Picone

[Snow Flake]

Hi!

I was a great fan of Giuseppe Picone until he left ABT. I knew he went to the Royal ballet, but I didn´t find any information about him after that. Is he still in the RB? Is he soloist? Principal dancer? What is he dancing now?

[sylvia]

It's a bit of a mystery to me what has happened to Piccone. He did one Swan Lake at RB in July 2001 and then his name disappeared from the dancers list. It turned out that he accepted a position as first soloist, but then asked for a principal contract, hence his departure. I don't know where he is now.

[Kevin Ng]

Giuseppe Picone is now based in Italy, and does frequent guesting in Vienna, Moscow (with the Bolshoi), and Japan.

[miliosr]

Giuseppe Picone is the new head of the Naples ballet company:

http://www.gramilano.com/2016/07/giuseppe-picone-is-appointed-head-of-the-naples-ballet-company/

Picone confirms it on his Instagram as well.

[Drew]

Nice to learn about this...I STILL regret his departure from ABT!

[miliosr]

Nice to learn about this...I STILL regret his departure from ABT!

It's tempting to play "What If?" games and speculate what might have happened if things hadn't ended badly between ABT and him. Would ABT have brought in Roberto Bolle in the second half of the 00s if they already had one Italian primo ballerino on the roster? Would keeping Picone have lessened the need for all the male guest stars in the early part of this decade? (The theory being that Picone still in his prime would have covered some of the gap left by the retirements of Carreno, Corella and Steifel and the departure of Matthews.) We'll never know now. The history happened the way it happened.

The announcement of his appointment doesn't mention whether Picone will continue dancing or not. He's 40 but, like Bolle, he still seems to be in top condition. And I don't how many weeks a year the Naples Ballet actually works. Picone may have time to direct the company and continue to perform.