Exercises in style

Discover the Ballet Company of Teatro alla Scala

With its latest productions this season, the company has already showcased remarkable stylistic and interpretative versatility. The Lander/Kylian/Béjart Triple Bill took both dancers and audiences on a technical and artistic journey through the creativity of three twentieth-century masters, presenting masterpieces from distinct eras and styles. That journey continues with Serata William Forsythe – The Blake Works, in which, in 2023, La Scala’s Corps de Ballet became an integral part of the great choreographer’s creative process.

In December, the curtain will rise on a new season. Conceived and curated by Director Frédéric Olivieri, it offers a rich exploration of styles and choreographic languages. Through these works, the dancers will both challenge themselves and find new ways to communicate with the audience.

CV Six years after it was last performed, Nureyev's Sleeping Beauty will open the new season.

FO It is the ballet par excellence, which a company like ours must continue to perform. It allows us to showcase our academic quality and pure classical dance at its best. Nureyev's version, which debuted in 1966 at La Scala, is difficult and rich and has wonderful sets and costumes created by Franca Squarciapino exclusively for La Scala in 1993. Beyond the choreography, this is a true spectacle, an important part of our history and a hallmark of our company's aptitude for the great repertoire. Only a comprehensive and magnificent production like this could open the season.

CV How should a company prepare for this production? The language is academic, but Nureyev’s distinctive style is unmistakable.

FO In this kind of ballet—especially The Sleeping Beauty, but also Swan Lake—the company must prepare thoroughly and focus in a very specific way to achieve the overall quality that must be evident right from the Prologue, with the fairies surrounded by all 21 dancers. Everyone needs to be perfectly in sync, in the purest academic sense.

Then there is the narrative dimension to develop: the birth of Aurora, Carabosse’s curse, the encounter with the princes, the spindle—and the dreamlike elements as well: the vision of Aurora conjured by the Lilac Fairy for Prince Désiré, and the scene with the Dryads, which is particularly challenging for the female ensemble.

In the third-act divertissement, the company’s full range of qualities shines through: the sarabande, a slow, precise, and noble historical dance, highly intricate in this version; immediately followed by the polonaise, brilliant and rhythmic; and, of course, the variations—from the Bluebird to Puss in Boots to the Pas de cinq.

The Sleeping Beauty brings together three dimensions of ballet: the ballet of the story, the ballet of the vision, and the ballet of the divertissement—pure virtuosity. Nureyev’s imprint is especially felt in the musicality. In his choreography, he manages to weave an extraordinary number of steps together in a short span of time, while still creating lyrical, delicate passages of great emotional resonance. These moments, in particular, offer the male dancers striking opportunities to display their technical brilliance.

CV March will feature a triple-bill that has never been seen before on our stage, along with two choreographers who are entering La Scala's repertoire for the first time.

FO The first title is new, but in keeping with continuity, bears the signature of Wayne McGregor. The collaboration I established in the past has continued. In my first season, I wanted to invite him back with one of his most representative pieces, Chroma, which has never been staged in Italy. It earned him an appointment as resident choreographer of the Royal Ballet twenty years ago.

CV What is unique about this production compared to McGregor's other works which have been performed by the La Scala Ballet?

FO Here we are dealing with pure virtuosity. In Chroma, we see his choreographic language in its purest form, without frills, almost no scenery and minimal costumes. We can appreciate the vision, the movements, the directions, the intertwining of steps for three, two and four dancers, with a classical base from which everything is restructured, pushing positions and speed to the extreme.

CV: Jean-Christophe Maillot makes his debut in the Ballo programme, bringing his distinctive artistic vision to the stage with a national premiere.

FO:Dov’è la luna is a ballet I deeply appreciate because it speaks a contemporary language while remaining rooted in classical technique—that’s the foundation of Maillot’s training. The work moves between a poetic, delicate section and a more energetic one, where the rhythm and movement become sharper, more abrupt.

It demands a great deal from the ensemble, and it opens with a pas de deux that evolves into a truly lyrical pas de trois—an exploration of beauty, perfection, and light. In my view, it’s one of Maillot’s most representative ballets, beyond his many narrative works. It reveals his gift for blending lyrical, flowing movement with powerful, grounded gestures—sometimes abrupt, even almost violent—and weaving them together with remarkable artistry.

CV Ohad Naharin's Minus 16 Triple-Bill closes the season. Our dancers will experience this great choreographer and his unmistakeable style for the first time.

FO This work is explosive; it will immediately transport the audience into another dimension and into Naharin's genius. It will also transport the company into another dimension as they learn to master the basics of his style. As with other companies, we will hold specific workshops and lessons. Naharin's choreography is difficult to define because it is original, powerful, true and clear. It must be seen and experienced live. As a dancer, you have to look inwards, forget everything else, not think about dancing for an audience, but think about your own being, individually and within a group. The strength of this ballet, in my opinion, is the strength of the stage and the group, and it is this strength that then expands and radiates out to the audience.

CV The new full-length production is Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, described as almost “a modern-day classic.”

FO The company will be staging this production for the first time in Italy—a work perfectly suited to a theatre like La Scala. Wheeldon possesses an extraordinary ability and originality in captivating and entertaining audiences through modern narrative ballet. He brings a global vision to the art form, both in structural conception and in the richness of his staging.

Presented in three acts, Alice demands a large and varied cast—something not every company can manage. It features an array of roles and styles that perfectly match the versatility and technical preparation of our artists.

Although Wheeldon has created many abstract ballets, in recent years he has devoted himself to narrative works, and he excels at them. In Alice, he embraces a full spectrum of styles—from classical and contemporary to traditional dances, tap, and even elements of musical theatre. Just as Alice encounters a succession of worlds and characters on her journey, the ballet itself unfolds through a tapestry of styles, each one serving the story’s rhythm and evolution.

CV So, each character has a distinct linguistic and stylistic identity?

FO Wheeldon has an exceptional gift for defining characters instantly through their own dance style, enhanced by costume choices that both distinguish them and inform their movement. For instance, he gives the Mad Hatter a tap dance—an inspired way to express the character’s originality and madness. It’s a role that must feel completely free, beyond the boundaries of “classical” dance.

There’s also a clever nod to the Rose Adagio in one of the most memorable scenes—an ironic but complex part, especially for the ballerina dancing the Queen of Hearts, accompanied by her four unusual “knights.”

The narrative scenes verge on theatrical, filled with expressive mime—though not pantomime, since the ballet speaks a modern dance language. The pointe shoes, however, are very much present.

Wheeldon creates two contrasting worlds: he begins with traditional scenes and a clear narrative tone, and then, as we enter Wonderland, everything is transformed. Every element—movement, effects, set changes, costumes, and Joby Talbot’s specially composed score—changes. The dancing is made up of styles that are unified by a single artistic vision.

The dancers must be prepared to inhabit a world in which the theatrical structure is interwoven with and as vital as the choreography itself. For us, this will truly be the first time we take on a ballet of this nature.

CV With Don Quixote, the company returns to its comfort zone, putting on one of the most frequently performed and representative ballets in La Scala's repertoire.

FO Our Don Quixote—Nureyev's version—is a ballet that has been part of our repertoire for many years, and one we perform regularly because it is one of the great ballets in which classicism and virtuosity triumph. It is also a ballet of happiness, for the audience and for the dancers.

The warm colours of Spain permeate the gypsy dances, the fandango, the matadors, and the windmills, while purity is found in the Garden of the Dryads, a true ballet blanc inspired by Marius Petipa's original. As in the Jardin animé of Le Corsaire, these scenes allow the company to showcase its classical academic qualities, before bursting into the various folk-inspired dances.

There is also considerable commitment in the more theatrical moments. Don Quixote, Sancho Panza and Gamache are key characters in the development of the ballet and must have the right rhythm, the right credibility, and be convincing without falling into caricature, staying true to Nureyev's musicality, which offers the ballet a sense of momentum.

CV La Scala has also toured the world with Giselle, chosen for its perfect structure. It is emblematic of our repertoire and the versatility of La Scala's artists, with its luminous and joyful first act and its sombre and suspenseful second act.

FO Every time, with every interpretation, Giselle takes on new life and evokes new emotions. I think La Scala is fortunate to have this version curated by the great Yvette Chauviré, because it is coherent, musical, and represents, I believe, the idea of what Giselle could have been and what it should be today. I worked with Chauviré only briefly, because I had just joined the Opéra ballet company, but I saw her rehearsing with young soloists who later became principals. With just a few words, she could immediately alter the quality of a dancer's walk, piqué arabesque or other variation. This is the mark of a great artist: they don't need to explain things.

CV The season closes with an incredible double bill: Apollonian and Dionysian worlds collide under Stravinsky with Balanchine's Apollo and Pina Bausch's The Rite of Spring, a La Scala debut.

FO I am extremely proud of this evening because it brings together two milestones in the history of dance and ballet. I am even happier because we have finally managed to include Pina Bausch's Rite in the company's repertoire and present it at La Scala, alongside Apollo, which is a major part of ballet history as well as the collective imagination of dancers, scholars, and enthusiasts.

CV The La Scala Ballet has numerous works by Balanchine in its repertoire and is familiar with his stylistic peculiarities. In your opinion, is there a specific awareness that dancers performing Apollo must have?

FO Apollo is a role full of pitfalls, which you overcome through technique and choreography. It is technique and choreography that make you Apollo. This is what we work on in the dance studio. The same applies to the three Muses. You can only put on this ballet when you have the right elements: performers who have the right style, lines, and technique. In this revival, we are presenting Apollo with the prologue, i.e. in its full version, which we haven't done for years, but the set is very clean, as are the costumes.

For me, Apollo’s variation is a masterpiece. The music—composed specifically for this ballet—perfectly supports the solo, guiding the dancer through to the technical climax at the end: a daring pirouette that finishes with Apollo almost seated. And immediately afterward comes a highly demanding pas de deux. You must be prepared—strong, yet pure.

CV Choreography and music were born together with Apollo. In Rite, too, the music was created for Nijinsky's choreography. But Pina Bausch's choreographic interpretation stands out for its power.

FO For the first time, La Scala dancers will enter her creative world, which is truly a new world. Presenting this ballet is a very important event. Our artists are open and willing, but they do not come from the Tanztheater tradition and will have to immerse themselves in its essence, which in my opinion is its freedom of expression. If you want to express something through dance, this is how you do it. There is no filter in Bausch's pieces: if you want to scream, you scream, scream with your body. And this ballet is a work of instinct, almost animalistic. Seeing this production live will have a profound impact on everyone. It is an experience for which you have to open all your pores and soak it in.

CV This journey also includes the Gala Fracci. In 2026, we will celebrate the 90th anniversary of her birth and the fifth anniversary of her death. For the occasion, we will present two dates and will draw from her immense repertoire, which is impressive in terms of quantity and variety of styles. What does paying tribute to an étoile like Carla Fracci entail? Is it feasible to bring an artist's interpretative style back to the stage?

FO It is not a matter of re-enactment; one cannot enter into her style and one cannot be like her. Why? Because she was unique. One can and must try to learn from the ballets she performed and the roles she influenced with her artistry. Copying does not work. If anything, it makes sense to acquire a little of her legacy, of what she left us, of her way of interpreting, which has become and always will be, as in Giselle, a point of reference for everyone.

Carla Vigevani