Why no Italian ballet?

[kfw]

The reference to Alessandra Ferri in Leigh's Multinational Ballet Theatre thread makes me wonder. I just checked this board for Italian ballet companies and found not a single post. How is it that a country with such rich visual arts, and such a love of opera, has no strong ballet tradition? Any thoughts?

[Leigh Witchel]

There was an Italian ballet tradition, kfw - at least in the 19th century Enrico Cecchetti, Carlotta Brianza, Pierina Legnani; all Italian dancers who migrated to St. Petersburg and other places. There is still some ballet in Italy, but its place of leadership it once had has gone into eclipse.

Can anyone speak about more contemporary ballet history in Italy?

[vrsfanatic]

Italy does have two State funded ballet schools, L'Academia di Rome and L'Academia di la Scala, in Milan, similar to those in Russia, that provide academic and ballet training for the students. There are many private schools of varying quality that also train dancers. The Academia in Rome even has a degree granting program for teachers in the Vaganova schooling.There are numerous ballet companies throughout Italy, all which basically suppliment the Opera houses. As a matter of fact, almost every Opera house has a ballet company. The major ones are found in Milan, Rome, Naples, Florence, Verona and Messina. The region of Reggio-Emiglia has a well-funded company, Aterballetto, that is quite contemporary, and interesting. In Florence, Balletto di Toscana that has a few performances a year, also more contemporary work. I am not sure if it is fully functioning as a separate company that employs the dancers full-time as of yet, as Aterballetto does. Many of the dancers from Teatro Comunale di Firenze (aka as Maggio Musicale) had been supplementing the ranks. Teatro Comunale also does have a separate seasons from the opera where various more contemporary ballets are staged. I believe the director of the ballet is still Poliokov (sp) but I am not sure. He had been director of the ballet before going to Paris Opera to work with Nureyev, but I believe he is back.

Italy places much value on the opera and very little emphasis on the ballet. There are Italian trained dancers working in the Royal, Dutch National, Kirov Ballet, English National, Munich, and Berlin to name a few. Italians had felt they needed to leave Italy in order to have a career in ballet. I believe it was only a few years ago that the ballet company of La Scala toured to NYC.

[Mel Johnson]

I had a friend who got a corps contract some years ago with La Scala, and she said that they were on strike so often, she had to quit in order to be able to dance.

[Farrell Fan]

The La Scala Ballet was part of the Lincoln Center Festival in 2001 and performed at the New York State Theater. The program I saw consisted of "Amarcord" and "Carmen."

I love Fellini films and "Amarcord" is just about my favorite. One of the great things about Fellini was the music of Nino Rota, but the ballet music (played live) was from other sources. The choreography, by Luciano Annito, captured one aspect of the film -- the sinister one of fascism and militarism-- but none of the romance, sensuality, and nostalgia that permeates it. Roland Petit's "Carmen" was performed by Viviana Durante and Massimo Murru. They were unmemorable. Nevertheless, I was happy to see this company of good-looking, enthusiastic dancers.