International Russian Ballet Festival

First Gala dedicated to the Russian ballet History

Never have you enjoyed such a wonderful show in which the best classical dancers coming from all over the world will be performing!

Only after sitting on your seat you will realize how amazing the show is going to be. Rarely can the audience attend a show like this!

All you need is relax and  keep your eyes well-opened!

The Gala:

Here the judges will choose who is going to receive the seventh crystal awards. The dancers will be judged on Classical extracts , Spanish flamenco, Neoclassical dance and Contemporary dance.

I do hope you'll like the competition! and you will appreciate the high competence of our judges.

Who is going to win the competition, we don't know; but having a little suspense it's just right.

Let's say something about the Russian ballet, particularly referring to the 20th Century:

As the new century began, people started to look for fresh ideas. By now the Russian ballet had surpassed the French ballet and many Russian dancers had become international stars. Actually the most notable "ballerina" of that time was Anna Pavlova, (1881-1931), who is known for dancing The Dying Swan. 

The Ballets Russes was a ballet company set up in 1909 by Serge Diaghilev. The company created an excitement in Western Europe because of the great vitality of Russian ballet compared to the French one. "Ballet Russes" became one of the most influential ballet companies of the 20th century, in part because of its artistic cooperation among contemporary choreographers, artists and dancers. 

The last major production of the Ballet Russes was in Paris in 1921 with "The Sleeping Beauty", which had bring back the European audience's interest in the evening-length ballet.

Let's explore the world of Latin dance and how they were born!

SALSA ..... CUBA (Cuban Salsa)

Hispanic communities have been characterized for years by it, and nowadays Salsa remains the most popular style of dance and music.  Salsa has been originated in Eastern Cuba early in the 1900's. There, Spanish and Afro-Cuban musical elements were combined, both in terms of rhythm and the instruments used.

PUERTO RICO (Puerto Rican Salsa)

Puerto rican people had settled in the US, especially in New York; in that environment Salsa completed its development. In "El Barrio" bands were formed and immigrants continued making Afro-Caribbean music. The peack of Salsa was reached in the 50s and 60s. 

RUMBA... CUBA 

Rumba is known to be that kind of dance in which dancers emphasize the movement of their body rather than that of feet. Like many Latin dances, rumba developed gradually in Cuba. Rumba is known to have a very slow rhythm, indeed it is known to be the second slowest of the Latin dance only after Bolero.

MERENGUE....DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

   Merengue is the national dance of the Dominican Republic. This dance was developed in the early 1900’s. The dance rhythm is quick-quick-quick-quick. It is the only dance that doesn’t have a mixture of “quicks” and “slows”.

In the basic movement of Merengue, one leg is dragged slightly. A couple of legends were narrated about why this is so.  One is that during one of the revolutions in the Dominican Republic, a great hero was wounded in the leg. He came home to a celebration in his honor. When the villagers danced at the celebration, they all limped and dragged one leg as a gesture of sympathy for him.

BACHATA....DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

  The first Bachata was recorded in 1961 by José Manuel Calderón.  But  subsequntly, Bachata began to be associated with the world of prostitution, crime, and delinquency.  

In its current form, Bachata is listened throughout the Latin America, and is particularly popular in New York and Italy today.

SAMBA....BRAZIL

The roots of  Samba are African, but most of the development of this dance were done in Brazil.   Samba was originally known as a street festival.  A Broadway play, called "Street Carnival" introduced  it to the US in the late 20s, and Samba became known all around Europe, that  was really captured by it.

Let's know the most famous and important dancers in the world!

Martha Graham

Martha Graham was an American dancer and choreographer regarded as one of the pioneers of modern dance. She is widely considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. She created a modern dance technique (The Graham Technique), choreographed more than 150 works during her life, and has had a remarkable impact on the entire field of modern dance.

Graham invented a new language of movement, and used it to reveal all the feelings common to human experience. She danced and choreographed for over seventy years, and during that time was the first dancer ever to perform at The White House, the first dancer ever to travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and the first dancer ever to receive the highest civilian award, the Medal of Freedom. In her lifetime she received honors ranging from the key to the City of Paris to Japan’s Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. 

One of her quote: 

“I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It’s permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.”

Rudolf Nureyev

Rudolf Nureyev is regarded as one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century. Despite his late start, he was soon recognized as an incredibly gifted dancer. Nureyev worked hard, rehearsing for hours in order to make up for the years of training he missed. Under the tutelage of a great teacher, Alexander Pushkin, he blossomed. Pushkin not only took an interest in him professionally, but also allowed the younger dancer to live with him and his wife. Upon graduation, the Kirov and the Bolshoi both wanted to sign him. He continued with the Kirov and went on to become a soloist – extremely unusual for someone of his age and experience.

Unfortunately, Nureyev was one of the early victims of HIV, and died from AIDS in 1993. His grave was located at a Russian cemetery near Paris.

Svetlana Zakharova

She was born in Lutsk, in the Ukraine. In 1989, she entered the Kiev Choreographic School. In Kiev, she trained with Valery Sulegina. Having finished the six years at the Kiev School, she took part in a young dancers’ competition: the " Vaganova-Prix" in St. Petersburg. Her phenomenal physique (extraordinary flexibility, big step, stability, stable rotation) caught the attention of judges. She won the second prize and received an invitation to join the graduating course at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. In 1996, Svetlana graduated from the Vaganova Academy and the same year she was accepted in the theatre’s company and in the following season was promoted to principal dancer. 

She has been performing the most famous characters of the repertoire, among which: Giselle, Juliet, Medora (Le Corsaire), Princess Aurora (The Sleeping Beauty), Odette, Carmen, Hyppolita (A Midnight's Summer Dream).

Roberto Bolle

Roberto Bolle discovered his passion for dance when he was very young. He began studying in Piedmont, his region of origin, until the age of 12 when he entered the Ballet School of La Scala Theatre in Milan. When he was only twenty, Roberto gave his first performance as Romeo. The following year in July, performing the same role, he was promoted to Principal by Elisabetta Terabust which led to a huge international career. Roberto performed Sigfried for the first time with the international star Altinai Asylmuratova at the most impressive English concert hall in a huge new production by Derek Deane, which included 70 swans, acrobats and jugglers. 
For the first time the young Italian artist, just twenty-two, met some members of the Royal Family such as Princess Margaret and the beautiful and unforgettable Lady Diana. in 2002 the United Kingdom and the entire British Commonwealth celebrated Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth’s Golden Jubilee. The highlight of the celebration was held on Saturday 1st June and was a great event at the Royal Palace. 
Roberto, the only Italian artist invited, performed the Black Swan pas de deux with Zenaida Yanowsky in the fabulous setting of the throne room at Buckingham Palace.In June 2007, Roberto Bolle was the first Italian dancer to be invited to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. His performances in Manon and Romeo and Juliet were highly praised. His partner, Alessandra Ferri, was at the top of her career and performed her farewell performance at the MET. 
The 30 minutes of applause, a standing ovation and enthusiastic newspaper reviews declared the next chapter in Roberto’s international success.

Invitation to Dance

Invitation to Dance

24th Edition of the International Dance and Ballet Festival 

We are glad to present you the 24th edition of the International Dance and Ballet Festival, which will take place at the "National Ballet Academy" of Rome. Also this year, important artists and companies are going to offer to our loyal audience an astonishing show.

The Festival will occur from 7th to 31st of December

PLANNING

10/12 > The "MCCOMPANY" will be performing "D'amore e d'ombra", a contemporany dance show directed by Michele Merola

15/12 > DANCE GALA, in which will be performing companies and schools. A show created in order to get professionists and learners in touch

16/12 > The "BALLETTO DI TOSCANA" will be performing "Giselle" one of the most important whitin the classical repertoire

17-18/12 > The "AIDA GOMEZ COMPANY"  from Spain will be performing "Carmen" a mixture of elegance and strenght. They will offer you two date and people who will have already seen the show surely would like to see it again!

21/12 > TANGOS! A show dedicated to the Tango, the company will be showing you what Passion is while dancing

24/12 > The "COMPAGNIA ATERBALLETTO" directed by Michele Bigonzetti will be performing  a contemporany show full of surprises and turn of events

31/12 > The "STUTTGART BALLET" will be performing "Gala under the stars". They will be presenting some of the most important pieces of the Classical reportoire, "the SwanLake" "Flames of Paris" and "Romeo and Juliet"

 Invitation to Dance Association

The numerous aspects of  dance culture and their disclosure are the main point of the Association initiatives, also through appointments with Big Masters.

For these reasons we are organizing Workshop, Seminars and Conferences with characters you surely will have already seen in the Dance world

Masters> Carla Fracci, Pompea Santoro, Anbeta Toromani, Steve LaChance, Fabrizio Monteverde, Giuliano Peparini, Alessandra Celentano.

Hi! I am Eleonora, I come from Italy and I am a dancer. In this blog i would like to make you aware of  the hole world of dance 

Dance Origins

The observation of rituals and festivals that take place in villages now rare in Amazonia and Oceania, where some people still live in primitive conditions, confirmed what was easy to imagine : Dance is one of the oldest forms of human expression. 

It was born as a spontaneous reaction of the individual to joyful or sad events of the daily life, such as the killing of prey or the death of a member of the family. Dance, sometimes accompanied by sounds, is also one of the first event of social life, a way to establish contact and to be in tune with the other members of the group. With the succession of generations and the formation of larger communities, instinctive movements started to be encoded in repeatable sequences. From the easiest forms of dance , such as turning in circles, cluster and dissolve, jump in time to the rhythm of the drums , it moved to increasingly complex forms. 

While dances of primitives men are mostly related on magic and rituals, so they get in contact with the mysterious forces that dominate nature, dance of Ancient Greek are often the means to express heroic and mythological episodes. 

Even in Roman times there were dance performances mainly pantomimes.  During the Middle Ages - in spite of the hostility of the Roman Church against all forms of presentation of the body - dance and pantomime are often inserted into shows that take place on the streets . Around the 13th century, dances of death widespreaded, they were representations in which a character representing death leads a human ring with priests, nobles and poors.