Report of an
interview of Roberto Bolle by David Bain
Swedenborg Hall, London
21 November 2005
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David Bain welcomed Roberto Bolle as the
Ballet Association’s second guest
speaker in November. He thanked Roberto
for agreeing to talk in the middle of
his busy schedule, between performances
of Sylvia and Manon.
Roberto Bolle was born in the north of
Italy. At six, he used to watch ballet
on television and would start dancing
in front of the set. He asked his mother
if he could learn ballet but at the beginning
she didn’t agree as it was a little
bit difficult to organise because his
twin brother had swimming lessons. He
also had a sister and another brother
for her to think about too.
Three years later he asked again. He went
to classes in Piedmont for three to four
years for two hours twice a week. Then
his mother decided to let him try the
audition for La Scala. He didn’t
want to go at first as it meant leaving
his family. But he did the audition and
passed. He believes that it was important
to join La Scala, which is the best ballet
school in Italy, where he could train
every day with good teachers. La Scala
was a big change. He wasn’t happy
having to go on his own at only 11 to
study away from his family. The first
three or four years after he joined the
school were very difficult, probably the
most difficult in his life. He felt very
lonely, homesick and wanted to go home.
Now Roberto sees it was the right decision
to stay there as working on the body when
young was very important for his career,
as it provided a sound base on which to
build. Also at La Scala was Massimo Murru
but he is four years older. Of his contemporaries,
two others are now principals at La Scala
but they do not guest so are not known
here. Strangely, another Principal at
The Royal, Federico Bonelli, comes from
the same small town in Piedmont as Roberto.
They met only once at La Scala but since
they have met again in London and become
friends. (Federico came to the Ballet
Association meeting to act as interpreter,
if needed. He was only referred to once
during the evening as Roberto’s
English is excellent).
When he was 15, Roberto met Nureyev. He
was at La Scala producing Nutcracker.
Nureyev offered him the opportunity to
go to Venice and a role (Tadzio) in Death
in Venice which he was directing. It was
very emotional for Roberto as he hadn’t
expected this offer - something incredible.
In the end he didn’t actually do
it, as he was too young and there was
a problem with the school. “But
just to have that chance was wonderful,
because I realised that ballet could be
my career, it could be my life.”
As well as finishing ballet school, Roberto
had to qualify at normal academic school
too. This made the last two years very
intense and difficult. The day started
at 8.30 a.m. with pas de deux classes
or rehearsing for school performances,
Spanish, modern or character classes.
Then from 6.30 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. there
were academic studies at normal school.
Roberto can’t imagine doing it now!
At 19, he joined the Company. Elizabetta
Terrabust believed in pushing young dancers
and in two years, at 21, Roberto became
Principal dancer. He immediately started
to guest. He feels Elizabetta was clever
to let him go and get experience. His
first guest appearance was with the National
Ballet of Canada, in Nureyev’s production
of Sleeping Beauty and then with English
National Ballet in Swan Lake at the Royal
Albert Hall.
Before that, he had not enjoyed being
in the corps. But he was also understudying
soloists, practising principal roles -
for two years he did everything. This
made life pretty demanding. Because the
main cultural tradition in Italy is opera,
its demands dominate La Scala. Now it
is slightly better than before but the
planning of the season is opera first,
then concerts. So for the ballet everything
- including rehearsals - has to be squeezed
into days between opera and concerts.
During this time he danced Balanchine
(Rubies), La Strada, a ballet of the Federico
Fellini movie, in which he was an old
man – he was obliged to do this
although he didn’t want to! In the
end his first big role was Romeo in MacMillan’s
production. It went well and he was promoted
to Principal after it – which was
quite fast. Right at the beginning, though,
after a few months, Elizabetta had given
Roberto the principal role in Etudes.
He had been injured and although he tried
hard the injury was a small fracture and
he couldn’t go on. Elizabetta took
it a little personally - as happens when
you have trusted someone. After that it
was back to the corps!
Roberto has to thank Elizabetta for his
first opportunity to guest with the English
National Ballet. She took him out of a
Scala production as she saw it was important
for his career to dance in London first,
in such a huge production at the Albert
Hall. It was the first time after many
years that there had been a ballet at
the Albert Hall. In the end Roberto did
the opening night, as another dancer had
problems. He was really scared. It was
his first Swan Lake and his ballerina
was Altynai Asylmuratova. The stage was
very different with the audience all around.
“With such a great ballerina - I
was terrified.” Every day he pushed
himself very hard. He was not sure if
he could do such an important event but
in the end he did and it went well. This
gave him other opportunities. The critics
were fine - and he met Princess Diana.
It was the last ballet she saw, as it
was in June 1997 and she died two months
later. He found it very nice to meet her.
She was patron of ENB and liked ballet
a lot.
How did ENB dancers react to young Italian
coming in and dancing opening night with
such a famous ballerina? Roberto thought
it was okay, although it was not easy
for everyone, and not everyone agreed.
He didn't speak English then, as he had
learned French at school being the language
important for ballet dancers. It was very
difficult. He didn’t speak Russian
either so he felt isolated. Derek spoke
a little Italian so it was alright when
he was working with him.
Roberto was invited back again the following
year, to dance in Romeo and Juliet with
Tamara Rojo. They had very good publicity
with a photoshoot in Verona which made
front page of The Times on Valentine’s
Day. Romeo and Juliet also went well,
so he was invited to do Nutcracker with
Susan Jaffe. Again he did the opening
night as the principal scheduled was injured.
He has done quite a lot with the ENB,
probably because Derek Deane knew him
and in particular because Elizabetta Terrabust
knew Derek Deane so well. Derek had worked
with her in Rome before going to ENB and
since leaving ENB has worked with her
at San Carlos in Naples.
After that, Roberto guested in Japan at
the festival in 1997, in Berlin doing
Sleeping Beauty, in Naples, Florence,
etc. From very early on he was doing a
lot of guesting. At 23, he resigned from
the company at La Scala to work freelance
as a guest artist. Normally a guest artist
is a member of a company and there are
not many dancers in his position.
Roberto’s agent tried to contact
Anthony Dowell from the start as the Royal
has such prestige, is such a great company.
In the end, Anthony Dowell came to watch
when Roberto was performing Swan Lake
in Oxford. After a year they needed a
partner for Darcey Bussell in Nutcracker.
It was important because it was the first
full length ballet in the re-opened Opera
House in December 1999. “I remember
the first night feeling very scared, dancing
with Darcey. But she is very nice. She
was very supportive from the beginning,
very kind.” Then, every year, he
was called to dance with her and it started
a beautiful relationship and a friendship.
This has become something special, because
they know each other very well, both as
dancers and as people. Roberto admires
her as a great ballerina and as a person
because she is happy about her life with
two beautiful children. “You can
see she is very happy with her family.
She is very positive. So in the studio
we laugh a lot and have a really good
time, which is important.”
Roberto has done a lot of classical roles
with the Royal now – Swan Lake,
La Bayadere – as well as Manon,
Apollo, In the Middle – all the
major repertoire. He regards it a great
opportunity to work with the Company and
to perform at the Opera House. In his
view, it is the most beautiful place with
wonderful facilities, studios with light
in the best part of the House, lots of
space, air conditioning, everything –
there is no other like this. He describes
it as the best in the world. “The
quality and level of the Company is very
high, so that there is always a challenge.
Working with Monica Mason, Anthony Dowell,
etc – they are part of the history
so you can explore roles in different
ways especially the MacMillan and Ashton
roles. It’s very important in maintaining
quality.” Roberto loves to work
in Italy because it is his country but
it is not the same, it is important for
him to come to the Royal.
Darcey pushed hard for Roberto to dance
Sylvia. She wanted him to do it but he
didn’t know the ballet and his schedule
was extremely tight. His performances
in Italy finished on 14 November and Sylvia
started on 19th. The only time he had
to learn the role was at the end of September.
Apart from that the only period he had
free was three days in July. He had been
sent the video, so he saw that in Act
II he didn’t have to do anything
so “Okay, it won’t take too
long to learn”. Luckily he found
two more days in October. After that he
arrived in England on the Tuesday, on
Wednesday there was the stage call. He
didn’t have a full call in the studio
and went on stage immediately. Despite
this, Roberto really enjoyed doing it.
“It was fun! We had a good time.”
Of the Ashton repertoire he has also done
Les Rendezvous. Although he says the Ashton
style is difficult, in Sylvia he found
it not so much difficult as awkward, less
difficult than Rendezvous which is harder
because it was made for someone smaller
and so faster – not ideal for Darcey
and he.
The scheduling for the year ahead is always
done in February and March. First priority
is La Scala and the Royal then other companies.
There can be difficult periods when Roberto
wants to do more than one production at
the same time and then they try to organise
the dates but it is not easy. For example,
he was due to do Swan Lake in London and
then was asked by La Scala to dance in
Moscow at the Maya Plisetskaya 80th birthday
gala. But it was the day before the London
Swan Lake. Roberto accepted because he
had never been asked to dance by the Bolshoi
and it was a very important event, the
only time, as it won’t happen again.
It made life challenging. He had to wake
up at 5.30 a.m., there was no direct flight
from Moscow, he missed the connection,
got to Heathrow and to the Opera House
at 3.00pm only to find that Darcey was
not well so had to rehearse with Zenaida
Yanowsky. He was exhausted! In the end
Darcey did the first scene, Zen did the
second and he can’t remember who
did the fourth. This was exceptional,
as normally Roberto likes to warm up,
train, practise and rest for three hours
before performing which means he prefers
not to travel the day before a show.
Roberto has partnered many of the Royal’s
principals because Darcey’s two
pregnancies have given him the opportunity!
With the small girls they can only do
certain roles together, not all the repertoire
like Swan Lake, “but Giselle and
Romeo and Juliet are okay.” Interpretation
of the dance changes as every ballerina
has different feelings and it depends
how they tie in with Roberto’s feelings
about the interpretation. He falls in
with their feelings. He finds this interesting
as he has to change some of the mime.
He enjoys dancing, for instance, Romeo
and Juliet with Darcey and Alessandra
(Ferri) “I like both, not that one
is better than the other, just different”.
It was Monica Mason’s idea to asked
Alessandra back to do Romeo and Juliet.
It was very emotional for her and very
important too. There were great expectations
for the show and it went very well.
Roberto’s own group, Roberto Bolle
and Friends, dances in Italy and other
places too, such as Japan for the Expo.
They perform a gala because it is the
easiest type of performance to bring to
different theatres, no sets, no orchestra,
etc. They perform all the classics, modern,
neo-classical – from Swan Lake,
Balanchine, In the Middle. Most audiences
don’t know a lot about ballet so
they explain ballet to the public. The
group is made up of principal dancers,
as quality is very important. Roberto
tries to have Italian principals who dance
outside Italy as it gives them a chance
to dance in Italy and it gives pleasure
on both sides.
Roberto explained that the problem for
ballet in Italy at the moment is that
dancers in all the companies (in Rome,
Naples and Milan) have life contracts.
These cost a lot of money as they give
complete security to the dancers who have
a retirement age of 52 for a man and 49
for a woman. This makes it very difficult.
The companies are trying to reduce the
ages. At the moment, if you want to have
younger dancers, you still have to pay
the older ones who you can’t use
on stage. It means it is difficult to
achieve a quality production. The future
is not clear, but today it presents a
real problem.
Dance is very popular in Italy even in
the smallest town. There is a great tradition
going back to the great ballerinas in
the last century. After Billy Elliot,
the numbers of boys increased. In Roberto’s
year at La Scala school there were 10
girls, 2 boys. Although there is a sort
of ballet competition on popular TV, there
is little else and the only full length
ballet shown in Italy last year was Swan
Lake - at midnight on 18th August!
Roberto does not take acting class but
he thinks acting is very important for
a dancer especially in roles like Des
Grieux, which he enjoys very much, it
is a favourite role. “I so much
enjoy actually being Des Grieux, feeling
the emotion, it is the most beautiful
part of our work. Like in normal life,
you don’t act so much as feel. I
try not to act but to be, to feel.”
Since he is freelance, Roberto has not
had much work created on him, only a small
part in the opera which re-opened La Scala.
Derek Deane created a pas de deux in Romeo
but it wasn’t quite the same, as
Derek had a very clear idea of what he
wanted from the start. It is difficult
as Roberto has such a busy schedule and
making new work takes a lot of time. He
is also not sure he knows a good choreographer
with whom he would like to spend three
weeks at this stage. He finds it much
easier and pleasurable to dance established
work. Perhaps he may be more interested
in creation in a few years but not now
as he enjoys doing existing roles. He
likes Kylian. “How beautiful his
way is of moving the body is – unique.”
He would love him to create something
on him, but will wait till things are
not so busy.
The ballet in the Royal repertoire that
Roberto would like to dance is Marguerite
and Armand. “It would be nice to
do it with Darcey – she’s
said yes.” Another is Month in the
Country.
This year, Roberto will be dancing Giselle
in Milan with Darcey. He will be doing
a few minutes at the opening of the Olympic
Games in Turin on February 10. “It
will be freezing I’m sure, since
I am bound to be naked!” However,
he is glad he can do it.
He feels lucky and happy that he has had
the opportunity to dance at important
occasions, not just in opera houses but
at great events like with Zenaida at the
Queen’s Golden Jubilee at Buckingham
Palace. This was something special, with
the Queen and all the royal family present.
“It was nice for me and one of the
most extraordinary experiences imaginable
as we six artists went with Queen to the
front of Buckingham Palace to wave to
all those people. You will never forget
it.” In 2004, Roberto danced for
the Pope in St Peter’s Square on
a special small stage, with the basilica
behind – it was unique. And he has
danced in Egypt, under the pyramids in
the desert.
Six years ago Roberto became a UNICEF
ambassador. For him, giving his time and
his art to perform an evening for UNICEF
is really important. UNICEF he feels is
totally different from anything else as
it is deals with real problems of humanity,
something you can really understand. “It
gives one focus and the right values.”
© The Ballet Association 2006
Belinda Taylor
Report checked and corrected by Roberto
Bolle and David Bain
April 2006
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