Luca Tommassini
Fattore T

'Talent is a gift, success is a profession'

(Claudio Cecchetto)

'Everybody's a dreamer/and everybody's a star/and everybody's in movies/it doesn't matter who you are./There are stars in every city/in every house and in every street […].//Everybody's a dreamer/and everybody's a star/and everybody's in show-biz/it doesn't matter who you are...'

('Chiunque é un sognatore,/chiunque é una star/e chiunque é in un film/non importa chi tu sia./Ci sono stelle in ogni città,/in ogni casa e in ogni strada […].//Chiunque é un sognatore,/chiunque é una star/e chiunque é nello show business,/non importa chi tu sia...'

(Kinks, 'Celluloid Heroes')

'Young people with a great future often have a past full of humiliations'

(Robert Musil, 'The Confusions of Young Törless')

Luca Tommassini: who is he? If it hadn't been for a book by Paola & Chiara (their autobiography 'Sisters') last year, I would never have 'consulted' (taken a look at) this book one day this year in a big second-hand shop, and after buying it out of a bit of curiosity and reading it, learning who he is.

He's a dancer and choreographer famous here and abroad, but I wondered if he's only well-known in the world of show business in Italy and elsewhere, or even among ordinary people in Italy.

Reading the book more than once, I learned a lot about his life—just the use of the quotes at the beginning of this review already gives an idea of what kind of person he is: born into a tough family in the outskirts of Rome, as a child with a passion for dance he's enrolled in a school opened near home by the partner of a famous dancer and showgirl, Carmen Russo, that is, Enzo Paolo Turchi (also a well-known TV dancer and choreographer).

From this moment begins a life of great commitment, sacrifice, and dedication (and curiosity) which leads him step by step to what he is today: at the school he would stay beyond lesson hours to observe the older dancers and in doing so became fascinated by how much the body can be used to communicate to its fullest.

A few years later, he starts working in TV for a commercial and as part of the dance troupe in a famous comedy show on Italia Uno, 'Drive in' (with Ezio Greggio, Gianfranco D'Angelo, Giorgio Faletti etc..., ndr/reviewer's note).

At the time, a male dancer was not looked upon kindly by many: in Tommassini's case, he paid the price with abuse from some relatives and a kind of bullying by many young people in his neighborhood (though it wasn't just because of dancing).

Then one day comes his first big turning point: he goes to America, thanks to some Americans in a dance troupe of a show on one of Berlusconi's TV channels (Fininvest, later Mediaset/ndr), to study dance at a school in New York and then one in Los Angeles. Still underage.

And in Los Angeles, or 'L.A.', his adventure in 'the American show-biz' kicks off: sneaking into auditions for the Oscars' 1990 dance troupe, with a lot of effort and nerve, he manages to get picked by a famous choreographer of that time, and hears it from her in person because he doesn't have an agent.

(But the story ends in a bigger way than you might expect).

From this moment, the dream comes true of an Italian who made it in the tough world of music and show business in America, collaborating with many Pop music artists (Americans and others), becoming friends with some celebrities (for example Michael Jackson and especially Madonna) and, among other things I remember, his wild and fun experiences on the Whitney Houston tour in '91.

But at a certain point he faces the other side of show-biz over there: after working with a friend of his on Ricky Martin's performance at the 'Grammy Awards'—a music awards ceremony, ndr—in '99, in the official contract with the singer, he's listed as assistant to the choreographer and his friend as the director of choreography.

An offense or a 'betrayal' as he writes, which leads him to decide to leave the world of show business over there.

For someone so successful, the experiences told in the book are many (in Italy in those years he'd also begun working as a choreographer), up to the last one before this autobiography was published, as the artistic director of a famous talent show, 'X Factor', in 2015 (I could mention his experience as a director for a stage play and as a costume designer, always with the idea of creating clothing pairings to make others feel good, even accidentally creating a trend from the video of a Kylie Minogue song in 2000).

Based on the little I've discussed here, doesn't his life teach? This book reminded me of Cecchetto's life and the principles of succeeding at work in the book I reviewed three years ago, 'In diretta', and comparing the two books you get stories and principles that are similar, starting from dedication and creativity even though in different areas of music and, above all, show business.

In short, a motivational book: if I add Mauro Repetto's 'Non ho ucciso l'Uomo Ragno' which I reviewed 2 years ago, that's three books of this type I've covered in four years since the first one.

Even the cover suggests this quality: the author struck by lightning that sets fire to his body (inspiration that ignites talent and creativity?) (and the most famous man on fire is the one on the Pink Floyd album, 'Wish You Were Here', from '75).

After reading the book I recommend it because it's well written and easy to read; if there's something negative, perhaps it's what it left me with: not all the author's experiences moved me, only those from childhood to being chosen to participate in the Oscars and his helping Geri Halliwell after she left the Spice Girls in '98/ndr, for her rebirth as an artist and as a woman.

To confirm how unique this character is, there are testimonies from famous people and those close to the world of show business: and this too (almost) like Cecchetto.