Fabio Grossi
Encyclopedia
Early life
He trained at the Accademia Nazionale di Danza in Rome, where he graduated with full marks.He also studied with Marika Besobrasova in Monte-Carlo, Rosella Hightower in Cannes, Wilhelm Burmann in Geneva and Milan, Philip Beamish in London and Milan, Raymond Franchetti in Marseilles - among others.
Performing career (1997-2007)
At age 19, Grossi was a First Prize Winner at the Rieti Dance Competition in Italy and the only Italian to be a Finalist and a Diploma Winner at the 1997 Moscow International Ballet Competition in Russia, which was directed by Yuri Grigorovich.On October 11, 1997 he made his debut with Aterballetto (Italy).
Then he successively joined:
- the Grand Théatre de Genève,
- the Leipziger Ballett,
- the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and
- the Ballet National de Marseille.
From 2003 to 2007, he has been one of the leading dancers of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements...
performing as partner of Italian ballerina Carla Fracci
Carla Fracci
Carla Fracci is a ballet dancer and actress. Her career highlights include Nijinsky, Giselle , Complete Bell Telephone Hour Performances: Erik Bruhn 1961-1967.-FAO Ambassador:...
.
Choreographic repertory
As a Principal DancerPrincipal dancer
A principal dancer is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company....
, Grossi's repertoire included most of the major classical, neoclassical and romantic roles of the ballet tradition such as Giselle
Giselle
Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
, Swan Lake
Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
, Mikhail Fokine's Les Sylphides
Les Sylphides
Les Sylphides is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc. Its original choreography was by Michel Fokine, with music by Frédéric Chopin orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. Glazunov had already set some of the music in 1892 as a purely orchestral suite, under the title Chopiniana, Op. 46...
and Petrushka
Petrushka
Petrouchka or Petrushka is a ballet with music by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, composed in 1910–11 and revised in 1947....
, Léonide Massine's Pulcinella
Pulcinella
Pulcinella, ; often called Punch or Punchinello in English, Polichinelle in French, is a classical character that originated in the commedia dell'arte of the 17th century and became a stock character in Neapolitan puppetry....
and George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
's re-created pieces La Chatte and The Ball.
At the Rome Opera House, numerous principal roles in neoclassical and contemporary new works (by Luciano Cannito, Paul Chalmer, Millicent Hodson, Luca Veggetti and others) have been made on him.
He also performed lead roles in ballets by George Balanchine (The Four Temperaments), Jiri Kylian
Jiří Kylián
Jiří Kylián is a Czech dance choreographer.Kylián studied in Prague and, at the age of 20, won a scholarship at the Royal Ballet School in London. He joined the Stuttgart Ballet in 1968 and worked under John Cranko, where he began to choreograph. Kylián became Artistic Director of Nederlands Dans...
(Sinfonietta), William Forsythe
William Forsythe (dancer)
William Forsythe is an American dancer and choreographer resident in Frankfurt am Main in Hessen. He is known internationally for his work with the Ballett Frankfurt and The Forsythe Company...
(Steptext, Approximate Sonata), Uwe Scholz (Bach-Kreationen), Ohad Naharin
Ohad Naharin
Ohad Naharin is an Israeli contemporary dancer, choreographer and dance company artistic director.-Biography:...
(Axioma 7), Robert North (Troy Game), Amedeo Amodio
Amedeo Amodio
-Early career:Born in Milan in 1940, Amodio trained at the ballet school of the Teatro alla Scala, whose ranks he joined immediately. While there, he performed in productions by Léonide Massine , George Balanchine , and Petit -Early career:Born in Milan in 1940, Amodio trained at the ballet school...
(Afternoon of a Faune), Marie-Claude Pietragalla (Sakountala, Ni Dieu ni Maitre), Mauro Bigonzetti
Mauro Bigonzetti
Mauro Bigonzetti is an internationally acclaimed choreographer of contemporary ballet. Born in Rome in 1960, Bigonzetti trained at the ballet school of Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and entered their company in 1979. In 1983 he joined the Reggio Emilia company Aterballetto, renowned for its...
(Comoedia, Wakti - both created for him) and many others.
Accomplishments
He won the Léonide Massine Ballet Award in Positano twice, as an Emerging Talent in 1997 and as an Established Artist in 2007, and the Anita Bucchi Dance Award as the Best Male Dancer of the Year (season 2006/07) with the following motivation:"Young artist with unequalled personality and charism. His performances are the out-come of a very hard work of research, synthesis and introspection, completed by a vigorous and mature technique."
Described as "a major star in the making", Fabio Grossi has been regarded by critics and audience as one of the most talented Italian dancers of the moment and as one of the best the Rome Opera Ballet has lately had among its ranks.
Etoile and Ballet Master (2008)
On May 11, 2008 he danced his farewell performance as a Guest Artist of the Arena di Verona, with the role of Albrecht in Giselle at the Teatro Filarmonico. Then he worked there as a Ballet MasterBallet Master
Ballet Master is the term used for an employee of a ballet company who is responsible for the level of competence of the dancers in their company...
.
Today
Fabio Grossi lives in Rome devoting himself to ballet teaching, with the following purposes:"The teaching method, availing itself of an extremely wide artistic experience and of an unremitting individual technical research, proposes an invitation to dance as harmonious movement and free self-expression. By using the auspicate fusion of a prevailingly French-inspired base, marked by soft simplicity and coordination, with a typically Western rhythmical variety, the ballet class is conceived as a search of purity through the combination of body, mind and heart; with the ultimate aim of recovering an inner joy which is both self-nourishment and sharing with the others".