La Scala ballerina, who denounced eating disorders in the company, is fired

“One ballerina in five at La Scala suffers from an eating disorder”, denounced Mariafrancesca Garritano (known on social networks and as an author also as Mary Garret) to The Observer newspaper.

Multiple Facebook declarations, the contents of her book La verità, vi prego sulla danza! (The Truth, please, about Ballet), television appearances and interviews have made the 33 year-old dancer persona non grata with the Milanese company. In fact they left her out of their Bolshoi appearances at the end of last year, and she wasn’t on the cast lists for the current run of Excelsior. Now she has been fired for “just cause”, for libel, and for describing a situation that she knew didn’t correspond to the truth thus damaging the theatre’s reputation.

Garritano proves the Italian saying “Non si sputa nel piatto dove si mangia” (“Don’t bite the hand that feeds you”) which literally translates as “Don’t spit in the plate that you eat from” – remarkably apt in this case!

Photo: Mary Garret’s current Facebook profile photo

Gramilano Editor

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.