Bolero a 'sensual ritual', ballet star Bolle says

(by Marisa Alagia) (ANSA) - Milan, March 7 - Italian ballet star Roberto Bolle, 43, on Saturday is debuting in a much-anticipated ballet - Maurice Ravel's Bolero choreographed by Maurice Bejart at Milan's La Scala Theater.
    "I am very happy to get on that table, it is a very different feeling from simply dancing on stage because it puts you in a different perspective from the other dancers and the public", Bolle said on the eve of opening night.
    The program on Saturday, March 10, includes the ballets 'Mahler 10', choreographed by Aszure Barton on Gustav Mahler's eponymous symphony, and 'Petit Mort', originally created in 1991 by Jiri Kilyan on the second centenary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's death.
    The director of the La Scala ballet company, Frederic Olivieri, expressed "great satisfaction" for the program.
    The first five performances, in which Bolle will dance the Bolero, have long been sold out.
    Martina Arduino will dance the following two performances, followed by Virna Toppi for another two and then by Gioacchino Starace for a night.
    Bolle said the role befits both a man or a woman - "it is sexless".
    He said possibly a male dancer could convey "more physical strength", "in any case, it is a sensual, erotic, iconic ritual like no other, it requires great concentration and stamina".
    The principal dancer continued saying that the ballet is "genius in its simplicity, no other Bolero is like Bejart's, for me it represented the discovery of something new even in myself, which had not gotten out yet".
    The ballet is "an essence, not a story, an almost obsessive, difficult 'crescendo' from a physical standpoint: it must be sensual, erotic but without exaggerating", he explained.
    Another ballet to debut at La Scala is 'Mahler 10', which will be danced before the Bolero.
    The choreographer Aszure Barton said she had long thought about working on Mahler's Symphoni N. 10 "without finding the courage".
    "I was able to do it in Milan: I promised myself that I would listen to that music four times a day for four times a year", Barton said.
    "I let it sink in and waited to see what happened to my soul: working with the dancers, the music became a medium through which I come into contact with them".
    Virna Toppi and Antonino Sutera will be among performers.
    David Coleman will direct the orchestra of the La Scala Theater.