Nicoletta Manni

Born in the province of Lecce, she was admitted to the La Scala Academy Ballet School at the age of 13. In 2009, after graduating, she joined the Staatsballett in Berlin directed by Vladimir Malakhov, where she remained for three seasons, dancing in all the classical and contemporary productions. In the spring of 2013 she joined the Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company and, after the appointment as Prima Ballerina in April 2014, on 8 November 2023 she was appointed Étoile of the Teatro alla Scala on stage by the CEO and Artistic Director Dominique Meyer together with the Director of La Scala Ballet Company Manuel Legris at the end of the second performance of Onegin by John Cranko, in which Nicoletta Manni is the protagonist in the role of Tat'jana next to Onegin by Étoile Roberto Bolle.

She dances in the productions and creations for the Company, and interprets the main roles at La Scala and during the tournée. In her repertoire: the productions of Rudolf Nureyev Swan Lake (Odette/Odile), Don Quixote (Queen of the Dryads and Kitri), Sleeping Beauty (Aurora and Main Fairy); by George Balanchine (Jewels - main couple of Diamonds and soloist dancer of Rubies; Symphony in C - second movement and first movement; A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Titania and pas de deux of the second act; Apollo -Tersicore; The Nutcracker - Sugar Plum Fairy), Alexei Ratmansky (blue couple in Russian Seasons and main couple in Concerto DSCH; Sleeping Beauty - Lilac Fairy and Aurora; Swan Lake - Odette/Odile); Roland Petit (Pink Floyd Ballet, Le Jeune homme et la Mort) Kenneth MacMillan (Romeo and Juliet and L’histoire de Manon); Heinz Spoerli (Cello Suites and Goldberg Variationen); Mauro Bigonzetti (Cinderella - Fairy Godmother and later Cinderella, Progetto Händel - main interpreter); John Cranko (Onegin, in the role of Tat’jana); John Neumeier (La Dame aux camélias - Manon and Marguerite Gautier). In addition to being the protagonist in Giselle (Coralli-Perrot revived by Yvette Chauviré), she danced in the role of Clara in The Nutcracker by Nacho Duato, the Civiltà in Excelsior, the creation of Massimiliano Volpini Il giardino degli amanti, The Dancer in Petrushka by Michail Fokin, Petite Mort by Jiří Kylián, Medora in Le Corsaire by Anna-Marie Holmes, Woolf Works by Wayne McGregor (Becomings). She danced the leading role in Sylvia by Manuel Legris, the opening title of the 2019/2020 Ballet Season at La Scala, Sarcasmen by Hans van Manen. In the Ballet Gala at La Scala (September 2020) she danced in Carmen (excerpts) from the ballet by Roland Petit. For the opening evening of 2020/2021 Season “A riveder le stelle”, she danced the adagio from the Grand Pas de deux of Nureyev’s The Nutcracker. In “Grandi momenti di danza” she’s back in the role of Kitri in the grand pas de deux from act III of Don Quixote and, in “Homage to Nureyev”, in the role of Dulcinea from act II of Don Quixote and Odile in the pas de trois from Swan Lake. In “Great choreographers Soirée” she dances the divertissement from Paquita. In “Four Choreographers Soirée” she is among the interpreters of Movements to Stravinsky and resumes Concerto DSCH. In “Contemporary Soirée” she is the protagonist of Tristan and Isolde - pas de deux by Krzysztof Pastor. For La bayadère by Rudolf Nureyev, the opening title of the 2021/2022 Season, she dances the role of Nikiya and in Jewels by George Balanchine she’s back in the role in the main couple of Diamonds and the soloist dancer of Rubies. In Gala Fracci she dances the pas de deux of the third act from The Nutcracker by Nureyev and the fourth movement of Symphony in C. For the production of Wayne McGregor AfteRite+LORE she is in the opening cast of the creation LORE and later also of AfteRite. She debuts in the role of Clara in The Nutcracker by Rudolf Nureyev, the opening title of the 2022/2023 Ballet Season. In the evening Dawson/Duato/Kratz/Kylián she is among the protagonists of Anima Animus (David Dawson) and the creation Solitude Sometimes (Philippe Kratz). In Le Corsaire by Manuel Legris she plays the role of Medora. For “William Forsythe Evening – Blake Works V” she is among the protagonists of The Barre Project. In the reprise of Romeo and Juliet by Kenneth MacMillan on June/July 2023 she back on stage in the leading role of Juliet. In September 2023 she resumes the leading role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, choreography by Rudolf Nureyev

In 2012 she won third place at the Rome Dance Prize, later the Dance&Dance Award as Interpreter for the 2014 season and was named Dancer of the Year 2014 by the online magazine giornaledelladanza.com. As the only Italian candidate for the Prix Benois de la Danse 2015, she performed at the Bolshoi Theatre and in 2015 was named “Promise” of dance by the German specialised magazine “Tanz”. She danced as a guest at the Kremlin Ballet in Moscow (Giselle), with Asami Maki Ballet in Tokyo (Notre Dame de Paris by Roland Petit), Lithuanian National Ballet in Vilnius (Don Quixote), with the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow (The Dancer in Etudes by Harald Lander), at the Dance Open Festival Gala 2017 (St. Petersburg), Elisa y Amigos 2016 (Mexico), All Star Ballet Gala 2017 (Toronto), Yurgita Dronina Ballet world star gala 2015 (Vilnius), Season Opening Gala 2016 (Bucharest), Iana Salenko and stars of ballet 2017 (Kiev), “La notte della taranta” in Melpignano, where she performed the song by Yael Deckelbaum ‘The preyers of the mothers’, choreographed by Luciano Cannito. Ballet Gala 2018 (Warsaw), Petipa Methamorphosis XXI century 2018 (St. Petersburg), Stars of the XXI century 2018 (St. Petersburg) and since 2014 with Roberto Bolle in Roberto Bolle & Friends and in his TV shows. In September 2020 she received the award “dancer of the year on the international scene” in the forty-eighth edition of “ositano premia la danza Léonide Massin”.