A new ballet company for Italy? Rome’s mayor announces a project for the Italian National Ballet

The Mayor of Rome, Gianni Ale­manno, has announced,

We are work­ing on a pro­ject with Carla Fracci to cre­ate a National Bal­let Com­pany which can bring the Rome exper­i­ence to a national level.

The ‘Rome exper­i­ence’ was the period of ten years that Fracci spent at the helm of the capital’s bal­let company.

Ale­manno, who is by default the pres­id­ent of the board of dir­ect­ors of the Fondazione del Teatro dell’Opera, the gov­ern­ing body of the Rome Opera and Bal­let com­pan­ies, was fam­ously har­angued by Fracci in a pub­lic out­burst by the étoile in the stalls of the Rome Opera Theatre. That was two years ago dur­ing a meet­ing of  the vari­ous trade uni­ons oppos­ing eco­nomic reforms. Nerves were raw, and Fracci prod­ded the Mayor in the chest accus­ing him of refus­ing her requests for a meet­ing dur­ing the pre­vi­ous two years.

They’re back on speak­ing terms now, and Carla Fracci’s long-held dream of form­ing a national bal­let com­pany is close to being real­ised. Yes­ter­day she declared,

I am happy that the Mayor has declared that he is in agree­ment with the pro­ject to form an inde­pend­ent national com­pany, which would have Rome as its base. This is a glor­i­ous day for Italian dance.

Beppe Menegatti, the dir­ector and hus­band of the dan­cer, said,

For Carla and me it is a great com­mit­ment artist­ic­ally and mor­ally, which will give sat­is­fac­tion to many young people who were obliged to go and dance abroad, but can now return and work in Italy. There will be a new meet­ing with the Mayor on Monday when the theatre reopens its doors.

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