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.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
