Roberto Bolle’s Dance with Me on New Year’s Day features Alessandra Ferri

Roberto Bolle's programme Danza con me (Dance with Me) won the Rose D'Or for the Best European Entertainment programme at the 57th edition of the awards in Berlin in September.

Not surprisingly, the Italian State Television (RAI) have decided to record another episode which will go out on New Year's Day with actors, comedians, singers and dancers, some of whom will “dance with him”.

Danza con me will contain works by John Neumeier, Christopher Wheeldon, Wayne McGregor and Christian Spuck, along with new pieces by Mauro Bigonzetti and Massimiliano Volpini.

A surprising star presence is Alessandra Ferri who will dance with Bolle for the first time in television in a “heart-wrenching pas de deux”. Other dancers include Polina Semionova, (Berlin State Ballet), Melissa Hamilton (The Royal Ballet), Elisa Badenes (Stuttgart Ballet), Nicoletta Manni and Virna Toppi (La Scala) and Alexandre Riabko (Hamburg Ballet).

Bolle's project OnDance, which in its first edition in Milan this year, involved dancers of all types all over the city in classes and performances. From this experience Neguin, world champion street dancer, and swing stars Vincenzo Fesi and Remy Kouakou Kouame, will also take part.

A tribute to Genoa, which has suffered since the tragic collapse in August of the bridge which strides the city, sees a new piece choreographed by Mauro Bigonzetti to music of one of the city's most famous sons, Niccolò Paganini.

Bolle's interest in technology will see him in a pas de deux with a one-and-a-half-ton robotic arm, usually used in industry, showing its tender side.

A 300-square-metre stage was specially built in the old Portello trade fair area of Milan for filming the event, and if the success of last year is repeated, many millions will follow dance on television on the first day of the year.

Photos by Luca Vantusso

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.