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Serata Forsythe

This program of three works by William Forsythe set to the music of James Blake has special meaning for La Scala Ballet. Its opening dance, “Prologue,” was set on the company in 2023, when it premiered with “The Barre Project” and “Blake Work I” under the program title of “Blake Works V.” The program’s return two years later revives its joyful earlier reception. On the final evening of a seven-night run, the program added up to an evening that showed off the company as a whole.

 

Performance

La Scala Ballet: “Serata William Forsythe”

Place

Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Italy, November 29, 2025

Words

Eva S. Chou

Alice Mariani and Christian Fagetti in “Blake Works I.” Photograph by Brescia e Amisano | Teatro alla Scala

“The Prologue,” a short piece for two women and five men, was engrossing from start to finish. The unceasing flow of dancers in varying combinations is set against the staccato bursts of sounds and silence in Blake’s song “Lindisfarne.” The La Scala dancers made seamless the continuous steps against the choppy sounds. It began with two men, Saïd Romas Ponce and Francesco Mascia, dancing like one yet individuated as they took steps side by side or mirrored each other or were reversed and mirrored in the same-sex duo that is a Forsythe hallmark. The expressive duo by Martina Valentini and Narvin Turnbull was the opposite, for their partnering capitalized on the different abilities that nonetheless remain in highly trained bodies. The work closed with a long, demanding solo, danced by Dominico Di Cristo, whose bare arms and legs showed the perfect musculature in his every step like that captured by classical sculpture. 

Domenico Di Cristo in “The Prologue” by William Forsythe. Photograph by Brescia e Amisano | Teatro alla Scala

Domenico Di Cristo in “The Prologue” by William Forsythe. Photograph by Brescia e Amisano | Teatro alla Scala

“The Barre Project” has long since made its transition to stage performance from the famed Covid-era work that Forsythe had created remotely for the New York City Ballet dancer Tiler Peck. It has since been set on other companies with casts of other sizes. At La Scala Ballet, the work was danced by four women and four men. The constraints of choreographing what the choreographer could see on a screen gave us a tour de force of dance in which a horizontal line of five or six feet was the defining unit of measure. On stage it was lit as a shining length against the black backdrop. When the piece began, Alice Mariani was at the barre. She led the way with a long session that united introspection with forceful changes of direction. Others took their turns, nearer or further from the referencing barre in dancing that still limited itself chiefly to horizontal to left and right. This retention of the original limitations, not exploring the depth of the stage, made vivid the past that remains in the present, and brought out the continued excellence of dancers.

Said Ramos Ponce and Linda Giubelli in “Blake Works I” by William Forsythe. Photograph by Brescia e Amisano | Teatro alla Scala

Said Ramos Ponce and Linda Giubelli in “Blake Works I” by William Forsythe. Photograph by Brescia e Amisano | Teatro alla Scala

“Blake I,” the closing piece, is a work for fourteen named dancers and many corps members. The curtain rose with all the dancers on stage, set out this way and that in small groups, all in light blue leotards and tights, dance skirts for women. When they began to move in the tendus and directional changes that typically start barre and center work, one felt an appreciation for Blake’s work as ballet music (here selections from “The Colour in Anything”). At La Scala, we saw ballet training and performance come together with no falseness. Here were dancers who were precise and free. Each grouping, each line, danced in unison without seeming mechanical. At points, the perfection of the ensemble work was given an accent by a dancer clad in dark T-shirt and pants, the veteran dancer Christian Fagetti. A trio of a man and two women, then a trio of two women and a man, took their turns, all elegant arms and long legs whose strength begin from deep sources. The concluding duet, danced by Emanuele Cazzato and Agnese Di Clemente, began and ended side by side. In between they danced with the utmost delicacy and coordination. At one point, they embraced briefly and when they parted, their arms seemed to hold the ghost of that shape for a while. Every segment in the performance of “Blake I” emphasized how the evening was designed to show the company as a whole. 

Eva S. Chou


Eva Shan Chou is a cultural historian of China, currently at work on "Ballet in China: A History." She has published articles on the establishment of the Beijing School of Dance, on China's firstSwan Lake, the founding figure Dai Ailian, and China’s cultural policies. ForBallet Review(New York)she wrote on performances by Stuttgart Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Opera Ballet of Rome, as well as companies from China performing in the US.Sheis professor in the Department of English, Baruch College, City University of New York.

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