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Alessandra Ferri Ravenna, Palazzo Mauro de André by Susy |
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As posted on our Postings pages... A gala to say farewell is a gala like no others. Alessandra Ferri together with her partner Roberto Bolle gathered a bunch of top dancers and prepared an interesting program to tour Italy first and then Japan. The tour started in Turin but I attended the second performance, held in Ravenna on the closing day of the annual summer festival. The huge Palazzo De André looked too small for those queuing outside it and asking for returns. Young ballet students wearing tutus offered the booklet of the gala to every member of the audience. Marianela Nunez opened the performance with her dazzling triple turn pirouettes in a tango by Mollajolli partnered by Inaki Urlezaga. Irina Dvorovenko showed her classy, even if not fully legato, movement in the Sugar Plum Fairy pdd from Nutcracker, partnered by Maxim Beloserkovsky. Lisa-Maree Cullum sparkled with her brilliant footwork in Martins’ “Zakouski” partnered by Alen Bottaini. Before the last section of Forsythe’s “Herman Schmerman” pdd , while amazingly fluid Alicia Amatriain entwined her steps with Robert Tewsley, she had a problem with her shoulder and left the stage suddenly. Alessandra Ferri was obliged to appear earlier than awaited in her signature role, Juliet, this time in Amodio’s choreography, greeted by a long applause. Her frail white form against the black cloth reminded the audience how hard and uncertain is a dancer’s art. For many years I saw Ferri partnered by Julio Bocca and later by Manuel Legris. I thought odd a partnership with Roberto Bolle but Ferri is a dancer who loves drama and the contrast with her partner’s body enhance it. Her Juliet was always floating, barely touching the ground. A long kiss closed the pdd, then they disappeared in the wings and didn’t come out to bow. The frenzy for Amatriain’s injury was enormous. The second half of the gala began with Petit’s “Carmen”. Bolle danced Don José’s solo and obtained a much deserved personal success. Then Ferri appeared for the pdd and once again the result was magical, hot and tender at the same time. The following pdd danced by Dvorovenko and Beloserkovsky was worth only for its title: “Farewell”. The contrast was great with the pdd from “Black cake” danced by Cullum and Bottaini, so witty and outstanding. Unluckily Nunez fell near the end of her solo in “Don Q” pdd but her fouettés in the coda cancelled the previous mishap and also her partner Urlezaga, remarkable only during the Adagio. The strong Amatriain was back on stage for “Come neve al sole” together with Robert Tewsley. They got doubled applauses, for the beautiful performance and for the ones they missed in the first half of the show due to the sudden end.
Ferri chose to end the gala with a death scene, the closing pdd from “Manon”. She’s the master in such choreographies because she is the only one who can have a completely limp upper part of her body and at the same time very pointed and arched feet that betray the steel control she has on them. The lifts and throws were superb and at the first one, so high and daring, the audience gasped and applauded. The triumph ended only because the lights were turned on and the dancers stopped coming out to bow.
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