Roberto Bolle and working with Peter Greenaway, Bob Wilson and Fabrizio Ferri

Roberto Bolle has been doing the publicity rounds with his two tours of …& Friends coming up. The dance magazine Danza & Danza, recently revamped with a new look, have made him their July/August cover boy; Francesca Pedroni asked him a few questions.

On working with artists like Bob Wilson and Peter Greenaway…

With Wilson I experimented with the discipline and extreme care of detail, with Greenaway what counts is the study of light to recreate what he has visualized in his imagination. They are visionary artists: they know what you have not yet understood and yet will be able to achieve in their work of art. Working with them has given me a more critical sense of the image, and a higher regard for the relationship between the dancer and scenic elements.

On making a short film with Fabrizio Ferri for the Venice Film Festival…

It is a portrait of me, a project which we'll film in New York. It will be how he sees me in the city. I trust him completely. When you collaborate for a photograph, you have to follow his vision. We'll see what portrait of me will emerge.

On the number of boys studying dance…

It's staggering the number of boys in Italy who want to become ballet dancers. When I started at the La Scala Ballet School there were very few of us. I'm proud to be a model, but disheartened by the difficultly the dance world faces in this country. There may be lots of young people with potential, but the prospects for work are grim. Many companies are in crisis and even risk closure. Public grants don't arrive, and private investors are few and far between. It's foolish not to understand that in a moment of economic crisis that we're living through, culture can provide work for many people. Instead, we cut it out.

For details about Bolle's forthcoming tours visit his site.

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.