Ferri & Bocca to coach at ABT JKO

The En Avant Foundation and American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School will soon present an extraordinary week of coaching, reuniting dance luminaries Alessandra Ferri and Julio Bocca.

Cynthia Harvey, artistic director of ABT’s JKO School and a co-founder of the En Avant Foundation, is providing her ABT JKO Upper Division students the opportunity to learn from the highly celebrated dancers. The focus of the classes and coaching will be Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, a ballet that emphasized the iconic partnership of Ferri and Bocca at ABT and internationally.

ABT JKO students will be coached by Bocca and Ferri in solos and pas de deux from September 25-30. Together the two artists will give a coaching demonstration during a special symposium for students and invited guests of the ABT JKO School and En Avant Foundation. The focus on MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, and the legendary partnership of Ferri and Bocca, will also be stressed during the students’ regular music lesson with ABT Principal Conductor Charles Barker and during their dance history class with Allison Eggers. The week will culminate with a master class and coaching sessions on Sunday, October 1 for a limited number of advanced students aged 14-19 from outside the school.

Ferri has reshaped her performance career by appearing in numerous projects ranging from performing with American Ballet Theatre (Cranko’s Onegin and MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet), to dance theatre pieces (The Piano Upstairs and Martha Clark’s Cheri), to contemporary ballets (Wayne MacGregor’s Woolf Works with The Royal Ballet and John Neumeier’s Duse with Hamburg Ballet), to opera (Gotham Opera’s The Raven.) She has appeared in a BOOT’s campaign as the face of a cosmetic line for “fabulous women over 50”.

Bocca, artistic director of the National Ballet of Sodre in Montevideo, Uruguay, is deeply committed to his growing company and to giving back to the dance world. He was jury president of the 2016 Prix de Lausanne and has been guest teacher around the world when his company commitments allow.

For more information visit www.enavantfoundation.com or write to info@enavantfoundation.com. Do not contact ABT.

Read more about the launch of Cynthia Harvey’s En Avant Foundation in this April 2014 article in Dance Informa Magazine.

Photo by Maria-Helena Buckley.