Italian dancer Vito Mazzeo is promoted to principal with the San Francisco Ballet

At the end of his first year with the San Francisco Ballet, Italian ballet dancer Vito Mazzeo has been promoted to the role of principal dancer.

Mazzeo is a product of the school of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. After dancing several seasons with London's Royal Ballet, he returned to Italy where Carla Fracci snapped him up in 2008 when she was the director of the Rome Opera Ballet. After dancing a vast repertoire for the company yet — because of bizarre political and contractual problems typical of Italian life — never having been given a permanent position, Mazzeo decided to leave when Signora Fracci's contract with the company expired. That was one year ago and the decision, it seems, was a good one.

Last season, as soloist with the San Francisco Ballet, Mazzeo performed the role of Albrecht in Giselle. His repertory with the Company also includes George Balanchine's Symphony in C, Helgi Tomasson's Trio, William Forsythe's Artifact Suite, Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Winter Dreams, Wayne McGregor's Chroma, and Christopher Wheeldon's Number Nine.

Photo credit: © Chris Hardy

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.