There are many, many Italian dancers scattered around companies throughout the world. Some are in the corps de ballet, others are principal dancers, but all continue the tradition that made Italian dancers some of the most famous of all. Even leaving the men aside, we have Pierina Legnani (noted as 'maybe' being the first to perform 32 fouetté turns) who was a prima ballerina … [Read more...] about Dance in Italy – Spoleto Festival’s Dance Gala with Abbagnato, Vogel, Frola, Dato and many more on 30 June
Marie Taglioni
Photo Album and full casting – Bolshoi dancers in Milan
After an 11-year absence, the Bolshoi Ballet returns to Milan. In 2007, the company came with La Fille du Pharaon and The Bright Stream. From 7 to 13 September they will be at La Scala with La Bayadère in the Grigorovich production, and Jean-Christophe Maillot’s The Taming of the Shrew. Svetlana Zakharova and Denis Rodkin, Olga Smirnova and Semyon Chudin, and Alyona Kovalyova … [Read more...] about Photo Album and full casting – Bolshoi dancers in Milan
Beppe Menegatti answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Directors’ Edition
Q&A When did you first go to the theatre? To see Rigoletto at the Teatro Comunale in Florence on 10 October 1939 for my tenth birthday, with Gino Bechi, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Lina Aimaro and the young Giulietta Simionato as Madelena. Why did you want to work in the theatre? In Florence we give out presents for the Epiphany. When I was six there was a wonderful … [Read more...] about Beppe Menegatti answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Directors’ Edition
The dance drain: who will save ballet in Italy?
Italians are great dancers, but they don't get much opportunity to demonstrate that in their homeland. The history of ballet is adorned with Italian talent: Giuseppina Bozzacchi was the first Swanhilda in Coppélia; three dazzling stars, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Marie Taglioni (also the first Sylphide) were celebrated by Perrot in his Pas de Quattre; Pierina … [Read more...] about The dance drain: who will save ballet in Italy?
Carla Fracci with Schaufuss, Vasiliev, Cragun, Jude and others on YouTube
In 1987 a two-part television programme called The Ballerinas featured Carla Fracci, with some of the top male dancers of the period, in a series of reconstructions putting various ballets and their interpretors in an historical context. Fracci was an amazingly youthful 51 when she danced these extracts. Dance Magazine critic John Gruen wrote: The nineteenth … [Read more...] about Carla Fracci with Schaufuss, Vasiliev, Cragun, Jude and others on YouTube
The Times celebrates Milan’s Raymonda… but why?
Milan's newspaper, the most influential Italian paper, Il Corriere della Sera, almost ignored La Raymonda at La Scala last week, with Valeria Crippa's short article dismissing it quickly. Here the past is preserved in mothballs, the brilliant Marius Petipa's choreographic style appears decrepit, and dull scenery frames an ageing corps, despite the freshness of the students of … [Read more...] about The Times celebrates Milan’s Raymonda… but why?