In Conversation with ALESSANDRA FERRI … (In-person and Zoom)

Photo credits:  (ABOVE) Alessandra Ferri in rehearsal of Woolf Works at American Ballet Theatre, by Kyle Froman

(LEFT) Headshot © ASH

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DATE:  Tuesday, 11 February 2025

TIME:  7.30pm 🇬🇧

VENUE :  Royal Ballet Upper School, 46 Floral St, London WC2E 9DA

INTERVIEWER : Gerald Dowler

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Alessandra Ferri was born in Milan in 1963. She trained at the Scuola del Teatro alla Scala and then, aged 15, moved to The Royal Ballet School where she completed her last two years of training. She joined the Royal Ballet at the age of 17 and was appointed Principal Dancer of the company when still only 19 years old. Sir Kenneth MacMillan immediately entrusted her with all his most famous ballets and created several especially for her, one of which, Valley of Shadows, led to her winning her first Sir Lawrence Olivier Award at the tender age of 21. At the Royal Ballet she also worked with Sir Frederic Ashton and Dame Ninette de Valois.

Invited in 1985 by Mikhail Baryshnikov to join the American Ballet Theatre as Principal Dancer, she would perform, often at his side, all the roles of 

of the greatest choreographers of the 20th century, including Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Agnes De Mille, Anthony Tudor and Jiri Kylian; it was in New York that MacMillan created Requiem for Baryshnikov and Ferri, with music by Andrew Lloyd Weber. Again, alongside Baryshnikov, she also starred in the film Dancers in 1987. She remained with the American Ballet Theatre until 2007 but continued to work with the company until 2018 when Wayne McGregor created AfteRite especially for her.

In 1989, she also began a very long collaboration with Roland Petit, performing his ballets all over the world, as a guest of many international companies as well as the Ballet de Marseille. Petit created the role of »Le Diable Amoreux« especially for her and directed her in Jean Cocteau's La Voix Humaine at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan.

In 1992, she became a permanent guest at Teatro alla Scala, Milan, where she was appointed Prima Ballerina Assoluta. There, in 1998, William Forsythe created the ballet Quartet for her. 

In 2015, she resumed her collaboration with The Royal Ballet in London, where Wayne McGregor created the role of Virginia Woolf for her in his ballet Woolf Works, for which she won her second Sir Lawrence Olivier Award.

She worked frequently with John Neumeier, interpreting his choreography at Stuttgart Ballet, La Scala and often dancing as a guest at the Hamburg Ballet. In 2016, Neumeier created the role of Eleonora Duse for her in his ballet Duse.

From 2008 to 2014, she was Director of the Dance section at the Spoleto Festival where she presented works by Ratmansky, McGregor, Wheeldon, Pina Bausch, Robbins, Kylian, Neumeier and in recent years has produced and performed shows that she has taken on long international tours including L'Heure Exquise by Maurice Béjart, a work created by the great French choreographer in 1998, which was lost, reconstructed, and brought back to life by Alessandra with enormous success, and Trio Concert Dance, with which in 2019 she inaugurated the Linbury Theatre, the new theatre of the ROH.

In 2013, at the Signature Theatre in New York, Martha Clarke created the role of Léa for her in Chéri, a show that ran for 100 performances. In recent years, she has also dedicated herself passionately to teaching, holding the rehearsals for the principal dancers of the Royal Ballet, La Scala, and the American Ballet Theatre.

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This event is a hybrid LBC event.  Hybrid events offer both an in-person interview experience, as well as offering Zoom access for those further afield.

Both members AND non-members are required to book in advance, for all options.