Ornella Balestra graduated at the Royal Academy of Dance in London. She attended the last year of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan under the direction of Anna Maria Prina and she perfectioned her dance skills at the Centre International de Danse Rosella Higthtower in Cannes and at Marika Besobrasova dance center in Monte Carlo.

Selected by Maurice Béjart, she attended a three years course at the International Mudra Centre and danced as a soloist in ‘Le Ballet du XXème siècle’.

She returned to Italy and dances as a soloist together with the major Italian choreographers.

Among other important works: in 2014 her debut in the new production of Raimund Hoghe Quartett, in 2016 she worked as assistant choreographer on the project Altissima Povertà by Virgilio Sieni and debuted at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in Raimund Hoghe’s new production.

In 2017 she took part in Yuval Avital’s project “Three Grades of Foreignness” in the section Foreign Bodies.

In 2018 she debuted as the protagonist of Raimund Hoghe’s new creation ‘Song for Ornella’ at the Avignone IN Festival. The show is currently on tour in Europe (Geneva, Zagreb, Dusseldorf, Lisbon, Porto).