Lucia Lacarra and Marlon Dino in Light Rain

Lucia Lacarra and Marlon Dino in Light Rain. Choreography by Gerald Arpino, music by Douglas Adams. Taken on 20.1.2014, at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Malakhov and Friends — The Final ballet gala.

 

Lucia Lacarra is dancing on Principal position at Bavarian state Ballet (Bayerisches Staatsballett). She was born in San Sebastián, Spain. When in her small Basque hometown a studio was opened that she was able to begin with lessons at 10. Soon she was sent to a summer course directed by Rosella Hightower. Later she was sent to San Sebastián to Mentxu Medel who worked with Lucia for three years in a completely unselfish way to prepare her for the audition to Victor Ullate´s school in Madrid. She was just fifteen when she danced Balanchine´s Allegro Brillante.  In 1994 she joined Roland Petit´s Ballets de Marseille as principal. Petit immediately entrusted her with the role of Esmeralda, with Patrick Dupont as her partner, in Notre Dame de Paris, replacing Dominique Khalfouni. From Roland Petit she learned above all to always be emotionally present on stage and she felt that in this company everything was danced in a somewhat more classical style. Within three years she danced the leading roles in seven ballets by Roland Petit, four of which were created on her, most notably Angélique in Le Guépard and, as partner of Nicolas Le Riche, in the famous Le Jeune homme et la Mort. In her pursuit of classicism she then decided to join the San Francisco Ballet. Under the direction of Helgi Tomasson she could dance Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty for the first time, i.e. some of the classical roles that a young ballerina has to master. The Cage, In the Night and Dances at a Gathering by Jerome Robbins became part of her repertoire, as well as six Balanchine ballets, from Serenade to Jewels, and Victor Gsovsky´s Grand Pas Classique, three ballets by Helgi Tomasson, MacMillian´s The Invitation, van Manen´s Black Cake, Nacho Duato´s Without Words, Roland Petit´s L’Arlésienne and Desdemona in Lar Lubovitch´s contemporary Othello. Lucia Lacarra has joined the Bayerisches Staatsballett with the 2002/2003 season in order to return towards the leading European choreographers.

Marlon Dino is currently principal at Bayerische Staatsballett. He was born in Albania and trained at the School of Choreography and Ballet in Tirana. In 1998 he joined the Genève Dance Center under the direction of David Allen. Thereafter in 2001 he danced for the Ballet of the Vienna State Opera. He became member of the Corps de ballet of the Bavarian State Ballet in 2002, where he danced a solo part in Jiří Kylián’s Six Dances. He was promoted to soloist in autumn 2005 and at the beginning of the season 2007/2008 to soloist. During the season 2009/2010 he became principal dancer.

Gerald Arpino (1923-2008) was an American dancer and choreographer. He was co-founder of the The Joffrey Ballet and succeeded Robert Joffrey as its artistic director in 1988. Born on Staten Island, New York, Gerald Arpino studied ballet with Mary Ann Wells, while stationed with the Coast Guard in Seattle, Washington. Arpino first met Robert Joffrey at Wells’s school. He studied modern dance with May O’Donnell in whose company he appeared in the 1950s. In 1956, Arpino was a founding member of the Robert Joffrey Theatre Ballet with Robert Joffrey. He served as co-director of the company’s school, the American Ballet Center, and was the leading dancer until an injury forced him to stop in 1963. By 1965 he had choreographed five works for the company, and became the Joffrey’s co-director and resident choreographer. In the first twenty-five years of the company’s existence, Arpino had created more than a third of all its commissioned ballets. After the death of Robert Joffrey in 1988, Arpino became the Artistic Director of the Joffrey Ballet and in 1995 moved the company to Chicago. In July 2007, he was named “Artistic Director Emeritus” as a search for a successor began. Arpino suffered from prostate cancer for seven months and eventually died on October 29, 2008. (Wikipedia)

Photo by Jack Devant ballet photography © with kind permission of the Staatsballett Berlin and Vladimir Malakhov. Special thanks to Eva Czaja.