Introducing Rebecca Bianchi, Rome Opera Ballet’s new Principal ballerina

All this may give the impression that Bianchi drifts dreamily with her head among the clouds. Far from it. I asked her how she would describe her personality.

I think I'm fairly emotive and I often let my instincts guide me, but I'm also determined when I need to get what I want. I can be quite stubborn sometimes and I'm someone who likes to be independent. I like clarity and simplicity in all things.

Rebecca with Margherita, now 18 months

Rebecca with Emanuele, now 3½

She is also a young mother with a career, so she has to be practical and organised.

My children demand a lot of attention and a lot of energy which I'm happy to give as soon as I'm out of the theatre, because even after many hours rehearsing as soon as I see them my day starts anew.

They fill me with their love and purity, and I think that it is partly due to them that I have found a maturity in my work. The joy and love of life, and the curiosity that they transmit fills me with feelings that I can communicate to others through movement.

The family for me is fundamental, like being in a team where they cheer you on, and you do the same for them. They help you and encourage you, and everything is shared so that joys are doubled and problems become easier.

Her family is also the Rome Opera Ballet.

It is home to me, and I've met many wonderful people there, especially my husband: we fell in love with our brief exchanges and looks backstage… in the wings.

Eleonora Abbagnato, who has now been directing the company for a year, is also a mother of two, and she herself only recently became a Principal Dancer when she was nominated as Étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet three years ago.

The new management with Eleonora Abbagnato at the helm, is giving the company a new momentum, introducing new and important choreography and fresh ideas. Her sensitivity struck me from the outset, above all because I felt understood as an artist and a person. She was the one who gave me the huge satisfaction of being promoted to Principal Dancer.

In an interview after being promoted to Étoile, Abbagnato said, “Motherhood has made me stronger.” Bianchi echoes this not only in her attitude to being a mother, but also in her choice of favourite ballets:

I love those roles where you can reveal the fragility and the grace of a woman, but at the same time her strong temperament, those roles where you can immerse yourself entirely as you dance, using also your own experiences and feelings.

My favourite ballet is Romeo and Juliet, it is such a poignant story, a masterpiece… it is my dream to dance Juliet.

In January she danced the balcony scene from Kenneth MacMillan's version with La Scala Principal Claudio Coviello in a Daniele Cipriani gala.

I love all those dramatic roles and there are so many others… Manon, Giselle, La Dame aux camellias… I love the ballets of Neumeier.

At 25, she has time to get all those major roles under her belt. In the meantime she'll be off to Moscow later this month as she's been nominated for the Prix Benois de la Danse 2016 for Giselle, and will start rehearsals for the Nureyev Evening that kicks off the summer opera and ballet season at the Caracalla Baths in Rome. Life is good.

Certainly in all these years of training and work I have had a lot of gratification and I've managed to overcome hurdles that many of my fellow dancers haven't been able to. It is though my life was designed to bring me here… where I am now.

END

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.