Jacques d’Amboise on his last performance
On the cusp of age 50, he decided to hang up his ballet shoes. It was 1984, Balanchine had been dead a year, and D’Amboise was waiting in the wings to perform with Farrell. “I didn’t want to go onstage — the first time since I was 8,” he recalled. “So I said, ‘Mr. B., this is for you.’ Afterwards we bowed, I went upstairs and threw my shoes in the wastebasket.”
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 Italian ballerina 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.
