ITsART is a new virtual platform dedicated to the digital dissemination of artistic and cultural content from or about Italy. Free content includes journeys through museums, libraries, archaeological sites, as well as, of course, the theatres and concert halls.
ITsART is supported by the Italian Culture Ministry and was launched at the beginning of June. It offers 250 theatre titles with concerts by the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Antonio Pappano; operas, concert and dance from La Scala, Teatro Regio in Turin, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and many more. There is a lot of free content, or with publicity, as well as paid content. It is available in Italy and the UK at this time (though for those nimble with a VPN it should be accessible elsewhere) and needs no subscription.
Daniele Cipriani Entertainment, which organises dance events (ballet and contemporary dance performances, galas and related activities) all around Italy, is on the new platform with The Best of Les Étoiles, the starry annual series of gala evenings organised in Rome every year, and also for festivals and theatre seasons. They always feature some of the most exciting names in world dance and ‘the best of' features Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov in The Sleeping Beauty (pas de deux, Act III) and Le Corsaire (pas de deux, Act II); the Russian ballerina Tatiana Melnik (Hungarian National Ballet) and Kazakh Bakhtiyar Adamzhan (Astana Opera House) in the Diana and Actaeon pas de deux; the exciting new Russian dancer Alena Kovaleva (Bolshoi Theatre) with the Bolshoi's Italian star, Jacopo Tissi, in a pas de deux from Raymonda; the Russians Liudmila Konovalova (Vienna State Opera Ballet) and Vladimir Shklyarov (Mariinsky Theatre) in the Swan Lake ‘black swan' pas de deux from Act III); the Ukrainian ballerina Iana Salenko (Ballet of the Berlin Opera) and the Korean Kimin Kim (Mariinsky Theatre) in La Bayadère (pas de deux, Act III); the Cubans Yanela Piñera (Queensland Ballet, Australia) and Luis Valle (Ballet Nice Méditerranée) in Don Quixote (pas de deux, Act III).
Also, after a short video directed by Maxim Derevianko about the Italian fashion maestro Roberto Capucci, who designed two costumes for Les Étoiles, there is Sergio Bernal from Spain (formerly with the Spanish National Ballet) in a scorching Iberian piece, Zapateado, and the Korean Young Gyu Choi (Dutch National Ballet) as The Golden Idol, both wearing Capucci's costumes.
[Les Étoiles was suspended due to pandemic this season but will return on 30 and 31 January 2022 at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome.]
I've suffered since childhood — my Mum wanted me to do it.
Why did you start dancing?
Because I was forced to… I didn't want to! […]
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.
