The present day Ballet Company of Teatro alla Scala can boast a glorious past whose roots go back centuries to the 1778 inauguration of the world’s most celebrated musical theatre. Illustrious choreographers, such as Jean-Georges Noverre, Gasparo Angiolini, Salvatore Viganò, were to exert great influence on dance in Europe, even before the founding in 1813 of the Imperial Dance Academy of La Scala. From here Carlo Blasis, the illustrious dancer, teacher and theorist brought Ballet into the romantic period, contributing to the technical innovation of its style. In Russia, Enrico Cecchetti, propagated the teaching of the Italian academic technique and by way of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, which he had joined, elevated its status in this new era.

Dance at La Scala entered the twentieth century also with renowned choreographers linked to the Ballets Russes, like  Mikhail Fokin and Leonide Massine. From the free and expressionist dance of Middle-Europe of the thirties and forties, came, above all, Aurel Milloss. Arturo Toscanini gave him the task of reuniting the lost threads of the Scala company after the Second World War.  For his repertoire, he not only chose great musicians, renowned set designers and painters, but also illustrious guests such as George Balanchine.

In the fifties and sixties, La Scala became a stage open to the best names of the then artistic panorama. Roland Petit made his début in 1963, Maurice Béjart in the seventies, and many guest stars were added like Rudolf Nureyev, beginning in 1965 a very close collaboration with the Milanese theatre.

Recent years have seen the La Scala Ballet expand its visibility at home and abroad, with debut performances at the Paris Opera, Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, the Mariinsky (Kirov) Theatre, and in the USA, Germany, Turkey, Brazil, Spain, Mexico and China, to name just a few. Thanks to the unfailing expressive, technical and interpretative appeal of La Scala’s étoiles Svetlana Zakharova, Roberto Bolle, Massimo Murru, guest artists, principals, newly appointed soloists, and the many Corps de Ballet members frequently selected for major roles, Makhar Vaziev’s direction (from 2009 since end of 2015) resolutely embraces a set of precise artistic standards. The aim is to reinvigorate the twentieth century’s most refreshing and influential ballet repertoire as a “tradition of the new” in the ballet world, reviving the necessary classics, providing young choreographers with creative opportunities, and drawing celebrated musical directors to the ballet rostrum, both as an element of added appeal and also as an unmistakable sign of the musical excellence that befits La Scala, not only in its operatic performances but also in its dance productions. Under his direction, the Ballet Company's chain of command has grown in every respect. Today's principals include Nicoletta Manni, Claudio Coviello, Virna Toppi, Martina Arduino and Timofej Andrijashenko and soloists include Massimo Garon, Marco Agostino, Vittoria Valerio, Federico Fresi, Alessandra Vassallo, Christian Fagetti Nicola Del Freo and Maria Celeste Losa and very young dancers trained at the Ballet School are emerging from the ranks of the Ballet Company: among them, and many new dancers who have debuted in main roles, fulfilling the Company's brief to recognise and cast burgeoning talent.

The successor of Makhar Vaziev, Mauro Bigonzetti, had to withdraw the ballet direction due to a health problem; from October 2016 the direction of the Ballet Company has been entrusted to Frédéric Olivieri.

Artistic Director：Frédéric Olivieri

Born in Nice, he attended and graduated from Music and Dance Conservatoire of that city.  In 1977 he won the First Prize in Prix de Lausanne, entitling him to enter the Ballet School of the Paris Opéra. In 1978 he joined the Paris Opéra Ballet Company under the direction of Violette Verdy and later of Rosella Hightower. He was appointed soloist in 1981, when Rudolf Nureyev was in charge of artistic direction of the Parisian complex. At the Paris Opéra Theatre he danced the most important roles in the classical and contemporary repertoire, working with several guest choreographers such as Maurice Béjart, John Neumeier, Kenneth MacMillan, Alwin Nikolais, Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, Glen Tetley, and Roland Petit. In 1985 he took part in the creation of the Ballets de Monte-Carlo as Leading Dancer under the direction of Pierre Lacotte and Ghislaine Thesmar, and after a few months in the presence of HRH Princess Caroline of Monaco he was awarded the title Étoile. With Ballets de Monte-Carlo since 1993, he has interpreted all the most important roles in the classical, neoclassical and contemporary repertoire, and has starred in creations that are expressly dedicated to him by choreographers like Uwe Scholz, Jean Christophe Maillot, John Neumeier, and Roland Petit.  

In 1986 he received the Leonide Massine Prize and in 1992 Prince Ranieri of Monaco awarded him with the title of Knight of the Order of Cultural Merits.

In 1993 he became Principal of the Hamburg Ballet Company directed by the choreographer John Neumeier, where he ended his brilliant career as a dancer. In 1996 he began a new professional experience at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where until 1998 he held the position of Maître de Ballet and assistant choreographer of the MaggioDanza troupe, for which he also created the choreography of Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo directed by Luca Ronconi, and the choreography of Aida by Giuseppe Verdi, directed by Mariani. He subsequently became Maître de Ballet at Zürcher Ballett directed by Heinz Spoerli. In 2000 he was appointed Artistic Director of MaggioDanza at Teatro Comunale Fiorentino. From September of that same year, he was principal Maître de Ballet of the Ballet Company of Teatro alla Scala. In 2002 he was appointed Director of the Ballet Company a position he held until 2007. During his management, the ballet repertoire of La Scala was expanded and renewed with new productions such as Swan Lake by Vladimir Bourmeister, La Dame aux Camélias by John Neumeier, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by George Balanchine, The Cage by Jerome Robbins, Symphony of Psalms and Petite Mort by Jiří Kylián, Marguerite and Armand by Frederick Ashton, Annonciation and La Stravaganza by Angelin Preljocaj, and Polyphonia by Christopher Wheeldon. Not to mention the oeuvres of some of the most renowned Italian choreographers such as Mauro Bigonzetti, Fabrizio Monteverde and Jacopo Godani, in addition to his close collaboration with the great choreographers Maurice Béjart and Roland Petit. During his tenure, the Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company presented this repertoire on the greatest stages of the world on numerous international tours.

Since 2003 he has been Director of the Dance Department of Teatro alla Scala Academy and in October 2006 he also became Director of the historic La Scala Ballet School. During his management he has given his pupils the opportunity to attend master classes with internationally renowned dancers and choreographers. Moreover, here too, he has enriched the School’s repertoire with important choreographies such as Napoli by August Bournonville, Serenade, Who cares?, Theme and Variations, and Tarantella by George Balanchine, Sleeping Beauty by Mats Ek, Gaîté parisienne suite and La luna by Maurice Béjart, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude by William Forsythe, Symphony in D, Evening Songs and Un ballo by Jiří Kylián, The Unsung by José Limón, Gymnopédie by Roland Petit, and Larmes Blanches and La Stravaganza by Angelin Preljocaj. He has also choreographed new editions of celebrated titles from the repertoire for the School, such as The Nutcracker set to music by Tchaikovsky, and Cinderella to music by Prokofiev.

In July 2005 he was awarded the title "Knight of Arts and Letters" by the French Ministry of Culture.

Programme: Giselle

A tale of love, betrayal and redemption set amid joyous peasant celebrations and the pallid host of Wilis, as fascinating as they are ruthless: Giselle, the romantic ballet par excellence, continues to attract audiences with its contrast between a sunny world and a dark and terrible kingdom inhabited by spirits. La Scala’s Corps de Ballet will once again bring the unforgettable choreography of Coralli-Perrot to the stage in the revival by Yvette Chauviré, whose attention to and refinement of roles such as Giselle have exalted the classical tradition in all its purity and won her worldwide fame. Her version, which made its La Scala debut in 1950, starred herself in the role of the unfortunate country girl who dreamed of love and loved to dance.

Programme: Don Quixote

With its sparkling energy and the warm colours of the staging by Raffaele Del Savio and Anna Anni, Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote, will transport audiences with freshness, joy and choreographic splendour to a enchanting Spain, with gypsy dances, fandangos, matadors, windmills and the suspended candour of the Garden of the Dryads. Set to Minkus’ accessible music, the adventures of Don Quixote and his trusted squire Sancho Panza interweave; or rather, they act as a pretext for a love story and for an evening of sizzling dances, scintillating and full of temperament, with funny supporting characters and virtuoso lead roles. Between fleeing, deceptions and disguises, Don Quixote will dance with his Dulcinea, and the young Kitri and the barber Basilio’s dreams will come true.

Glittering and full of character, Don Quixote requires superb technique in the variations, especially in the final gran pas de deux that celebrates the triumph of love: a true test of the talent of every étoile. Since Rudolf Nureyev’s first performance in Milan in 1965, together with Margot Fonteyn in Romeo and Juliet, La Scala has applauded him on numerous occasions, as the memorable interpreter of ballet masterpieces in unforgettable artistic partnerships, and his choreographic works have remained in the theatre’s repertoire. Don Quixote, in repertoire at La Scala since 1980 (with Nureyev and Carla Fracci as protagonists), is one of the true signature pieces of La Scala Ballet Company, recently applauded in 2016 - on the 400th anniversary of the death of Cervantes - in Milan and on tour in Tokyo. It will be staged again, in 2018, in the year that marks the eightieth anniversary of the birth of Nureyev and the twenty-fifth of his death, to pay tribute to the memory of the choreographer and genius of the ballet, to his charismatic personality and his inimitable artistic worth.