Frédéric Olivieri

Born in Nice, after graduating from the Conservatory, in 1977, he won the First Prize at the Prix de Lausanne, thus gaining direct admission to the Paris Opera Ballet School. He then joined the Ballet Corps of the Opéra de Paris under the direction of Violette Verdy, Rosella Highthower, and Rudolf Nureyev. At the Opéra de Paris, as a Soloist dancer from 1981, he performed the most important roles in the classical repertoire and collaborated with numerous guest choreographers such as Maurice Béjart, John Neumeier, Kenneth MacMillan, Alwin Nikolais, Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, Glen Tetley, and Roland Petit.

In 1985, he became the Principal Dancer of the newly formed Ballets de Monte-Carlo under the direction of Pierre Lacotte and Ghislaine Thesmar, soon becoming Étoile. Until 1993, he interpreted major roles in the classical repertoire and was the protagonist of creations specifically designed for him by choreographers such as Uwe Scholz, Jean Christophe Maillot, John Neumeier, and Roland Petit.

In 1993, he became the Principal of the Hamburg Ballet Company, directed by John Neumeier, concluding his brilliant career as a dancer. Between 1996 and 2000, he was at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, first as the Ballet Master of the MaggioDanza company and from 2000 as Artistic Director. In 1998, he also took on the role of Ballet Master and artistic consultant for the Ballet of the Zurich Opera directed by Heinz Spoerli.

Also in 2000, he became the principal Ballet Master of the Ballet Company of Teatro alla Scala, of which he became Artistic Director in 2002, holding this position until 2007 and again from 2017 to 2020. During his tenure, he expanded and renewed the repertoire of the Scala company with new productions of major ballets and new creations by artists of undisputed caliber. Just to name a few, Vladimir Bourmeister, John Neumeier, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Jiří Kylián, Frederick Ashton, Angelin Preljocaj, Christopher Wheeldon, Mauro Bigonzetti, Fabrizio Monteverde, Jacopo Godani, Maurice Béjart, and Roland Petit.

Since 2003, he has been the Director of the Dance Department of the La Scala Academy, and since 2006, as the Director of the historic La Scala Academy Ballet School, he has provided his students with the opportunity to attend masterclasses with internationally renowned dancers and choreographers, enriching the repertoire with important titles by August Bournonville, George Balanchine, Mats Ek, Maurice Béjart, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, José Limón, Roland Petit, Mario Pistoni, Angelin Preljocaj. He has also choreographed new editions of famous ballets for the School, such as The Nutcracker to Tchaikovsky’s music, Cinderella to Prokofiev’s music, and La fille mal gardée to Peter Ludwig Hertel’s score.

Among the awards received, he is remembered for the Leonide Massine Prize (1986), the title of “Knight of the Order for Cultural Merits” conferred by Prince Ranieri of Monaco (1992), and the title of “Knight of Arts and Letters” awarded by the French Minister of Culture (2005).