Performers - Part 33

 Roberto Bolle

Roberto Bolle is perhaps the greatest male ballet dancer today.  Born in Italy in 1975, he was accepted into the ballet school at La Scala, Milan, at the age of twelve.

At age 20 he became a principal dancer at La Scala, and in 2009 he became the first Italian male principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater in New York.  Above, one of a series of photos by Bruce Weber for the book Roberto Bolle: an Athlete in Tights.

Another Bruce Weber photo.  Bolle has danced as a guest artist with all the world's major ballet companies.

By the way, he danced a solo at the opening of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.  That broadcast was seen by 2.5 billion people.  In 1999 he was named a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, and at the 2006 Olympics he raised half a million Euros for schools and hospitals in southern Sudan.

More recently, he has toured his ballet production called Roberto Bolle and Friends.  His name is a big draw in the ballet world.

Here he is on the cover of the Italian edition of Vanity Fair in 2014.

We end with a portion of his performance in the ballet Giselle at the San Carlo Theater in Naples, Italy, in 2010.  No wonder ballet aficionados love him!