Rocchetta Grand Jeté 2025 – Royal Ballet dancers in the Monferrato wine district
The village of Rocchetta Tanaro lies in the heart of the Monferrato wine district in Piedmont, one of Italy’s most important wine-producing areas. Here, ten Royal Ballet dancers descended for the Rocchetta Grand Jeté gala hosted by the Marchesi Incisa della Rocchetta Winery. The Marchesi Incisa della Rocchetta is a historic Piedmontese family that has lived in Monferrato for more than a thousand years, and since 1400 in the village of Rocchetta Tanaro, with a winery, castle, as well as several of the surrounding hills where the grapes are grown.
Francesca Massone Incisa della Rocchetta has an association with The Royal Ballet house that goes back many years, and during Covid the winery produced a limited-edition series of wines to help the Opera House’s recovery fund. Two years ago, with the help of First Soloist Meaghan Grace Hinkis, the first Rocchetta Grand Jeté gala came about. The programming for the second edition was devised by Soloist Giacomo Rovero who decided on no DonQs or Swan Lakes, but pieces by Ashton, McGregor, MacMillan and Wheeldon… a true Royal Ballet affair. There was also a pas de deux from Coppélia, the Grand Pas Classique, and other crowd pleasers.
Rocchetta Grand Jeté puts the emphasis on good dance, but also on everyone having a good time. There is local cuisine from the winery’s restaurant with excellent wines originating from the hills around the winery and maturing in the stainless-steel vats and oak barrels near the stage area. Grignolino was a favourite, slightly chilled. The grape is native to the Monferrato hills, its name deriving from the word grignole, which, in the local dialect, means “many pips”.
The audience came from the local area but also from the US, Switzerland, Austria and the UK. Those who paid a little more for their ticket had a gala dinner beforehand. There were elegant dresses, but also a man in shorts who hadn’t read the dress code. Ballet enthusiasts, children from a local dance school, mayors and schoolteachers, all mingled in the courtyard and under the trees, often holding a glass of wine and, as the sun dipped, swatting away the mosquitoes attracted by the lights.
I was there to take photos, so this is not a review, but an album recording an evening of dance from Principal Dancer Steven McRae, First Soloists Meaghan Grace Hinkis and Sae Maeda, and some of The Royal Ballet’s exciting young talents – Denilson Almeida, Martin Diaz, Olivia Findlay, Daichi Ikaraschi, Caspar Lench, Aiden O’Brien, Julia Roscoe, and Charlotte Tonkinson. There were also violin solos from the Concert Master of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Sergey Levitin.
ROCCHETTA GRAND JETÉ 2005
The Gala
Introductions and Overture: Milstein Paganiniana
Violin: Sergey Levitin
Rhapsody
Daichi Ikaraschi and Sae Maeda
Music: Sergei Rachmaninoff
Choreography: Frederick Ashton
Infra
Charlotte Tonkinson and Martin Diaz
Music: Max Richter
Choreography: Wayne McGregor
Requiem
Meaghan Grace Hinkis
Music: Gabriel Fauré
Choreography: Kenneth MacMillan
Sleeping Beauty Act III – Pas de Deux
Julia Roscoe and Aiden O’Brien
Music: Tchaikovsky
Choreography: Marius Petipa
Takademe
Caspar Lench
Music: Sheila Chandra
Choreography: Robert Battle
Grand Pas Classique – Pas de Deux
Martin Diaz and Olivia Findlay
Music: Daniel Auber
Choreography: Victor Gsovsky
Overture: Bach Allegro
Violin: Sergey Levitin
Le Corsaire – Pas de Deux
Meaghan Grace Hinkis and Denilson Almeida
Music: Adolphe Adam
Choreography: Marius Petipa
Within the Golden Hour
Charlotte Tonkinson and Aiden O’Brien
Music: Ezio Bosso, Antonio Vivaldi
Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon
Elite Syncopations – Calliope Rag, The Alaskan Rag
Olivia Findlay, Julia Roscoe e Caspar Lench
Music: Scott Joplin
Choreography: Kenneth MacMillan
Coppelia – Pas de Deux
Daichi Ikaraschi e Sae Maeda
Music: Léo Delibes
Choreography: Arthur Saint Lèon
Czardas
Steven McRae
Music: Vittorio Monti, arranged by Vasko Vassiliev
Choreography: Steven McRae
Rocchetta Grand Jeté
Class
Rehearsals
Backstage
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.
Thank you, Graham, for this wonderful article! I love everything about the Royal Ballet and was delighted to see this feature about some of the younger dancers. Such great photography!
Thank you so much – it was a delightful occasion!
Great photos of some great young dancers. Thanks gramilano.