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| Sila Avaakum taking pics of students of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in the beautiful city of Urbino. |
The Bolshoi Ballet Academy of
Moscow chose for the second consecutive year the Italian City of
Urbino, World Heritage site of Unesco, to carry out its Summer Course. We learnt about this
collaboration and wanted to know more. We hope our readers will enjoy
this article as much as we did learning and writing about this
interesting initiative.
Carolina Masjuan
Some years ago I met Francesca Bottacin,
Doctor in Art History and Professor at Università
degli Studi "Carlo Bo" of Urbino, thanks to the Summer
Course and Galas that Ibstage organizes each August in Barcelona.
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| Francesca Bottacin, Vilberto Stocchi, Luciana Savignano Emanuele Burrafato. Photo by Paolo Bianchi |
She was giving lectures to the talented
students following this course that during three weeks gathers the
most relevant dance teachers: Anna Maria Prina, Piotr Nardelli, Elías
García, Xiomara Reyes, … impossible to mention all of them
(please find link here),
finishing with two outstanding Galas with ones of the best
dancers in the world such as Daniil Simkin, Marianela Nuñez, Vadim
Muntagirov, Alicia Amatriain, Lucía Lacarra, Anastasia Limenko,
Evgenia Obratzova, Kimin Kim, Gonzalo García, Ashley Bouder,
Tiler Peck, and a never ending list of the very best...
So, we had the chance with Francesca to
share thoughts and talk about our passion. When she explained me
about the Bolshoi Academy course in Urbino, I immediately felt
interested to know more. And at the end it seemed to me that it would
be worth to write an article and share it in our web Ballet y más.
For two consecutive years the famous Academy
of Dance of the Bolshoi of Moscow chose the Italian city of Urbino as
the venue for its summer courses. This year they were present in
the city from 17 to 28 July.
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| Sila Avvakum making a photograph of a ballerina in Urbino. |
This year, the City of Urbino, together with the
"Carlo Bo" University and its spin off Lingua Ideale,
Italian language center and culture for foreigners, in synergy
with the Russian Ballet International, wanted to enrich this
initiative with further cultural content involving the whole city,
with the aim of enhancing the prestigious presence of the
Academy of Moscow and its pupils from all over the world.
Monday July 17, in the meeting room of Palazzo
Ducale (formerly the Winter Garden) to inaugurate this second edition
of the Bolshoi summer school and to welcome the dancers, there was an
exceptional guest: the étoile of the Scala, Luciana Savignano, who
also trained at the Bolshoi and who presented her biography
"L'eleganza Interiore" (Gremese Editore, Rome) on the
occasion of this venue. To present the book, together with the
author, was the dancer and historian of dance Emanuele Burrafato.
The conference was introduced by Irina Pyatkina,
who was étoile of the Bolshoi and currently is a teacher at the
Academy and Honored Artist of the Russian Federation.
For official greetings, there was present Vilberto
Stocchi, rector of "Carlo Bo", Maurizio Gambini, Mayor of
Urbino, and Vittorio Sgarbi, famous italian Art Critic. The
meeting was coordinated by Francesca Bottacin as scientific director
of project and Dmitry Povolotzky from Bolshoi Ballet Academy and Director of Russian Ballet International.
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| Sila Avvakum shooting inside the theather in Urbino. |
Monica Ruggeri, as responsible for cultural activities and events of Lingua Ideale, also took part in the initiative as it also did Counselor Marianna Vetri, who has believed in this project because of the high cultural value it brings to the city and at the University of Urbino and who followed with enthusiasm its realization.
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| Vilberto Stocchi, Emanuele Burrafato, Luciana Savignano, Maurizio Gambini, Francesca Bottacin, Irina Pyatkina and Dmitry Povolotsky. Photo by Paolo Bianchi |
As presented during the inauguration ceremony,
interesting activities took place in this edition: the presence
in the city of the famous Russian dance photographer Sila
Avvakum and the new collaboration between Bolshoi Ballet Academy
and FIMA (organizer of the Festival of Ancient Music of Urbino)
carried out with the participation of the National Gallery of the
Marche.
As far as Sila Avvakum participation is concerned,
it has to be outlined the Dance Photography Exhibition of her work;
Sila being the official photographer of both the Stanislavskij
(before in Mariinsky) and Ibstage. Urbino, the amazing city with
such a great cultural heritage was the perfect environment to
appreciate her shots. Sila herself was truly moved to see her
photographs on those palaces, gardens or theaters, especially in
wonderful painter Rafael birthplace.
Please find a
link to a video where you can learn more about and watch a bit of
the wonderful spectacle gathering dance and live antique music. A
gem.
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| Sila Avvakum and students of the Bolshoi Dance Academy Summer Course inside the house where Rafael was born in Urbino. |
When a city,
its citizens, are truly interested on Art and the cultural
organizations on it share this passion, then great things can be
accomplished. We congratulate everybody involved on the organization
of such an event and encourage others to follow this example.
