Dancing For The Children

Mara Galeazzi was born in Brescia and studied at La Scala, Milan, where she got her diploma with full marks. She joined The Royal Ballet in 1992 and was promoted to First Artist in 1995, Soloist at the end of the 1997/98 Season and Principal in September 2003.

Roles in the classical repertory include the leading role in Fokine’s Firebird, Marie, Sugarplum Fairy and Rose Fairy in Nutcracker, Giselle (also under Carla Fracci’s direction) and Myrtha in Giselle, Medora in Le Corsaire, Gamzatti in Natalia Makarova’s La Bayadère, the leading role in Paquita divertissement, Aurora’s wedding pdd and Bluebird pas de deux in The Sleeping Beauty, the Act I Pas de Trois in Swan Lake, the Talisman pdd with Irek Mukhamedov and Rudolf Nureyev’s Raymonda Act III.

In the Frederick Ashton repertory she dances Lise in La fille mal gardée, Mrs Tittlemouse in Tales of Beatrix Potter, the solo La Chatte metamorpho-sée en femme (originally created for Merle Park), the Thaïs pas de deux (first danced on the 1995 Dance Bites tour), Voices of spring, Diana in Sylvia, Julia in Wedding Bouquet (role created for Margot Fonteyn), Fairy Autumn in Cinderella, Moth in The Dream, the Jackson Variation in Birthday Offering, in Rhapsody, Symphonic Variations, the Pas de Trois in Les Rendezvous and Scènes de Ballet.

In the Kenneth MacMillan repertory she dances Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Manon and Lescaut’s mistress in Manon, Mary Vetsera in Mayerling, Mathilde Kschessinska and the title role in Anastasia, Winter Dreams’ Farewell pdd with Irek Mukhamedov, the Chosen one in The Rite of the Spring, the Second Movement of Concerto, the Youngest Sister in Las Hermanas, the First Sister in My Brother, My Sisters, Gloria, Triad, Countess Marie Larisch in his Mayerling, Principal White Girl in Song of the Earth, The Woman in The Judas Tree, Images of Love and Danses concertantes.

She also dances Tatiana in Cranko’s Onegin, the Young Wife in Glen Tetley’s La Ronde, Voluntaries and Colombina in his Pierrot Lunaire, one of the three girls in Ashley Page’s Fearful Symmetries, David Bintley’s Consort Lessons , ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café, Hommage to the Queen (Queen of Earth), Christopher Wheeldon’s pas de deux Pavane pour une infante défunte, Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, Twyla Tharp’s Push Comes to Shove (dancing in the company premiére), Matthew Hart’s Dances with Death, George Balanchine’s Symphony in C, Agon, Ballet Imperial, Calliope in Apollo and Emeralds in Jewels, the Yellow Girl in Michael Corder’s Masquerade and Flora in William Tuckett’s The Turn of the Screw, the role of Aurora in De Valois’ Coppélia, Girl in Blue in Nijinska’s Les Biches, the pas de deux from Ashley Page’s Sleeping with Audrey, Celestial in Anthony Tudor’s Shadowplay and The Leaves are Fading, the Street Dancer and the Dryad Queen in Nureyev’s production of Don Quixote, Stephen Baynes’s Beyond Bach, William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated, Mats Ek’s Carmen and Fokine’s Spectre de la Rose.

She has created roles in McGregor’s Intra, Tharp’s first work for the company Mr Worldly Wise (later dancing the pas de quatre), Wheeldon’s Souvenir (1996 Dance Bites Tour), Tuckett’s Puirt-A-Beul (1998 Dance Bites Tour), Page’s Two Part Invention (Part II), When We Stop Talking (1998 Dance Bites Tour) and Cheating, Lying, Stealing (Second Principal Couple), and Cathy Marston’s Tidelines (Principal Couple), Ashley Page’s This House Will Burn (2001), La Grêle in David Bintley’s Les Saisons (2003), Vanessa Fenton’s On Public Display (2004) and Eden.

Television performances include a live BBC broadcast from The Royal Opera House when she danced Aurora in Ninette de Valois’ Coppélia (February 2002), Ashton’s Thais pdd (November 2004), Voices of spring (April 2005) and Sylvia (December 2005). Her performance of Symphony in C was broadcasted live in many big squares all over the UK in June 2005. The director Philip Cox produced the documentary Facing Mara.

In May 2006 she is appointed ‘Best Italian Dancer Abroad’ (Danza & Danza Award). In November 2003 she received the nomination as Best Female Dancer at Critics’ Circle National Dance Award. She appeared as guest artist with the Stuttgart Ballet, Carla Fracci’s Teatro dell’Opera in Rome and the Scottish Ballet. She also danced with Irek Mukhamedov, Carlos Acosta, Tetsuya Kumakawa and their companies. In February 2005, after a Charity Gala in her home town of Brescia, Mara became an honorary member of Soroptimist International, a worldwide organization for women in management and the professions aimed at equality, development and peace. On the 17th March 2009 Mara was awarded the medal “Cavaliere Del Lavoro” (Knighthood) by the President of Italy.