Jacopo Tissi

Jacopo Tissi (born 13 February 1995) is an Italian ballet dancer. After stints at Vienna State Ballet and La Scala Theatre Ballet in Milan during his early career, he moved to Moscow to join the Bolshoi Ballet in 2016. He was named a principal dancer in December 2021, becoming one of the few foreigners to reach this position in the company's history, but left in March 2022 over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He returned to La Scala in the 2022–23 season as a guest principal dancer, before joining the Dutch National Ballet in 2023.

Early life and training

Tissi was born in Landriano, Province of Pavia. He began dancing at age five, after seeing a ballet on television, at a new ballet school in his hometown. He entered La Scala Theatre Ballet School in Milan when he was ten. In 2013, he was one of the students from several ballet schools to perform at Grand Kremlin Palace, Moscow, for the 100th anniversary celebration of Bolshoi Ballet School. He graduated in 2014, after eight years of training.

Career

In 2014, upon graduating, the 18-year-old Tissi joined the Vienna State Ballet at the invitation of Manuel Legris, and rejected an offer from La Scala Theatre Ballet. The following year, La Scala invited him to join the company again, and he decided to return to Milan. Soon, he portrayed Prince Desiré in The Sleeping Beauty, partnering Svetlana Zakharova, as both David Hallberg and his substitute Sergei Polunin were injured. He also danced as Espada in Don Quixote, Des Grieux in MacMillan's Manon and Prince Charming in Bigonzetti's Cinderella. He worked with company director Makhar Vaziev closely until he left the company in 2016.