Dancing Times features a countertenor on its cover: Jakub Józef Orliński talks about breakdancing

The cover for the November issue of Dancing Times features countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński. I interviewed him a couple of days before his Glyndebourne Festival debut singing the title role in Handel's Rinaldo.

He's also a b-boy, a breakdancer, and breaking gives him mental as well as physical benefits. In his first major interview about dancing, he explains why he needs to dance.

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I chatted with Orliński two days before his Glyndebourne Festival debut as Handel's Rinaldo in August. He'd just finished a breaking session in the dance studio of Glyndebourne's newly-built Production Hub.

‘Dance came naturally to me. I came to it late because I started breaking when I was 18 or 19, but I was always an active kid and in snowboarding, skateboarding and rollerblading I did a lot of tricks: backflips and sliding down rails. A friend suggested we should try breaking and we went to a class. '

He describes the experience as being akin to an enlightenment. ‘It was like finding something you were searching for, even though you didn't know what it was. The freedom of movement, and the music! I so love music. '

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Also in the November issue:

Jonathan Gray on the return of Coppélia to Covent Garden

Fátima Nollén concludes her look into dance in Cuba

The Bolshoi Ballet's Jacopo Tissi is Dancer of the Month

Northern Ballet's Pippa Moore talks to Gavin McCaig about her new career

Nicola Rayner interviews new Strictly Come Dancing professional Nancy Xu

Marianka Swain attends Mamma Mia! The Party

David Mead visits Déda, Derby's centre for dance and circus arts

Paul Arrowsmith meets the Royal Danish Ballet's Gregory Dean

James Whitehead on swing and sway in the waltz

Sarah Woodcock reviews a new book on Murray's Cabaret Club

Alison Gallagher-Hughes finds out about the dance contents at Blackpool's new museum

Simon Selmon hears from swing dance teacher Margaret Batiuchok

Laura Cappelle on new productions at the Paris Opéra

Igor Stupnikov watches Diana Vishneva in Sleeping Beauty Dreams

Jack Anderson sees new works by New York City Ballet

Graham Spicer reviews the Ballet of La Scala, Milan

Debbie Malina looks at bone health for dancers

Buy your print copy here or buy your digital copy from all good app stores

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.