“AND Again change home, again things change … ». Ivano Fossati’s song seems written for Alessandra Ferri. Who does not stop accepting challenges and has just inaugurated a new chapter: artistic director of the glorious Wiener Staatsballett (Including academy), which performs both at Wiener Staatsoper both to Volksoper Wien.
His revolution
In the beginning there was training in Milan, atAcademy of Scala; The entrance to the Royal Ballet in London and, in 1985, to the American Ballet, the collaborations with the highest choreographers (inspired Kenneth Macmillan, Frederick Ashton, Micha Van Hoecke, Roland Petit, William Forsythe).
Then the farewell to the scenes, between 2007 and 2013 And, to follow, the return as a true revolutionary: just Giuliette, just manon, It is the first étoile of history that takes its peers on stage (Virginia Woolf in Woolf Works by Wayne Macgregor; Lèa in Chéri by Martha Clarke; the divine Eleonora in Duse by John Neumeier).
Alessandra Ferri (photo Andreas Jakwerth).
“You are chills”
“At the beginning the appointment surprised me a little: I had long relationships with very important companies, but Vienna was not part of my path. Thinking about it, however, I understood that this was fantastic: I am absolutely objective, the past cannot influence me. I had to observe the city, understand its immense artistic history and take into account: they are stages with a glorious past. When you listen to the Wiener Philharmoniker orchestra, the chills come, and it must be the same for the dance ».
Alessandra Ferri and Baryshnikov
Alessandra Ferri in Vienna (photo Andreas Jakwerth).
It is a company specialized in the traditional repertoire.
Yes, but it does not mean excluding contemporary choreographers, and I do not mean contemporary in the sense of bare feet or with socks: today’s choreographers who have the tools to work with a “classic” company without distorting their identity.
There are those who claim that the classic is overcome in a society that is emancipating from the concept of gender.
Complex speech … I just emphasize that it is certainly not overcome: if you look at a picture of Caravaggio and the creation of a visual artist, it is not that one is better than the other. Our program 2025/2026 embraces everything there is to embrace the masters with the right creations for us: from Giselle in the version by Elena Tschernischova (it was my coach when I danced it with Mikhail Baryshnikov) a Kallirhoe by Alexei Ratmansky, from The bat by Roland Petit, passing through Jewels by George Balanchine and arriving at Pam Tanowitz, today one of the greatest talents.
Was the choice of titles sentimental?
No, sentimental no, even if someone accused me of privileging what I danced. The opposite was difficult, I danced almost everything! (laughs) Let’s take The batfor example, it was natural that there was, being the bicentenary of the birth of the Viennes very Johann Strauss.
“Priceless emotion”
On what aspects will he focus on training?
On the technique, first of all, which does not consist in performing 15 piroettes, but in becoming so master that – while damn – you don’t have to worry about it anymore and you are free. However, my approach is to go beyond preparation for the show: I try to ensure that the dancers find the door of their heart, their soul, and I try to affect them the courage to go there. When I see that someone arrives (and I know it because the traits of the face change), it is an incredible emotion. Priceless.
In 2007 they offered her the same role to the scale: he refused.
It was the year in which I had decided to stop: I did not intend to go from an intense career to an equally demanding one. I certainly did not fear theHorror Vacui!
Do you grasp differences between this new generation and the previous ones?
Yes, as far as you think it concerns anyone: we live in the universe of social networks and it seems to me that you always look at an external eye, worried about how we belong instead to live with intensity. The effort is to make them understand that fragility and vulnerability represent a force, not a worm, and it is necessary to use them to get in touch with who you are.
“Just magnetic self-life”
Alessandra Ferri and Julio Bocca superverse the tests (photo Ashley Taylor).
The secret to knowing how to reinvent each time at the highest level?
No secret: when something I love is presented to me, that I have to do it, I can only do it. Maybe the doubt comes to me later (moving to Vienna, a city whose language I don’t even speak?) … Too late, now we don’t go back. A friend of mine told me I’m courageous to start over 62 years of age. Instead I say. “Wow, something I haven’t measured myself with. I feel alive!”. I have never followed strategies, it is against my nature. I am happy with this unpublished role, it takes me a lot, fills me. It is an excellent period: I have even become a grandmother thanks to Matilde (born, like Emma, from the Union with Fabrizio Ferri, editor’s note).
Will we still see her dance?
No, no, I don’t think.
This will also be liberating …
Without a doubt: when I wake up in the morning, I don’t have to make me “a magnetic car” anymore “to understand if-and where-I have badly … I drink slowly a cappuccino on the terrace and maybe I do 40 minutes of exercises, but not always …
“How the horizon changes, the weather, the way of seeing,” continues the text of Fossati.
I am more careful today to others. Ballary is so phagocych that you just worry about yourself. I learned to see others, to listen to them. In work and automatically happens in everyday life.
“Change love”
Alessandra Ferri in Vienna during the tests (photo Ashley Taylor).
The song concludes with “I tonight change love”.
In my life there was a passage that is precisely that of Giselle: from your “little” love, from your “need”, to a love that is eternal and is for everyone. It will be age! (laughs with taste)
It is generally the result of spiritual path.
I would rather say of an awareness of our self. The awareness that we are able to touch things higher than us. Like Giselle, in fact.