An Italian living in New York, Riccardo Passera draws on his heritage that spans across the Atlantic Ocean, from Italy to the Caribbean. He started dancing Caribbean dances at the age of 10 at Ratz Mataz school and later continued his ballet, modern and contemporary training with different studios, such as The Ballet School, AreaDance Nuova and New Style Dance.
As a performer, Riccardo’s credits include New Style Project Dance Company, MAADE Ensemble, ASPG, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Jon Lehrer Dance Company, among others. After obtaining a certification in Intermediate Ballet level and Advanced Modern Jazz-Contemporary and Hip Hop levels from I.D.A. (International Dance Association) in 2018 in Italy, Riccardo started assisting his mentor Lino Villa, Artistic Director of New Style Dance, and then
became a sub for his Horton based Modern classes and for Mattia Cuda's ballet classes, starting in 2022.
During his time at Ailey Riccardo had the chance to hand down Ailey Repertoire and ASPG Repertoire to his fellow dancers under the direction of Mr. Freddie Moore between the academic years of 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. Riccardo is now Mr. Moore’s Assistant Rehearsal Director for ASPG.
After experiencing the beauty in passing down dance, he decided to join The Ailey School's Junior Division as a Teaching Assistant for Bounding Boys' classes led by Ms. Nicole Kadar and is now in the division’s roster as a Teaching Assistant. As a member of Jon Lehrer Dance Company, Riccardo teaches and demonstrates classes for high-school and college level students and he is thrilled to join the Notes in Motion’s Education Ensemble as a Teaching Artist.
