[Review & Photos] La Scala Ballet School performs Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante and Pistoni’s La Strada
There are kids who spend their spare time alone in their bedrooms scrolling through Instagram feeds or gaming, and there are those who take part in end of term dance shows after training regularly throughout the year. These young dancers choose to spend much of their time attending ballet classes and rehearsals. They must arrive on time for class or for a stage entrance, pay attention to their presentation, be attentive of others around them, communicate verbally with teachers and fellow students, and communicate without words with other dancers when on stage. Of course, there are smaller schools and there are larger academies, such as the ballet school at La Scala, but the rules are the same. What unbridled joy, then, to see 150 disciplined young people rush on stage at La Scala at the end of the Études-like presentation of each year group, dazzling in white with athletic posture and proud smiles.
Presentazione on Carl Czerny’s Etudes with choreography by Frédéric Olivieri – the school’s director – is always on the bill for the school’s shows, and is a delightful way to show off what even the youngest students can do, but the programme is really about those who are graduating and will receive their diplomas and leave for companies around the world in the next few weeks.
Winter, a pas de deux by Demis Volpi created in 2016 to celebrate Reid Anderson’s 20th anniversary as artistic director of the Stuttgart Ballet, uses all three movements of Winter from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons – a good ten minutes for Chiara Ferraioli and Bruno Garibaldi (from the 8th, and final, course) to hold the stage. Rigid, staccato movements give way to softly sculpted dancing in ‘snowy landscapes’ before the dancers melt like snowflakes in the spring, says Volpi. The two danced as consummate professionals – intense and mesmerizing.
William Forsythe‘s New Sleep (Duet) from 1987 for the San Francisco Ballet, was created in the same year as In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated for the Paris Opera Ballet, and with music by the same composer, Thom Willems. New Sleep uses a similar off-balance/hyperextension language as In the Middle, but although Benedetta Giuliano (7th course) and Alfonso Guerriero (8th course) were physically capable, maybe the black costumes on a black background dimmed the power of the piece.
And back further to 1956 for the concluding piece of the first part, George Balanchine‘s Allegro Brillante, which the choreographer said, “contains everything I know about the classical ballet in 13 minutes”. The Balanchine Trust’s Patricia Neary – a regular collaborator with the school and company – had expertly marshalled her four couples and the main pair (Sienna Bingham, from the 7th course, and again Bruno Garibaldi) and Takahiro Yoshikawa played the piano for Tchaikovsky’s unfinished Concerto No. 3 for piano and orchestra. The orchestra was that of the La Scala Academy (the costume makers, hair and makeup artists, and those taking production photos and making video recordings, were too from the Academy) and they played with great verve throughout.
Bingham has a bright personality and she coped well with the fast changes of direction and quick footwork, and she was soft and expressive in the lyrical sections. She also had the City Ballet flicks of her skirt fully mastered! Garibaldi is very secure technically and performed with great flair – this is a young man who’s going places.
The evening concluded with a condensed version of Mario Pistoni’s ballet La Strada set to music by Nino Rota written for Federico Fellini‘s film. Carla Fracci was the first to dance Gelsomina, the wide-eyed naïf created by Giulietta Masina, when the ballet premiered at La Scala in 1966. The work is a gem, beautifully judged, and provokes a tear without being mawkish, together with comic interventions like in any great tragedy. However, it is a tragedy where there is rape, abuse from a group of soldiers, a prostitute, and domestic violence. There are clowns and a wedding and dancing to a 1950s jukebox too, but surely a strange choice for teenagers to perform. Thankfully, the ‘suite’ version removes the moment when the brutish strongman Zampanò forces himself on Gelsomina, and it finishes before Zampanò kills Gelsomina’s tender-hearted friend ‘Il Matto’ (The Fool played exhilaratingly by Davide Alphandery), and before he abandons Gelsomina, leaving her to die. Even so, having recently retired principal Mick Zeni (who recently played Zampanò in London with Alina Cojocaru, though with different choreography) walking across the stage with a prostitute played by a student was weird. Let’s think about the clowns…
There are two fun scenes – the circus and the wedding party. The brass in the orchestra whips up a jazzy atmosphere, and there is some delightful choreography with Daisy Libero of the 7th and Sergio Napodano of the 8th course playing the newlyweds in a number with a slow crescendo like a group scene from West Side Story. Outside the circus tent, there are three girls in large sweaters with sleeves that touch the floor who perform a fun ditzy number; strongmen, multicoloured clowns, and trapeze artists all get their moment to shine; and three long-legged female pierrots create an introspective moment, with slow-moving contortionist-like movements that enthral Gelsomina, and she is drawn into their dreamlike world. And here the suite finishes, before the brutality and tragedy of the full-length ballet.
The engaging Laura Farina, a student from the 7th course, was spot-on as Gelsomina, walking tomboyishly and shrugging her shoulders, having left her first position feet and classical head placement securely locked away in her dressing room. Then, rising up on pointe, she became a ballerina, executing the many challenging steps in a role which kept her onstage almost throughout. She was especially moving in a forlorn solo and suitably Chaplinesque in her clown’s garb. A remarkable performance.
Presentazione
Winter
New Sleep (Duet)
Allegro brillante
La strada
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
