Dance is talent and passion. But above all it is study and fatigue, to which must be added a strong dose of determination. This is something which the young pupils of the Ballet School of the Academia Teatro alla Scala, directed by Frédéric Olivieri, are well aware of, involved every day in their educational journey to become professional dancers. Eight years to obtain the diploma in classical-academic and modern-contemporary dance, because the school, as well as being a privileged “breeding ground” for the Scala’s dance corps, trains dancers of a very high professional level who are capable of responding to the requirements of international companies. The show staged at the Teatro Strehler opens with Préséntation, a choreography created by Frédéric Olivieri, which allows the pupils to demonstrate to audiences the level reached in their studies: from the very young performing the simplest of choreographies, to older pupils taking on high-level variations. The show then moves on to the execution of excerpts from the classical and contemporary repertoires of the great masters of the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries: over the years the pupils have performed in pieces by George Balanchine, Maurice Béjart, Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, José Limón, Roland Petit, Angelin Preljocaj…
The program: Défilé by Frédéric Olivieri music Richard Wagner, Gymnopédie choreography Roland Petit music Eric Satie, La stravaganza choreography Angelin Preljocaj music Antonio Vivaldi, Evelyn Ficarra, Robert Normandeau, Serge Morand, Ake Parmerud, Gaîté parisienne suite choreography Maurice Béjart music Jacques Offenbach.