Etoile Nicoletta Manni performs during the premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet L’ histoire de Manon at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Monday, July 8, 2024. It was just another night on the La Scala stage for Italian prima ballerina Nicoletta Manni when on Nov. 8, 2023, she received the surprise of her career: The 32-year-old dancer was named La Scala’s first Etoile, or principal dancer, from within the ballet corps in nearly 40 years.
Manni arrived at La Scala’s academy at age 13 from her small town in Italy’s southern Puglia region, where she started dancing in her mother’s ballet school a decade earlier. After completing the academy, she spent four years at the Berlin Staatsballet before returning toParis gets into the groove for historic Olympic opening ceremony, adapted to its iconic cityscapeA year later, she became prima ballerina, or principal dancer.
This season she traveled with the La Scala ballet to China, where she danced Giselle in Shanghai and Legris’ production of Le Corsaire in Hong Kong. She will travel to Australia later this summer for a gala with her Latvian-born husband, La Scala principal Timofej Andrijashenko, who fittingly proposed to her on the stage of the Arena di Verona two years ago, getting a roar of approval from the crowd.