“For love I did madness. Divorce was a great pain, it was the dance that saved me »- Corriere.it

Alessandra Ferry The most famous Italian dancer in the world, he flirted at both the Royal Ballet in London and inAmerican Ballet Theater from New York. Now in Italy on tour, despite the fact that in her environment she retired at the age of 35 while turning 59 on May 6. Loose hair, brown turtleneck, after rehearsals, everything seemed to be within one gesture that was repeated several times during the conversation. What she does with her hands, making her spin gracefully in the air as if to expel a word that bothers her, but impossible to avoid in her case. The word career (asking me to take my career back, but I don’t like that word…, or: I chose motherhood at the height of my career. Could there be no other word?? The art of living?).

Why does he hate this word?

Because it means a job more than a profession. Because it involves a particular strategy rather than a dream come true. Because when I work I’m happier than when I’m on vacation.

How many ballet shoes have you used in your 40-year career?

I think there are two pairs a day for rehearsals and two pairs for each show.

Over thirty thousand?

I never counted them… ni happy Days
From Beckett, from which it comes L’Heure Exquise

Since the 14th of April I have been carried all over Italy, I have buried Winnie in a heap of sand that slowly rises until it disappears inside; On the other hand, Winnie is drowning in used shoes, or rather, over time, suffocating, evoking near the end of life.

Owner Winnie, from Today and Tomorrow also in Milan at the Piccolo Teatro Strehler, is a GE dancer who relives the memories of the happy days. Instead, in 2007, she said goodbye to the stage, but then returned. Was the distance from the dance unbearable?

For the first three years, I felt like I was on vacation. Then, I started to feel like I was locked in a room where the light had gone out. In many moments of life, even in a pandemic, you have to wake up every morning and face a lesson that you sometimes hate, that you hate, a system that saves. Willie Borman, my teacher from New York, would always tell me: Alessandra, take a shower in the morning, come to class, and then think. Sometimes, you’re just too happy to do it, but after having so many beautiful days and so many days that I can’t stand it anymore, you’ve made me so strong.

Since her return to dancing in 2013, major choreographers have wanted to create roles for her from scratch, creating a repertoire suitable for a fifty-year-old that didn’t exist before. How was this possible?

I Didn’t Imagine A Second Chapter, But Wayne McGregor Created The Role Of Virginia Woolf For Lee Wolf Work Then Avritwho will bring him to La Scala in June; Created by John Neumeier dose
; Created by Martha Clark cray… all the roles that make me happy because I am convinced that even as we age, we are still shining beings. I love this part of my artistic life and as a woman because it doesn’t focus on performance, which is no longer in his 20s, but rather on meditation and self-knowledge. If I wanted to remake Manon, Juliet, and Carmen, that would be a weak point.

Were you afraid to return to the scene?

I was horrified: if I stood for six years, the body would not return the same with a few fingers. There’s a little voice inside that says: You’re crazy, you wouldn’t do that. The other little voice says: Shut up and do it. In this, the dance is an inner mirror: it learns to distinguish between the subtle sound of fear and the voice of the self that says “This thing must be done, period.” There is the sound of the small physical body, and then there is the massive voice of the soul.

Can you describe the dancer’s stress in a picture?

In the meantime, he must imagine that we are always in pain. When the two girls were kids, I got home after five hours of training, devastated and spent the afternoon lying around.

And today he’s twenty years older?

The more tired, the more pain. Like a girl, have breakfast and go bam! jumps. Now, I need 2 hours of preparation: I have an unresolvable ankle problem and I have to heat it up. My partner is missing mobility, I broke it and no longer have ligaments and cartilage.

How do you dance?

This painful. But if you learn about physical pain, you can overcome it.

How was Alessandra Ferry when she was a child?

At the age of three, I was living the stories inside of me and I felt another reality calling out to me. And although my parents did not go to theaters, I said: I want to go to dance school. They registered me and it immediately became clear to me that it was my life: not that I loved mulberry, it was nothing of trallallero trallal, I really liked studying, I understood that it was my key to opening the door of inner freedom.

She descends from a Milanese bourgeoisie, an engineer father, and a housewife mother: how much does she support her?

I was walking with my mother in Milan when I saw the Scala School notice. In the meantime, we moved to Monza, but I said: I want to study there. I remember the family reuniting around the kitchen table. My mother was a teacher and had to give up her job, but she was eager for women’s independence and convinced my father to let me transfer to middle school in La Scala.

And when was she fifteen years old to the Royal Ballet in London?

Until now, they understood from the teachers that I was talented. Not having my negativity and knowing that I didn’t have to prove to anyone that I was right gave me tremendous support. For them, it was also a huge financial effort and there were no cell phones, just a weekly appointment at the phone booth.

In London, you will become a ballerina.

The meeting with Sir Kenneth Macmillan, this wonderful choreographer, who began to entrust me with important roles, was exceptional. In my first appearance as a prima ballerina, in Mayerling, I was very nervous. I remember getting up on stage and feeling in my chest like a soap bubble exploding, a wonderful feeling of connecting with the audience that I will never forget, this feeling bigger than our body.

Exciting career match?

Meanwhile, Mikhail Baryshnikov, who took me to New York in 1985.

Also l, toile.

I approached Milan after that Swan Lake
by Franco Zeffirelli in Scala. He asked me: Will you come to the American Ballet Theatre? I replied: Yes, until tomorrow morning. I was 21 years old. In our first show together, GiselleIn Miami, seeing him try non-stop despite a huge knee problem teaches me a lot. Then, of course, there was a meeting with Roland Petit, in Marseille, while dancing Carmen. With him there was only a spark. So, Giulio Boca: I’m 21, he’s 19 and we’ve been dancing together for over twenty years.

First Daughter 1997: How long did you think before you stopped dancing?

Not at all, it was a love decision, I told myself: I am a woman who dances and the two things have to coexist. I knew that if I sacrificed dancing, I would hate family, and if I sacrificed motherhood, I would hate dancing. When Emma and Matilde were little, they traveled with me, and I took them everywhere. So, I stopped, became a mother and a wife, and when I returned to the dance, we were coming out of a difficult period, since my separation: the resumption of dancing was important to me and the girls, because they saw how important it was to be emotional independence.

Her divorce from her second husband Photographer Fabrizio FerriWas it too painful?

It was one of those moments when dancing saved me. It was a beautiful romance, the divorce came unexpectedly.

I met in Pantelleria in the house of Isabella Rossellini and the photographic book Aria was born, much to the astonishment of nudists.

It was meeting two artists who loved each other very much, and they wanted to talk and get to know each other through their art. The idea for the book was born first, and while we’re making it, we feel the love.

They also ended up in gossip about the ensuing separation from her first husband. They wrote that he locked her away from the house or that he stoned Fabrizio’s house. Is this true?

Let’s say, it was love at first sight that he didn’t take it well. I understand. All stories end with difficult melodramatic moments. People go crazy out of love and out of pain.

What fools have you done?

Travel to see Fabrizio for a few hours.

Now, in love?

From life, this s. I get excited when I can say: Oh my God, life goes on. Four years ago, I decided to leave New York, and within a month I was in London: I’m fine there, and I’m closer to my daughters who live in Milan. Mathilde is 24 years old and works in fashion and advertising, and Emma is 20 years old and studies food and wine sciences.

Will you return to live in Italy?

Sooner or later, I think so. Emotions here.

At the Gala Fracci on April 9 in La Scala, she was there, too. What relationship did you have with the l’toile you missed a year ago?

I made an excerpt from earnCreated by Maurice Biart. The first time I saw Carla, I was a girl from dance school who brought her a bouquet of flowers in the dressing room. For me, it was an icon. Later, we shared the stage, he gave me advice. He said to me once: I’ve always been told I’m tough, but you have to be so or else they will turn you upside down like a steak. He was right: Very true.

How long will you dance?

I, to every request that comes even in the coming years, I answer: Yes, well.