Background
Citaristi is from Bergamo in Italy, the daughter of Severino Citaristi, a leading politician of the Democrazia Cristiana party of Italy.
Citaristi is from Bergamo in Italy, the daughter of Severino Citaristi, a leading politician of the Democrazia Cristiana party of Italy.
Citaristi studied Odissi under Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and started her own school of dance in 1994.
She spent five years as an actress in traditional and experimental theatre in Italy before deciding to learn Kathakali. She went to Kerala, where she spent three rigorous months studying Kathakali before she went to Odisha on the advice of her Kathakali guru, Krishnan Namboodari. Since 1979, she has been living in Odisha.
She holds a Doctorate of Philosophy with a thesis on "Psychoanalysis and Eastern Mythology".
Citaristi is also an exponent of the Mayurbhanj Chhau, which she learnt under the tutelage of Guru Hari Nayak and holds the title of an acharya of Chhau from the Sangeet Mahavidyalya of Bhubaneswar. She founded the Art Vision Academi in 1996, which acts as a platform for sharing ideas between various artistic forms such as theatre, music, dance and painting.
The Academi also conducts classes in Odissi and Chhau. Ileana Citaristi is noted for her innovative choreographic productions in Odissi and Chhau that bring together themes and styles from both the West and the East.
In Chhau, some of her notable productions include ‘Echo and Narcissus" based on the Greek myth in Ovid"s Metamorphoses, ‘The Journey" that draws on Japanese haikus, ‘Images of Change" based on the Chinese concept of Yin and Yang and ‘Still I Rise" based on Maya Angelou"s eponymous poem.
The Italian government made her a member of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity in 2008.