{"id":3687,"date":"2023-10-27T20:25:08","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T00:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/alessandra-ferris-next-act-running-the-vienna-state-ballet\/27\/10\/2023\/"},"modified":"2023-10-27T20:25:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T00:25:08","slug":"alessandra-ferris-next-act-running-the-vienna-state-ballet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/alessandra-ferris-next-act-running-the-vienna-state-ballet\/27\/10\/2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Alessandra Ferri\u2019s Next Act: Running the Vienna State Ballet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The ballerina Alessandra Ferri has had many dance lives. Now she will have another, offstage. On Tuesday, the Vienna State Ballet announced that Ferri, a former principal dancer with American Ballet Theater, would be its next artistic director, succeeding Martin Schl\u00e4pfer when his contract ends in August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The news comes as something of a surprise. Although the Italian-born Ferri directed the dance program of the Spoleto Festival in Italy from 2008 to 2014, she had not previously expressed ambitions to run a ballet company. And at 60, she still has a thriving performing career. Ferri tried to retire from the stage in 2007, but it didn\u2019t take. Two years later she was back, performing in pieces by Martha Clarke and Lars Lubovitch, among others. In 2015, she created <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/05\/15\/arts\/dance\/review-woolf-works-by-the-royal-ballet.html?searchResultPosition=3\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">a major role in Wayne McGregor\u2019s \u201cWoolf Works\u201d<\/a> and, the next year, at 53, she <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/06\/23\/arts\/dance\/alessandra-ferri-american-ballet-theater-romeo-juliet-kenneth-macmillan.html?searchResultPosition=1\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">returned to Ballet Theater<\/a> to dance Juliet in \u201cRomeo and Juliet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cLife is full of surprises,\u201d Ferri said, with a laugh, during a conversation in London the day after she returned from Vienna and the formal announcement of the job. \u201cIt does feel to me like a natural progression.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ferri will have a big job in Vienna. The 102-dancer company gives around 80 performances a year of its own repertory at both the Vienna State Opera and the Volksoper theaters, as well as appearing in opera productions. And Ferri\u2019s job will also include running the affiliated Ballet Academy, which was hit by <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/12\/20\/arts\/dance\/Simona-Noja-Nebyla-vienna-ballet-school.html?searchResultPosition=4\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">allegations of abuse<\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Lotte de Beer, the Intendant of the Volksoper, said in an interview that choosing Ferri \u201cwasn\u2019t a hard decision,\u201d and that while Ferri had no previous experience of running a company, she \u201casked the right questions, made the right remarks and felt like the natural candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">De Beer also praised Ferri\u2019s \u201cvery high standards and impeccable taste.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a conversation, Ferri talked about bringing her broad experience to the job and her vision for the Vienna State Ballet. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Is directing a company something you have been thinking about for a while?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">I had been thinking it was something I would like to progress into, but I wasn\u2019t focused on making it happen. I hadn\u2019t applied for any directing jobs, and there were a lot of wonderful productions I was committed to as a performer. And at this stage of my life, to be able to dance really needs a lot of commitment!<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But at the end of this summer, the Vienna Opera asked to talk to me. I am very instinctive, it has always been clear to me when I have had to change and move on. This felt like the moment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">How well do you know the company?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">I have been affiliated to the Royal Ballet, to La Scala, to Ballet Theater and the Hamburg Ballet. With Vienna, nothing. At first I thought, Is this the right place? I don\u2019t have a history with them. Then I realized that is actually a plus. I can be committed and involved, but detached, which is a nice place to start.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And I grew up in the opera house system, at La Scala, so it is a structure I understand very well. So I thought, I don\u2019t know Vienna, but I know ballet and I understand the system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">I think my experience of dancing all over the world has freed me to see different managerial approaches, and not be stuck in one way of doing things.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">The classics have always been important at the Vienna State Ballet. What kind of balance would you like between classical and more contemporary repertory?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is one of the great classical repertory companies, but I would like to have a company that lives in the present and looks to the future. What is clear is that it has to be a glamorous company, that reflects its history and the city. A sophistication has to be there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Maybe we will have a 60-40 balance of classical and contemporary work, but to be honest I don\u2019t know exactly at this point. You could also ask, what is classical? It\u2019s not just 19th-century narrative ballets, but the modern classics from the 20th or 21st centuries. I definitely want creation, new works, but always keeping in mind it is a ballet company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Will you program different kinds of works at the two theaters?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">I think the programming has to be differentiated between the State Opera and the Volksoper, which does operettas and lighter work. But I don\u2019t know the audiences yet, and I am really just brainstorming now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">What is clear to me is that the word \u201cexcellence\u201d must be high up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/10\/27\/arts\/dance\/alessandra-ferri-vienna-state-ballet.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ballerina Alessandra Ferri has had many dance lives. Now she will have another, offstage. On Tuesday, the Vienna State Ballet announced<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/alessandra-ferris-next-act-running-the-vienna-state-ballet\/27\/10\/2023\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}