Roberto Bolle

Roberto Bolle (born 26 March 1975) is an Italian danseur. He is a principal dancer étoile at La Scala Theatre Ballet. Bolle also dances regularly as a guest artist with the world’s leading companies, including The Royal Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet.

Early life

Bolle was born in Casale Monferrato, and lived during his youth in Trino, a small town near Vercelli in Piemonte. He began ballet studies at the age of seven at a local school and was accepted at the La Scala theatre ballet school in Milan at the age of twelve. In 1990, he was noted by Rudolf Nureyev, who chose him to play the role of Tadzio in the opera Morte a Venezia, but the Theater forbade him to accept the offer because he was too young.

Career

In 1996, following an appearance in Romeo and Juliet, twenty-year-old Bolle was promoted to principal dancer at La Scala. He left that position when he was 21 to pursue a freelance career. Since then he has starred in many ballets including Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Giselle, La Esmeralda, and In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated.

Bolle has danced for the Royal Ballet, the Tokyo Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, the Stuttgart Ballet, the Finnish National Ballet, the Staatsoper in Berlin, the Vienna State Opera, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Bavarian State Opera, the Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden, the 8th and 9th International Ballet Festivals in Tokyo, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, and the City Theatre in Florence.