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The new Muscovite: David Hallberg dresses up for Vogue

ByGramilano Reading Time: 3 minutes

David Hallberg Vogue Russia 2 returned to the Bolshoi for , and while there found time for a photoshoot for Vogue Russia. He talked to Anna Fedina for an article entitled “New Muscovite”.

On returning to the Bolshoi after the acid attack on ballet director :

It was Sergei Filin invited me here in the first place. Of course, I had serious doubts about returning. I was afraid for myself, and did not know how the company or the audience would react to me. On the other hand, thinking about all these stories, I realized that you only have one life, and strength and youth don’t last forever – sometimes you just need to push ahead and go for it. Now I feel that Moscow is even better than before.

On the Bolshoi dancers:

I want to make friends with my colleagues at the . Although there are language and cultural barriers between us, I will leap across them.

Bolshoi soloists have venerated status which makes them difficult to approach. In America there is nothing like this: principals are found mixing with the corps de ballet and don’t think about some sort of class system. For me it’s only usual to have people bow and scrape when I play the Prince, so I’m trying to undermine the hierarchy. That said, I like the fact that the Bolshoi dancers are held in such respect.

On being Onegin:

It’s great playing a normal person, not a dance fairy-tale hero! Onegin – a man who lived his life to the full, yet at the end is rejected by the most important person in his life; what prince can show such immense feelings?

On fashion:

I love Dior, but I’m not thin enough for it – in fact, to jump, you need well-developed muscles. Raf Simons [creative director at Christian Dior] is a genius, I love everything about him: the fact that he can sew himself, the kind of music he picks for his shows, and his furniture designs. I like to dress simply, but a little idiosyncratically. Nothing flashy, but I hate ‘boring’.

Friends loath to go shopping with me, because I admire things, and try them on thirty times, but never buy anything.  So in New York, there is a special ritual – I call a designer friend and ask her, “Can you come with me, then at least I can go home with something.”

David Hallberg Vogue Russia

Photos by Danil Golovkin

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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.

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