From ballet dancer to Celebrity Survivor! – Italian style

Italian ballet dancer Raffaele Paganini, ex-étoile of the Rome Opera Ballet, has always been popular with the general public after numerous television appearances in the 80s.

Since 2000 he has been seen most notably on stage in musicals (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Singing in the Rain, An American in Paris), but this week, at 52, he has returned to the Italian TV screen with Celebrity Survivor!, or Isola dei Famosi.

Is Paganini the first ballet dancer to end up on a desert island? If he isn't please let me know!

Photos: In Don Quixote; a highly-retoutched poster for An American in Paris; now entering Isola dei Famosi.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.