Carla Fracci

Carolina "Carla" Fracci (; 20 August 1936 – 27 May 2021) was an Italian prima ballerina, actress and ballet director. Considered one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century, she was a leading dancer of La Scala Theatre Ballet in Milan, then worked freelance with international companies including the Royal Ballet, London, Stuttgart Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. Fracci is known for her interpretation of leading characters in several Romantic ballets, such as La Sylphide, Giselle, Swan Lake, and Romeo and Juliet. She also performed in ballets such as Nijinsky and Complete Bell Telephone Hour Performances: Erik Bruhn 1961–1967. She danced with partners including Erik Bruhn, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Later, she directed several ballet companies in Italy, including the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in Rome.

According to Bruhn, she "gave the world a new idea of the ballerina in 19th-century Romantic ballets". She appeared with many of the leading companies of the world, and received multiple honours for her performances.

Early life

Born as Carolina, Fracci was born on 20 August 1936, in Milan, to a tram driver and a mother who worked at a factory. During the Second World War, she lived with relatives in the countryside. In 1946, her mother brought her and her sister to a La Scala Theatre Ballet School entrance exam, which ended up being disastrous for Fracci. While her body type was deemed unsuitable for ballet, she was pretty enough to be the last of 35 students accepted. She described the early days at the school as "a crashing bore and a terrible chore." However, after she was cast as the mandolin in The Sleeping Beauty, performing alongside Margot Fonteyn, she changed her mind about ballet training and "started working very hard to catch up for the lost time." and further to her dancing the title role in Giselle with the London Festival Ballet the following year. In 1963, she left the company as she felt underpaid and underemployed. Instead, she pursued a freelance career. She appeared with leading companies of the world, to Andris Liepa's versions of Scheherazade, Petrushka and The Firebird. She was instrumental in bringing ballet to the people, such as an open-air performance in Paestum, and appearing in public squares and schools. thumb

In 1983, 2000, and 2003, Fracci was awarded three prestigious honors from the Italian Government, acknowledging her achievements. On 16 October 2004, Fracci was named Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Fracci's autobiography Steps after Steps was published in 2013.

On 20 December 2016, she presented the book Ballerina by the author Roberto Baiocchi, published by the Giunti publishing house in Florence, for which she signed the preface.

Personal life

In 1964, Fracci married theatre director Beppe Menegatti; the couple had a son, Francesco.

Filmography

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