Antonia Franceschi

Antonia Franceschi, born March 30, 1960, is an American dancer, choreographer, and actress whose career has spanned Broadway, film, ballet, and theater on both sides of the Atlantic. She has received a Time Out Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance.

Franceschi grew up in the American Midwest before relocating to New York City at age eight following her parents' divorce. In New York she studied ballet through the Cecchetti method under Margaret Craske and began working at the Metropolitan Opera by the age of nine. She attended the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan, where she was enrolled in the Drama department. Her professional work began early: she appeared as a dancer in the 1978 film Grease, working under a falsified birth certificate because she was below legal working age. That employment led to her expulsion from the High School of Performing Arts, as students were prohibited from working professionally. She used her earnings from Grease to enroll at Professional Children's School, which in turn allowed her to attend the School of American Ballet.

In 1980 Franceschi played Hilary van Doren, a ballet student from a wealthy background, in the film Fame, which was set at the same High School of Performing Arts she had attended. That same year she appeared on Broadway with Makarova and Company, during which she served as an understudy to company lead Natalia Makarova. George Balanchine subsequently recruited her to join the New York City Ballet, where she danced for eleven years under both Balanchine and Peter Martins, performing in approximately 50 of Balanchine's nearly 100 works. She was among the last generation of dancers selected by Balanchine himself. Works were created for her by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Lar Lubovitch, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, Mark Baldwin, Wayne McGregor, Michael Clarke, Arlene Phillips, and Karole Armitage.

Her Broadway credits span 1980 to 1993 and include Makarova and Company, Brigadoon, and The Red Shoes.

Franceschi moved to London in 1995, where she has worked as a guest artist, producer, teacher, writer, choreographer, and advisor. She produced New York Ballet Stars in collaboration with Sir Alistair Spalding, Tom Adès, and Karole Armitage, touring Harrogate and the Sintra Festival with dancers from the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. In 2002 the Soho Theatre staged her semi-autobiographical work Up from the Waste, directed by Nancy Meckler, which drew on her childhood experiences with gangs, drugs, and trauma, and traced her path out of those circumstances through dance. Ballet Black premiered her piece Shift, Trip, Catch in 2005. Her 2009 work Kinderszenen was set to music by composer Allen Shawn, and that same year she launched the multimedia work Pop8 at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre, collaborating with Mark Baldwin, Zoe Martlew, and Ballet Black to portray urban life through music, film, and dance.

Franceschi founded her own company, AFD Just Dance, which premiered in July 2015 with performances at the Valletta Opera House, the Royal Winchester Theatre, and the MMA Center in New York City. She choreographed Othello at Shakespeare's Globe in London, directed by Claire van Kampen, and served as Movement Director for The Other Place at the Park Theatre. She was Associate Choreographer for Arlene Phillips's duet for Candoco and Rehearsal Director for the Royal Opera House production of Other Stories with Wendy Whelan and Edward Watson. In 2019 she presented Liberandum, created for Joaquín De Luz, at Teatro Real Madrid and the Skirball Center. In 2022 she choreographed Dr. Semmelweis at London's Harold Pinter Theatre, directed by Tom Morris and co-written by Sir Mark Rylance and Stephen Brown, which starred Rylance. That same year she also choreographed the opera Idaspe.

As a teacher, Franceschi has given guest instruction at the Royal Ballet, the New York City Ballet, Rambert, the Richard Alston Dance Company, Wayne McGregor Dance, DV8, the New York Theatre Ballet, Alvin Ailey, the Joffrey School, and Juilliard. She has been interviewed for the book Balanchine, Then and Now and has appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour. She divides her time between the United Kingdom and the United States.