Countless great italian dancers exist, Roberto Bolle and Carla Fracci are not the only ones. Lets go through the list of potential candidates that could fill Roberto's shoes.
Roberto Bolle's passion for dancing began at the very young age of 12 years old. Less than a decade later he became Principal Dancer and began playing very important roles in productions such as Don Chisciotte, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. He then got the opportunity to perform in some of the most prestigious places such as the Bolshoi Theatre, Buckingham Palace and the pyramids of Giza. During the peak of his career he became the first dancer in the world to occupy both the role of Etoile at the Scala di Milano and Principal Dancer for the American Ballet Theatre in New York. Needless to say that such a meaningful career has inspired a whole generation of young Italian dancers, but who exactly are they?
Claudio Coviello
Roberto Bolle himself defined him as “the most evident talent I have ever seen, a pure gem that has to be harnessed”, we can expect great things from this dancer. He graduated from Teatro dell' Opera di Roma's dancing school, danced with Carla Fracci in 2003 and with Roberto Bolle the very next year. 2012 and 2013 were also important years for his career as he became a soloist for Teatro della Scala di Milano and subsequently received a promotion to Principal Dancer thanks to a great performance of Giselle.
Virna Toppi
She began dancing at only 8 years old in her home town of Milan, where she graduated from the Scala di Milano's Dancing Academy in 2011. After spending a short year abroad, in Dresden, Germany, where she worked for the Semperoper Ballet, she decided to return to the Scala di Milano. After two years she received a promotion to soloist and two years after that she moved up the ranks to Principal Dancer. Only recently has she decided to leave Italy once more, this time for the Bayerisches Staatsballet in Monaco, one of the leading dance companies in all of Europe.
Jacopo Tissi
Born in 1995 in Landriano, province of Pavia, in 2014 he graduated from the Scala di Milano's Dancing Academy and in 2017 he became the first Italian dancer to join the Bolshoi Theatre Ballet Company, a very prestigious company that has been known for being reluctant when it comes to hiring dancers from abroad. In his first performance at the Bolshoi he danced with Evgenia Obraztsova in Les Spectre de la Rose. Regardless of any prejudice towards foreign dancers he was acclaimed by the Russian audience, his fame grew on the international stage and given his young age we can only have great expectations for his career.
Petra Conti
She also began her career at a very young age, so much so that by the time she was 16 she had already lived her dream of dancing with Roberto Bolle. The following year she played the role of the protagonist in Cenerentola at the Arena di Verona, in 2009 she joined the Scala di Milano where it only took her two years to get promoted to Principal Dancer. She has performed with different companies in the international landscape like the Boston Ballet or the Los Angeles Ballet, she also performed Giselle 13 times in Canada, where she was critically acclaimed for her performance and her technical abilities.
Following Roberto Bolle's footsteps this new generation of Italian dancers has begun excelling in the world of ballet at a very young age, but their careers are still long and promising, it will surely be interesting to see which of these dancers will elevate their name to worldwide fame and if any of them will be able to leave a mark in the history of ballet.
CUBAN DANCER is a film by Roberto Salinas with choreographies by Laura Domingo Aguero and music by di Beta Pictoris
Produced by Indyca, Film Option International, Valdivia Film. International Sales:
Deckert Distribution GmbH | Film Option International. Italian Distributor: Istituto Luce Cinecittà
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