Francesca Mariano (also known as Francesca Heart and Serpentine Dance) is an artist working across movement, sound, installation, and somatic research. With volcanic and marine roots in Southern Italy, her practice emerges at as an interdisciplinary research on hydrofeminism, mythological acoustics, and landscape choreology. She investigates how bodies- human, more-than-human, geological- carry memory, myth, and transformation.
Her work is driven by the belief that listening is a radical tool for reconfiguring our relationship with the earth and the cosmos. Through choreographic scores, sonic explorations, and performative installations, she mainly focuses on the Mediterranean as a resonant body, a space of stratified histories and post-human futures.
Trained in postmodern dance and expressive arts therapy with Anna Halprin at Tamalpa Institute, Francesca’s practice weaves embodied methodologies with ecological consciousness and speculative poetics. She is the founder of Serpentine Dance Studio, a studio for movement and voice healing based in Milan and online, co-founder of Nuova Atlantide, a collective platform for interdisciplinary and site-based practices in Bomarzo. She is also the founder of Archaeo-Choreology, a reasearch practice on somatics, health and collective movement inquiries with the environment.
Alongside her personal work, she composes and choreographs for film, fashion, and documentary.
Francesca has been selected for Shape+ artist (2023/24), part of a pan-European platform supporting new voices in experimental art and sound. 


Selected performances and collaborations

Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Museo MADRE, the University of California Santa Barbara, Istituto Svizzero, MAO Torino, CTM Festival, Rewire Festival, de Young Museum, Nextones, the AA School of Architecture, Leaving Records, Palermo Living Pavillion, European Alternatives, Fondazione Lac O Le Mon, Officina Santa Maria Novella, Fodazione Sozzani, LOST Festival, C2C Festival, Studio Concreto, East Contemporary, Garbage Core, Hot House Series, Maison Margiela, Balenciaga, Valentino, NIKE, Trascendanza, Subtle Neutrality, Virgin & Martyr, Combo, Adidas Women, Zuma Festival & more.


Education and Trainings

Tamalpa Institute (USA) - Movement, Dance & Expressive Arts Therapy / training with Anna Halprin, Daria Halprin, Dohee Lee

Silvestre Dance Technique (Brazil) - Contemporary Dance / training with Rosangela Silvestre and Vera Passos

Brighton School of Embodied Therapy (UK) / facilitator diploma

Reiki Usui Training (Italy) / facilitator diploma

University of Sussex (UK) - MA International Relations / Masters thesis on Eco-feminist critique of language and discourse in IR/