Who is Bruno Tonioli?

Bruno Tonioli is known for films such as What a Girl Wants, Simply Amazing: The Movie, and television series such as Dancing with the Stars.

His name and face are unknown to most, but a quick glance at his biography is enough to understand his artistic and media status outside Italy. Bruno Tonioli was born in Ferrara in 1955. His passion for dance led him first to become a dancer, then a choreographer, and finally a television personality beloved by British and American audiences for his theatrical and energetic personality. Elton John, Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones, Sting, Freddie Mercury, Boy George, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, and Paul McCartney are just some of the artists who have relied on Bruno’s choreography. The list of collaborations speaks for itself.

Made in Italy

Combine talent and a successful career with a humorous flair, and you have the perfect judge for a television talent show. Bruno Tonioli is known to Anglo-Saxon audiences for his role as a judge on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing and its American adaptation, Dancing With the Stars, on ABC. The same format was also exported to Italy under the name Ballando con le Stelle. However, the list of his professional activities is much longer. It would take much more space to do justice to his contribution to the world of entertainment, including film, television, theater, musicals, and music videos.

The question arises spontaneously: why is a personality of such caliber, reduced to the role of a standard-bearer for “Made in Italy” abroad, unknown at home?

For example, his Wikipedia page does not have an Italian version. Ferrara and Italy in general seem to have ignored the existence of Bruno Tonioli https://znaki.fm/persons/bruno-tonioli/. But let’s take a step back.

Short biography

Bruno was born on November 25, 1955, to Vertera and Fulvia Tonioli, a bus driver and seamstress, respectively. They came from a typical Ferrara family of peasant origin and modest means. And, like typical Ferrara families of peasant origin, his parents wanted a better future for their son, hoping to see him working in a bank. In his interviews and autobiography, My Story (Headline, 2012), Bruno recounts how he spent his childhood and youth, persistently pursuing his big dream: dance.

He quickly realized how his aspirations differed strikingly from the passions and habits of his peers. While other children were fascinated by soccer, Bruno was fascinated by musicals. You don’t need to resort to Billy Elliot to imagine the situation; Ferrara in the early 1970s was probably not yet ready for such a story.

Well-known defender against hooligans

In addition to dancing and fighting for his dreams, Bruno also devotedly defended himself against bullies. His homosexuality in a small Catholic town in northeastern Italy — as the Mirror newspaper calls Ferrara was the reason for numerous attacks. In the same interview, Bruno recounts how he overcame such attacks with humor, thanks to the charisma that made him a true international star. From 1972, Bruno studied classical dance in Rome before leaving Italy for good two years later: at the age of only eighteen, he got a job as a dancer with the Parisian company La Grande Eugne. He later moved to London, achieving the goals he had dreamed of since childhood.

Despite his humble origins and homophobic attacks, Bruno has fond memories of Ferrara, repeatedly stating how the working-class environment instilled in him values that have stayed with him throughout his career.