A passo di Carla: La Scala Academy students pay tribute to Carla Fracci
In the autumn of 1946, a very young Carla Fracci left her family home in Milan’s Calvairate district to cross the threshold of the Teatro alla Scala Ballet School – today the flagship of the Dance Department of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala (La Scala Academy) – beginning an extraordinary career that would go on to mark the history of dance worldwide.
Eighty years on from that pivotal moment, students of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala are paying tribute to the great étoile with “A passo di Carla. Gli studenti dell’Accademia Teatro alla Scala per Carla Fracci” (literally “In Carla’s step”, a play on following in her footsteps), and it runs from 22 to 27 September 2026 in the foyer and corridors of the Teatro della Quattordicesima in Milan.
Timed to coincide with the Teatro della Quattordicesima’s Dance Week 2026, the exhibition was devised by second-year students in the Multimedia for the Performing Arts and Stage Design Techniques degree courses, with contributions from the Costume for Performance course, under the guidance of teachers Laura Ferrari, Alessandra Galletta and Francesca Pedroni.
Weaving together photography, three-dimensional installations, video and interactive digital content, the exhibition resists treating Fracci as a distant icon, instead drawing her back into the neighbourhood where she grew up – recreated with institutional rigour and genuine sensitivity. In the process, the students engaged directly with her artistic legacy, reworking it through the different expressive languages of their own courses of study.
The project draws on material from a wide range of archives and publishers, including the Teatro alla Scala photographic archive, as well as the archives at Cinecittà in Rome, Giorgio Armani, Vogue Italia, the New York Public Library, and others.
The exhibition in five chapters
The display is arranged in five thematic sections that visitors can explore freely:
- Le due vite di Carla (Carla’s two lives) – Two screens in the foyer run parallel loops of photographs: on one side, the public face of the international étoile on stages around the world; on the other, her private, intimate, everyday side.
- Un souvenir di Carla (A souvenir of Carla) – Eight historic images from the Teatro alla Scala photographic archive, paired with quotes and testimonials, given to visitors as postcards to take away.
- Carla Everywhere – Life-size cutouts placed throughout the foyer and bar areas evoke the dancer’s everyday life, in keeping with the Teatro della Quattordicesima’s underground spirit.
- Carla alla Quattordicesima – An unconventional three-dimensional installation at the entrance, built around a celebrated photograph from Le Spectre de la rose, choreographed by Mario Pistoni, in which Fracci danced her passo d’addio in 1955 – the traditional performance marking a Ballet School student’s move from training into a professional career. Students have added a reproduction of the costume highlighting the role of the stage costume itself.
- Con Carla nella sua foto (With Carla in her photo) – Five images carrying QR codes that visitors can scan for audio and video material on her great roles, historic statements, celebrated pas de deux, and her enduring bond with the Ballet School.
Visiting hours
Tuesday 22 to Saturday 26 September, 10am–8pm; Sunday 27 September, 10am–7pm
Where
Teatro della Quattordicesima, Milan
