Les Étoiles Pour Homme, an all-male gala, concludes the Ravenna Festival
With a title that sounds like a men’s perfume – Les Étoiles Pour Homme – producer Daniele Cipriani throws down a gauntlet to George Balanchine who claimed that “Ballet is woman”.
The gala to close the Ravenna Festival on 13 July will be an all-male affair, an “intoxicating bouquet” of male pheromones. From top notes to base notes, the programme aims to include contrasting fragrances and satisfy the most discerning of noses… Well, that’s enough of that!
The programme will present works by Maurice Béjart, Martha Graham, Jerome Robbins, Christopher Wheeldon and Marco Goecke, and will include several premieres – works performed for the first time in Italy or Europe, some specially commissioned.
The band of men is made up of Sergio Bernal (Sergio Bernal Dance Company), Davide Dato (Vienna State Opera), Lloyd Knight (Martha Graham Dance Company), Matteo Miccini and David Moore (Ballet of Stuttgart), Sasha Riva and Simone Repele (Riva&Repele), as well as the ‘divine’ Tatianna Youbetyabootskaya (born Andrea Fabbri, currently the only Italian dancer with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte-Carlo). With them, the dancers of the MM Contemporary Dance Company (Lorenzo Fiorito, Mario Genovese, Nicola Stasi, Giuseppe Villarosa). Three musicians will share the stage – violinist Andrea Obiso (first violin of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia), cellist Alessio Pianelli, and guitarist Daniel Jurado.
Lloyd Knight dances Lamentation, created by Martha Graham for herself to dance in 1930. Knight is the first man to interpret this piece. He also performs Complete the Revolution, a work that Christopher Wheeldon created for him, which is danced to John Lewis’ famous speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom for African American rights in 1963. It will be the first time that the piece is presented in a theatre space.
Matteo Miccini and David Moore will dance Béjart’s Chant du compagnon errant, a work created for Rudolf Nureyev and Paolo Bortoluzzi, and Riva&Repele will perform two of their own pieces – the European premiere of Life is Beautiful, as well as the world premiere of their ‘White Swan’ pas de deux. The two come to Ravenna straight from the Caracalla Baths in Rome where they choreographed the dances for West Side Story.
Davide Dato will dance Suite of Dances by West Side Story‘s original choreographer, Jerome Robbins, to four movements from Bach’s Cello Suites, played by Alessio Pianelli. This ballet was tailor-made for Mikhail Baryshnikov, and it shows, with every possible dance movement crammed in to show off Baryshnikov’s, now Dato’s, abilities.
Sergio Bernal, a unique case of a flamenco ‘bailaor’ and classical ‘bailarín’, brings the primordial vigour of Iberian dance for the world premiere of Farruca a dos, accompanied by Daniel Jurado on guitar. He will also dance Rodin, a solo inspired by the sculptor’s The Thinker.
Armoniosa Unità is a new version, commissioned for Les Étoiles pour homme, of a choreography by Michele Merola and Enrico Morelli for the four performers from MM Contemporary Dance Company, accompanied by Bach’s Chaconne, performed live by Andrea Obiso playing a Guarneri del Gesù.
The flight of birds, a symbol of freedom, is alluded to in the Italian premiere of Kiss a Crow, by Marco Goecke. Here the bird is a crow, danced by Matteo Miccini. However, it is a swan, albeit a rapidly moulting one, that ‘Youbetyabootskaya’ dances in the Trocks’ parody of Mikhail Fokine’s The Dying Swan.
The gala closes with these lighter, witty pieces for a reason. “Witty” comes from the Old English noun “wittig”, which also referred to mental capacity, understanding, and knowledge. In Middle English, “all-witty” came to mean “omniscient”. Cipriani, the deviser of the programme, explains:
The invitation is to find the connection between the two complementary aspects of the human experience, to find a balance between lightness and depth. Humour can lighten the burden of life to allow the human spirit to take flight towards those heights to which we all, men and women, aspire.
Daniele Cipriani Entertainment – Les Étoiles Pour Homme – Ravenna Festival, 13 luglio 2025
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 Italian ballerina 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.
