Premier danseur Alessio Carbone puts on a tutu and wonders about having the body of Gisele and the voice of Bartoli

Alessio Carbone is a Premier Danseur at the Paris Opera. He comes from a family of dancers. His father, Giuseppe Carbone, was the director of the company at Milan's La Scala and his mother, Iride Sauri, was a prima ballerina at the La Fenice theatre in Venice. His sister dances at La Scala and his younger brother is a successful flamenco dancer. He is married to Paris Opera étoile Dorothée Gilbert.

Dance is everywhere in his life, but the Italian magazine Amica had a way for him to experience a new dance emotion, yet something his mother, sister and wife have done for years: wear a tutu.

Except for a brief experience in stilettos and fishnets – dancing in Béjart's Mandarin Merveilleux – this was to be a first. It was his wife who told him to go for it and not worry about seeming ridiculous, after Carbone was initially perplexed by the project. She was right, the pictures are strong and beautiful.

Among the replies to the 12 questions he was asked about ‘being a woman' were:

What did you feel wearing a tutu?

I thought of my mother, who stopped dancing when I was 16, and her gentleness. In profile I noticed that we look alike.

Whose body would you like to have?

Gisele Bündchen's, who knows that she's beautiful, but knows how to be herself.

And whose voice?

That of Cecilia Bartoli: she has a God-given gift which she uses magnificently.

P.S. Before this shoot you would never have said…

…that I would have enjoyed dressing like this. If they offer me a ballet in tutu I'll accept immediately.

On these two pages from Amica are photos by Andrea Gandini and the questions were asked by Paola Tavella

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.