The stars will come out in Rome tonight – Cipriani ballet gala

Repeating the success of last year's ballet gala, Daniele Cipriani once again presents a Les Étoiles evening in Rome. Tonight and tomorrow night – 23 and 24 January – there is the opportunity to catch some of the world's brightest stars at the Auditorium Conciliazione, just around the corner from the Vatican.

The Royal Ballet's Marianela Nuñez and Thiago Soares will perform the Black Swan pas de deux and the Grand Pas from Diamonds, the third act of George Balanchine's Jewels. Lucia Lacarra and Marlon Dino from the Bavarian State Opera Ballet will present the White Swan, together with what is rapidly becoming their signature piece, Gerald Arpino's bewitching Light Rain, with which they scored a huge success during the closing gala for the Milan Expo last year.

Berlin State Ballet's Iana Salenko is Kitri for Don Quixote with American Ballet Theatre's Daniil Simkin, and then joins her husband and fellow Principal in Berlin, Marian Walter, for Le Corsaire. Simkin will also dance Ben Van Cauwenbergh's Les Bourgeois, his party-piece and a guaranteed showstopper.

La Scala's Claudio Coviello will join the new star of the Rome Opera Ballet, Rebecca Bianchi, for Giselle and also the balcony scene from Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet.

Rebecca Bianchi and Claudio Coviello in Giselle – photo by Yasuko Kageyama, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

If you're in or near Rome this weekend, you can see the gala on Saturday 23^rd at 9pm, and Sunday 24^th at 5pm.

Tickets can be booked online www.ticketone.it or via the Ticket One call centre 892 101.

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.