An interview with Vito Mazzeo who’s bringing his ballet ‘friends’ to Italy

Dutch National Ballet principal dancer Vito Mazzeo will bring a group of his colleagues from Amsterdam to Teatro Salieri in Legnago for a ‘Dutch Gala' on 22 November.

Mazzeo, who was formerly a principal with the San Francisco Ballet, will be joined by Igone de Jongh, Emilie Gallerani Tassinari, Wenting Guan, Victoria Ananyan, Cristiano Principato and James Stout in works by Hans Van Manen, Rudi Van Dantzig, David Dawson, Ted Brandsen and Mikhail Fokine. I talked to him about the event, dance in Italy and life with the Dutch company.

You're performing in Italy with a group of colleagues from the Dutch National Ballet: is this the beginning of Vito Mazzeo and Friends?

No, because the show is not about me but is about ballet in The Netherlands and how it has developed through its very recent history. My goal is to show how a country, with no ballet tradition, can develop a style and an identity that few ballet companies have, so you will see pieces from the repertoire from Les Ballet Russes to Van Manen.

It was the Italian critic Silvia Poletti who had the original idea for this project, and then Roberta Righi and all the staff at International Music and Arts who made it happen… I'm indebted to them all.

How do you feel returning to Italy to dance?

It feels good. I have been lucky to have been invited to dance in my home country every year that I have been away, but this time is different: I am surrounded by people that I admire and I was able to choose the repertoire for the evening. It is like taking care of a vulnerable thing, so you must pay attention to every detail. Obviously the first time is not going to be exactly like you had wished for but with the following performances it will improve, maybe with some changes to the repertoire.

I'm aiming to show people all the great choreographers that the Het Nationale Ballet has in its history, because over the fifty years of its existence it has raised and confirmed talents like Van Dantzig, Van Manen, Dawson , Pastor and Brandsen. I want to create a show that doesn't feel like a Gala but like a movie from the beginning of ballet in Holland until now. It will take time but I am sure that I will enjoy the process.

What is your opinion of the state of dance in Italy and how can it improve?

I have conflicting feelings. There are young talents coming up, like Nicoletta Manni and Claudio Coviello, and all the schools are working well. From my own school, the La Scala Ballet School, are emerging dancers such as Cristiano Principato and Emilie Gallerani Tassinari, who will dance with my group because they are part of the Junior Company of the Het Nationale Ballet. But maybe the people working as Sovrintendentes or Directors should understand that you can make a beautiful evening of ballet with little money compared to opera, and you will have the return because people love ballet and they will come and see it, and the more performances a company does the better the dancers get.

Most importantly, however, is that you create something interesting and special for dancers and public, not just in Italy but around the world, so that dancers will want to join an Italian company and audiences follow its performances because of its particular style or because of its repertoire, and slowly things will improve: it is essential to create an identity for a company by the works created for it.

Who are you bringing over with you and what will they dance?

I am bringing two ladies who are currently my partners here in Amsterdam: Igone de Jongh – the Muse of Van Manen – will dance Replay with me with choreography by my Director Ted Brandsen which was especially created for Igone and me. It was the first time working on a new piece with Ted and Igone but it worked out very well and we had a lot of fun doing it. I have a very strong connection with Igone and, in terms of our bodies, we are very similar. She will also dance a piece by Hans Van Manen.

Victoria Ananyan is my second partner, who has a crazy personality which is very close to my soul. She is very feminine and sensual and so we will dance one of the pieces I love the most: Fokine's Sheherazade.

Wenting Guan and James Stout are two beautiful Soloists who are making their début in Swan Lake just before the performance at Teatro Salieri, and the final two are the couple from the La Scala Ballet School who are beautiful, young and fresh, and make me remember when I was in their place going around Italy with my dear friend Mara Galeazzi.

What's life like in the Dutch company after San Francisco?

It is totally different if we're talking about the cities! I love San Francisco with all my heart, but if you don't have a car you are lost; here in Amsterdam I just need my bike, and I can reach all the places that I want. I love to get lost in Amsterdam, you can discover so many little places, shops or canals and then there's the Concertgebouw, which is currently my second home! I love it when they Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra plays Mahler.

The companies are similar: Het Nationale Ballet has a strong identity but is very open and commissions a lot of new works; the same was true at San Francisco Ballet where I had the chance to get to work with artists I admire like Mark Morris and Wayne McGregor. This year in San Fransisco they are reviving Borderlands which was created on me and Sofiane Sylve by McGregor, but now someone else is going to do it. I feel proud because that piece was created on my way of dancing and in the way I feel movement and, even if the new dancer makes it his own, the essence of the steps will stay and I was the instrument of that emotion or of that port de bras of the movement!

That's why I love Het Nationale too. Today, for example, I had a fantastic hour with David Dawson: it was like discovering new parts of my body and that I could move them in a different way, so during that process I can come to see how David Dawson sees movement. It was the best hour a dancer can wish for working with a choreographer like David and enjoying every second of it. That's really why I do ballet as I enjoy the research, to discover where my body can go, what I will feel inside during those off balances or whatever.

I wish for every dancer to have the possibility of experiencing all the processes involved in creating a new ballet, because sometimes you just may be part of a masterpiece, and you will regret if you did not enjoy it to the full.

Vito Mazzeo & Solisti Het Nationale Ballet
Saturday, 22 November 2014 at 8.45pm
Teatro Salieri, Legnago
Book tickets online 

Programme

Replay
Music Philip Glass
Choreography Ted Brandsen
Italian première
Igone de Jongh – Vito Mazzeo

Swan Lake – 2 Act Adagio
Music Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography Rudi Van Dantzig
Wenting Guan – James Stout

5 Tangos solo
Music Astor Piazzola
Choreography Hans Van Manen
Vito Mazzeo

Embers
Music Max Richter
Choreography Ernst Meisner
Italian première
Emilie G Tassinari – Cristiano Principato

Sheherazade
Music Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Choreography Mikhail Fokine
Vito Mazzeo – Victoria Ananyan

Interval

4 Last Songs
Music Richard Strauss
Choreography Rudi Van Dantzig
Italian première
Vito Mazzeo – Victoria Ananyan

Coppélia – pas de deux
Music Léo Delibes
Choreography Arthur Saint-Léon
Emilie G Tassinari – Cristiano Principato

Trois Gnossiennes
Music Erik Satie
Choreography Hans Van Manen
Italian première
Igone de Jongh – James Stout

Raymonda – pas de deux
Music Alexander Glazunov
Choreography Marius Petipa
Wenting Guan – Vito Mazzeo

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.