160 photos of Royal Ballet dancers rehearsing now online

ByGramilano 8 August 20137 July 2024 Reading Time: 1 minute

When I went to cover Mara Galeazzi‘s farewell gala with Royal Ballet colleagues in Verona last month, I took my camera for a couple of backstage shots. Well I ended up taking hundreds of photos during the rehearsals, and 160 of these are now viewable on Flickr.

Dodging the mosquitoes that arrived with dusk, I managed to capture something of those emotional couple of days, as Mara got ready to hang up her pointe shoes for (almost?) the last time.

But never say never…

Sarah Lamb, Marianela Nuñez, Gary Avis, Steven McRae, Thiago Soares and Edward Watson with Mara Galeazzi on FLICKR.

Photo: Mara Galeazzi & Edward Watson rehearsing MacMillan’s Manon

Gramilano

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.