of charge to vulnerable children and teenagers, and was recognised as an IB World School in 2024.
On a visit to Nairobi in 2025, Carbone began a choreographic project with a group of students, laying the foundations for the residency that has now found a home at Orsolina28. The whole experience is being documented in an artistic film charting the participants’ journey and the project’s impact.
Booking
Still I Dance – Rising Together, Saturday 7 November 2026, 19.30
Teatro The Eye, Orsolina28 Art Foundation, Strada Caminata 28, 14036 Moncalvo (AT)
Entry is free, with the option of a voluntary contribution, but booking through the foundation’s website is required.
Still I Rise
Still I Rise is a non-profit organisation founded in 2018 that provides a high-quality education to refugee and vulnerable children around the world. Through its Emergency Schools and International Schools, it offers a revolutionary educational approach aimed at helping to end the global education crisis. It is the first non-profit organisation in the world to offer the prestigious International Baccalaureate programme free of charge to children in vulnerable situations. Still I Rise is based in Italy and operates in Syria, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia and Yemen, with new schools due to open in South Sudan, India and Italy.
