Roberto Bolle: I conquered America… ABT, Black Swan and solitude

After Roberto Bolle’s Romeo and Juliet with the Amer­ican Bal­let Theatre in New York, Italy’s gos­sip magazine Chi sent their editor Alsonso Signorini to inter­view him, and pho­to­grapher Fab­rizio Cestari to snap the dan­cer in vari­ous iconic Big Apple locations.

You are among the few Itali­ans who have made it in Amer­ica. Was it difficult?

It happened nat­ur­ally. It began in 2007 when I came here with Aless­andra Ferri for her ‘addio’ to the stage… I didn’t look for it. Then Bruce Weber con­tac­ted me for his book after see­ing me in the theatre. And it was the same for the Annie Leibovitz cover of Vogue. It all happened by chance.”

Have you paid for this success?

I have had to give up the near­ness of my fam­ily with whom I’m very close. At Casale Monferato,where I was born, I had a won­der­ful infancy. That all changed sud­denly… I didn’t want to go to Milan, away from the nest… I lived in a small room in the tiny apart­ment of an old lady who didn’t like me. I was a sol­it­ary child… I quickly grew into a man, which was import­ant for me not only as a per­son, but for what I do. My life is con­struc­ted by dis­cip­line. I am dis­cip­lined in everything I do. Some­times I miss dis­trac­tions, hol­i­days, time with friends. But I can’t allow it. We artists are dif­fer­ent from the rest: our train­ing, our art, requires total dedication.

I don’t pre­tend that this some­times causes prob­lems for those close to me. My friends and my fam­ily have to be under­stand­ing and fully behind me. I must always be com­letely con­cen­trated on myself and what I do. Those who are near me must adapt to my rhythms. It can’t be otherwise.

Isn’t that a little egocentric?

I real­ise that, but I couldn’t live dif­fer­ently. At least while I’m still dancing.I don’t do it for my ego or for nar­cisism. It’s a fact of life. I’ve learnt to live hap­pily with myself. At times, in the middle of a crowd, I escape. I like to be alone. It is the key to my life.

Have you ever been temp­ted by the cinema?

I con­fess I would love to be an actor, I’d be inter­ested in a good role, even a cameo. Dar­ren Aronof­sky asked me to be in Black Swan with Nat­alie Port­man, but I had theatre oblig­a­tions and so it wasn’t pos­sible. I was sorry. But never say never…

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