For 12 years, Carla Fracci was the testimonial for The Italian Foundation for Research in Rheumatology (Fondazione Italiana per la Ricerca sull’Artrite, FIRA), supporting many of its activities. Fracci was fascinated by the research, not being able to imagine her life without a perfectly functioning body.
After Fracci died in 2021, Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko – étoile and principal dancer at La Scala – took her place supporting FIRA.
This year saw the first edition of the FIRA Gala for Research into Rheumatological Diseases: “Women in Motion”. It was held in the suggestive surroundings of the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan with 200 paying guests.
Manni and Andrijashenko danced pas de deux from Le Corsaire and Giselle in the Hall of Columns, formerly housing the antique library of the Olivetan monastery on the site. Having the audience at touching distance is one of the most difficult challenges for dancers used to working on a stage with an orchestra pit separating them from the audience, but they carried it off magnificently. The cultural events of the charity are organised by dance writer Aurora Marsotto, a lay councillor on the FIRA Board of Directors.
Guests were able to roam the Leonardo galleries and the newly-opened “In Scena” exhibition which has a large section of La Scala’s now replaced 1938 stage – a hydraulic mechanism that allowed for the sections of the performing area to rise above stage level and move down below it, making new stage effects and scene changes possible. The parts of the theatre behind the proscenium even survived the devasting bombing that destroyed much of the theatre towards the end of World War II, and the stage was in use for sixty years. The exhibition also features opera costumes and musical instruments.
A charity auction, which concluded online the day after the live event, presented works by more than 30 contemporary artists, together with signed dance shoes by Manni and Andrijashenko and a bronze medallion designed by Sergio Benvenuti featuring Carla Fracci from the 1990s. On the reverse are words by the great Italian poet Eugenio Montale, who was an admirer of Fracci and dedicated a poem to her: “Eterna Fanciulla danzante” (Eternal Dancing Maiden).
The goal of the event was achieved with the proceeds going to finance the First ‘Carla Fracci’ Research Grant, to support the projects of young Italian researchers engaged in the study of rheumatological diseases that mainly affect women.
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.