Event included in the AFAM GT
On Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, the stage of the Teatro Comunale del Giglio in Lucca welcomes the Scuola di Ballo dell'Accademia Teatro alla Scala, directed by Frédéric Olivieri, for a performance that engages the young talents in a series of choreographies of considerable technical and interpretive difficulty: a suite from Mario Pistoni's La strada, Demis Volpi's Winter, William Forsythe's New Sleep (Duet), which will enter the School's repertoire in 2024, and an excerpt from Mauro Bigonzetti's Rossini Cards, entrusted for the first time to Scala students.
The performance is part of the GRAND TOUR AFAM project, a project financed by the MUR with PNRR funds, with the aim of enhancing the AFAM network and promoting awareness of Italy's cultural, artistic, musical and choreographic heritage by increasing its international attractiveness.
The program opens with a suite from Mario Pistoni's ballet La strada, with music by Nino Rota, premiered by the Ballet School at the Piccolo Teatro and La Scala in 2024. The ballet has experienced significant fortune and has seen such admirable artists as Oriella Dorella and Alessandra Ferri succeed each other in the role of Gelsomina. Guido Pistoni, nephew of the Roman Maestro, who oversaw the revival of the ballet on several occasions after his uncle's death, supervised the Academy students in the preparation.
Then a newly created piece, Winter, a pas de deux by Demis Volpi conceived in 2016 to celebrate Reid Anderson's 20th anniversary as artistic director of the Stuttgart Ballet, on the notes of Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto in F minor for Violin, Strings and continuo “Winter,” Op. 8 No. 4, RV 297. It continues with New Sleep (Duet) by William Forsythe. This is the third time the School's students will measure themselves against the great American choreographer's creations, following The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude and In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated. Kathryn Bennetts, who was called by the choreographer to Ballet Frankfurt in 1989 and was already his partner in the days when they danced for the Stuttgart Ballet, has returned to assist the students in preparing the piece.
Abstract creation, free from any dramaturgical cage, not a story but pictures of parallel lives: images, postcards, dramatic icons and funny situations. This is Rossini cards, from which the students will perform an excerpt with which the show closes, taken for the occasion by Roberto Zamorano: their energy is well suited to the selected pages, from the initial tightrope table in which the dancers, though seated, create virtuosic head and arm movements on the notes of the sextet “Questo è un nodo avviluppato” from Cinderella to the grand finale on the Overture from La gazza ladra where the Rossini crescendo finds a richly suggestive rhythmic and playful correspondence in the steps of the dancers, all dressed in jackets, pants and black berets, without distinction of gender. Rossini cards was created in 2004 for Aterballetto and has enjoyed considerable success over time, with interpretations entrusted to companies of absolute prestige.
GRAND TOUR AFAM - grandtourafam. it The GRAND Tour AFAM project, coordinated by RUFA and involving 16 partners including 14 AFAM institutions and 2 public institutions, to rival the Directorial Decree 124/2023 of the Ministry of University and Research, INTAFAM 00029, CUP I83B24000030006, intends to enhance the AFAM network and promote its internationalization through the activation of experiences, activities, communication programs, dissemination, awareness raising, teaching, research and artistic production aimed at the preservation and promotion of Italian culture and made in Italy. The intervention is aimed at promoting knowledge of cultural, artistic, musical and choreographic heritage, as well as ensuring the best conditions for its public use and enjoyment, increasing its attractiveness and international profile.
