Tradition and modernity: The Ballet School of Accademia Teatro alla Scala

Project location: Italy, Milan
Project start date: November 2016 - Project end date: August 2017
Project number: 2016-068
Beneficiary: Fondazione Accademia d'Arti e Mestieri dello Spettacolo Teatro alla Scala

This project aims to:


•    Train young talents coming from Italy and abroad to become professional dancers with a multiple specialization in classic-academic and contemporary dance;
•    To transmit the cultural heritage of LaScala Theatre Ballet, one of the milestones of world Ballet’s History;
•    To organize encounter moments between the training and the professional world such as Masterclasses with internationally renowned choreographers. The Masterclasses will permit the pupils to confront not only with the professional world but also to be updated with the new artistic waves and movement;
•    To guarantee access to training to talents regardless of the economic background;
•    To answer to the lack of professional training Institution in the field of Classical Ballet.

The Project will reach the above mentioned outputs through two different actions to each other related:
•    ACTIVITY 1 – Scholarships grants;
•    ACTIVITY 2 – Contemporary Dance Masterclasses.

ACTIVITY 1 – Scholarships grants (September 1-30 2016)
Addressees: 10 (ten) Pupils of the Professional Course of the Ballet School
Actors: Committee of Accademia Teatro alla Scala’s Direction
Aims:
•    To guarantee access to training to talents regardless of the economic background;
•    To foster families with stated economic needs.
Output: n. 10 Scholarship by €2.000 (Euro two thousand/00) each addressed to n. 10 (ten) pupils of the Ballet School

Methodology: Pupils’ families intending to ask support for scholarships are being asked, within the 31st of July 2017, to submit an application to Accademia’s direction in which they need to state, through an official certification, the economic and patrimonial declaration. Within the 30th of September Accademia’s Direction will issue final applications’ results, after having evaluated:
•    Single economic situations of the applicants;
•    Artistic value of the applicants.

ACTIVITY 2 – Contemporary Dance Masterclasses (January 2017 - April 2017)
PHASE 1 -  "Un ballo" by Jiří Kylián (January 2017 - April 2017)
Addressees:
•    30 (thirty) Pupils of the Professional Course of the Ballet School;
Actors:
•    N. 2 Professional contemporary choreographer;
•    N. 1 Ballet School Director;
•    N.  2 Ballet School teachers;
•    N. 2 Ballet School Piano Accompanist;
•    N. 1 Person of Production Department Accademia;
•    N. 1 Person of Marketing Department Accademia.
Aims:
•    To transmit to Ballet School pupils, the artistic and technical competences of contemporary dance, through the learning of Jiří Kylián’s choreography;
•    To transmit to pupils the cycle of professional work, from the audition to the final staging of the work.
Outputs:
•    3 Weeks Masterclass with the following Choreographers:
Shirley Esseboom (CHOREOGRAPHER)
born in Den Haag, the Netherlands, where she also received her dance education at the Royal Conservatory, started her dance career in 1993 when she joined the Nederlands Dans Theater II. In 1997 she was asked to join the main company, Nederlands Dans Theater. In 1998 she was awarded the “Aanmoedigings Prijs” (Encouragement Prize) from the foundation Stichting Dansersfonds ’79. In October 2008 Shirley has received the “Prijs van Verdienste” (Award of Merit) from the same foundation. In 2003 she left the company to join Les Ballets de Monte Carlo where she worked with the director/choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot. She rejoined NDT I, the following year, where she remained dancing until July 2009.
During her career Shirley created many original works with choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Wiliam Forsyth Mats Ek, Hans van Manen, Ohad Naharin, Paul Lightfoot/Sol Leon, Saburo Teshigawara, Eduard Lock, Johan Inger, Nacho Duato, among others. Since 2005 she has been a regular guest teacher at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. She has also taught ballet classes and Kylian’s repertoire at various renowned dance companies, including NDT I and II, Royal National Ballet of Norway and Ballet Gothenburg. In 2008 and 2009 she taught ballet class and Kylian repertoire at the Maximum Dance Course, The Hague.
In january and march 2010 Shirley will be rehearsing Sechs Tänze, by J. Kylian, as well as giving morning ballet class at ITDansa, Barcelona.

Yvan Dubreuil (CHOREOGRAPHER)
born in Paris, Yvan finishes his training with success at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris in 1989. He then joined couple of days later the Nederlands Dans Theater 2 and Nederlands Dans Theater 1 from 1991, where he will stay until 2009. During this period he will grow under the creative works of Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Mats Ek, Hans Van Manen, Nacho Duato, Johan Inger, Paul Lightfoot, Saburo Teshigawara, Crystal Pyte etc… going through repertoire and creations with every one of them. Since 2009, he is engaged as ballet master for international dance companies staging works by choreographers Jiří Kylián and Johan Inger, dramaturge and co-choreographer together with choreographers Johan Inger, Carine Guizzo, Amos Ben Tal, Dylan Newcomb, Jorma Elo, Gaël Domenger and Cora Bos-Kroese and as ballet master and teacher in several international schools and Conservatorium. Yvan is holding a diploma of dance teaching and pedagogy from the Centre National de la Danse in Paris. He is also deeply involved since 2012 in the creative processes of the modular platform of dance, music, video and installations „OFF projects”.

•    Staging of the Choreography “Un Ballo” by Jiří Kylián at Teatro Comunale di Ferrara and the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, April 2017. On the music Pavane pour une infante défunte and Le tombeau de couperin by Maurice Ravel, “Un ballo”, it contains much of Kylián’s trademark choreography – from the use of fabric as part of the dance, to the stamps of the feet, to the slides along the floor and the elegant yet simple black silk dresses worn by the women. And although “Un Ballo” tells no particular story, each of the seven couples moving in unison imply their own separate relationships as they dance under a bank of candle-like lights. Kylián says that Un Ballo is a dance to music, nothing more, but it expressed trust and mutual support through connections, balances, contacts and pauses. Heads rest on the spines of others, backs arch in unison. The women’s skirts are used as frames as they bend their bodies back over the men and as the couples fall to the floor, they curve their bodies together. Then, as the men stand, they bend their heads to the women who hold them with their outstretched arms and hands.
Methodologies:
•    Audition to select participants to the Masterclass;
•    ballet classes;
•    contemporary dance techniques;
•    performing on stage.
Places:
•    Ballet School of Milan;
•    Teatro Comunale of Ferrara;
•    Piccolo Teatro Strehler of Milan.

PHASE 2 – “MA” BY AKRAM KHAN (February 2017 -  March 2017)
Addressees:
•    20 (thirty) Pupils of the Professional Course of the Ballet School;
Actors:
•    N. 1 Professional contemporary choreographer;
•    N. 1 Ballet School Director;
•    N.  2 Ballet School teachers;
•    N. 2 Ballet School Piano Accompanist;
•    N. 1 Person of Production Department Accademia;
•    N. 1 Person of Marketing Department Accademia.
Aims:
•    To transmit to Ballet School pupils, the artistic and technical competences of contemporary dance, through the learning of Akram Khan choreography;
•    To transmit to pupils the cycle of professional work, from the audition to the final staging of the work.
Outputs:
•    3 Weeks Masterclass with the following Choreographer:
Moya Michael (CHOREOGRAPHER):
Born in Johannesburg South Africa where she trained in ballet under the direction of Dianne Sparks. She went on to study to obtain a national diploma in Contemporary and African dance at the Tswhane University in Pretoria between 1994 and 1997. She was then awarded a full three year scholarship to study at P.A.R.T.S the School Of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker ROSAS. There she met Akram Khan and after completing her studies moved to London and became founder member of his company. Moya toured various of his works for a period of five years. She was nominated for a best dancer award at the “ITS” festival in 2003.
During her time in London she was commissioned to make her own work and so she created 'Hatch' which premiered at the South Bank in London in 2003. That same year she was awarded the Standard bank Young Artist Award for dance at the National Arts festival in Grahamstown South Africa. She was then invited back to Belgium by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and became a member of the ROSAS dance company where she stayed and still free lances with. In 2009 Moya was invited to create a duet for two dancers of the Attakallari dance Company for the India Bienniale in Bangalore. That same year she was also invited to create a work on the graduate students at Arizona State University. Moya has also been member of “Eastman” and part of the latest creation of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui "Babel" (Words) 2010. She also collaborated with the Jin Xing dance Theatre in Shanghai China and her latest collaboration was with visual artist ‘Chris Ziegler’ where she performed his ‘Corpus Pygmalion in Germany.

•    Staging of the Choreography “MA” by Akram Khan at Teatro Comunale di Ferrara and the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, April 2017. “Ma” deals with earth and sky, growth and fertility. Several sections are typical of Khan's style: sinewy phrases that take the rhythmic precision, fluid arms and sudden freezes of kathak, and cast them into a profusion of torques, twists and rolls.  “Ma” means both earth and mother in Hindi, and two spoken stories (with text by Hanif Kureishi) bring Khan’s intentions into focus. In one, he describes hanging from a tree to let ideas fall out of his head and take root in the ground – an idea mirrored in the many upside-down poses in the piece. In the other, two women – upended, one leg reaching skywards – recount the fable of a woman whose children are the trees that she planted as seeds. The story again finds choreographic echoes: in the dancers’ splay-legged spasms, as if in the throes of childbirth; in a soft, earthy mass of bodies that sends up limbs like tendrils.
Methodologies:
•    Audition to select participants to the Masterclass;
•    ballet classes;
•    contemporary dance techniques;
•    performing on stage.
Places:
•    Ballet School of Milan;
•    Teatro Comunale of Ferrara;
•    Piccolo Teatro Strehler of Milan.

Activity 3 – Communication and Promotion (September 2016 – June 2017)
Addressees:
•    Ballet and Opera lovers;
•    N. 5000 Theatre Audiences;
•    N. 1200 Accademia’s students;
•    N. 8000 Newsletter subscribers;
•    Facebook: 27.719 followers;
•    Twitter: 1.370 followers.

Actors:
•    External Relation Department Accademia Teatro alla Scala;
•    Marketing Department Accademia Teatro alla Scala.
Aims:
•    To foster and communicate the artistic activity of the Ballet School;
•    To communicate and widespread among cultural lovers the knowledge of contemporary dance.
•    to involve the social community in the artistic performances of the Ballet School.

Outputs:
•    N. 3 dedicated Newsletter;
•    n. 1 Facebook campaign lasting March - April 2017;
•    n. 1 Twitter campaign lasting March - April 2017;
•    Media Coverage.

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