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When Francesco Ventriglia was a younger dancer in Milan, he carried out in a ballet known as The Angels.
It was greater than 25 years in the past and Ventriglia was performing with La Scala Theatre Ballet, the place he started his profession, and the piece was created by a choreographer from Quebec named Jean Grand-Maitre. In lower than 5 years, Grand-Maitre would take the helm as inventive director of Alberta Ballet, a place he would maintain for 20 years. Now, greater than 1 / 4 century later, Ventriglia is in the identical position.
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“It’s a gorgeous circle,” mentioned Ventriglia, in an interview with Postmedia at Alberta Ballet’s administrative places of work in Calgary. “I used to be 19 after I danced in his ballet and at the moment I’m the director of an organization that he was director of for 20 years. It’s a gorgeous factor.”
The Italian choreographer was introduced as the brand new inventive director on the finish of December following a world search. Ventriglia has a world popularity creating numerous repertoire for the Ballet College of La Scala, his personal firm Heliopolis and different freelance works. His work has been carried out by firms similar to Area di Verona, Bolshoi Theatre, the Mariinsky Ballet, Grande Théâtre du Genève, Royal New Zealand Ballet, the Nationwide Ballet of Uruguay and on the Venice Biennale.
Earlier to beginning at Alberta Ballet in early January, he was in Australia with the Sydney Choreographic Centre which he co-founded.
Alberta Ballet looked for a brand new inventive director after the sudden departure of Grand-Maitre’s successor Christopher Anderson, who left the corporate after just one yr as inventive director. He had been with Alberta Ballet in numerous roles since 2015 and assumed the title for the 2022-23 season after a three-year transition from Grand-Maitre. Neither Alberta Ballet nor Anderson supplied many particulars in regards to the departure, apart from they’d “determined to half methods.”
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Anderson programmed the 2023-2024 season, which is able to embrace Hansel & Gretel, which opens March 7 in Calgary, and Der Wolf & The Ceremony of Spring, which opens Might 2. Ventriglia, nevertheless, did curate the Winter Gala, which shall be carried out in Calgary on Feb. 15 and Edmonton on Feb. 24. It would characteristic each the Alberta Ballet’s firm artists and college students from the Alberta Ballet College and embrace excerpts from classics similar to Swan Lake, Paquita, Giselle, and Flower Competition in Genzano.
“It’s to present the Alberta Ballet and Alberta Ballet College to share the stage,” he mentioned. “I come from this custom, the place the varsity and firm are very a lot connected. I like this custom. My dream is to create an annual gala, one evening solely, the place your complete group goes on stage and celebrates the fantastic thing about this artwork type.”
With Grand-Maitre on the helm, Alberta Ballet grew to become recognized for his “portrait ballets.” These seven works have been primarily based on the music of Joni Mitchell, ok.d. lang, Gordon Lightfoot, the Tragically Hip, Sara McLachlan, Elton John and David Bowie and acquired worldwide acclaim.
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Ventriglia mentioned he desires to create new works and fee new works particularly for the corporate.
“I need to create a singular repertoire that’s branded Alberta Ballet,” he mentioned. “I need to create our personal belongings, our personal DNA. I feel it’s time for Alberta Ballet to ascertain its model in the neighborhood and world wide.”
Ventriglia mentioned his imaginative and prescient for the corporate is to embrace the previous and “the good issues that this firm has achieved within the final 20 years and use that sturdy pillar to construct the following flooring of the constructing.”
Nonetheless, as with all arts organizations, the long run will rely on discovering methods to attach with youthful audiences.
“That is very a lot an enormous dialog at this second all world wide,” he mentioned. “My imaginative and prescient is that we should be courageous and begin to converse the identical language of the brand new era. To make the theatre related these days, we have now to have the theatre partaking and speaking with the identical language. We will’t shut ourselves in a golden tower and count on the general public to come back to us. We have to exit and go to them, we have to persuade them we’re cool as a result of we really are cool.”
The Winter Gala takes place Feb. 15 on the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary and Feb 24 on the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton.
with information from Michele Jarvie.
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