Artistic Director Francesco Ventriglia Brings a New Vision to Alberta Ballet

by avenuecalgary

When ballet dancer Alexandra Hughes performs, she looks out onto “a sea of black.” Masked in makeup, the stage lights illuminate her costume and render her audience anonymous. The music plays, and “Alex” is left behind as her role takes over. Whether dancing as the bad-to-the-bone Wicked Witch of the West, or the playful Kitri in Don Quixote, hours upon hours of rehearsal prepare Hughes for the moment that ballet dancers live for: facing that sea of black.

“We’re working really hard,” says Hughes. “Which is what I want out of my career. It’s a very short career, so I want to be dancing as much as possible.”

And, with artistic director Francesco Ventriglia at the helm, she’s getting that wish. The entire Alberta Ballet company — particularly principal dancers like Hughes — are experiencing significantly more time facing the sea of black. Ventriglia has nearly doubled the number of titles performed within a season.

“My style as an artistic director is very much to inspire my dancers, and everyone who works with me, to work hard,” says Ventriglia, who officially started his tenure with Alberta Ballet in 2024. “There is always the opportunity to be better than ourselves.”

One way he encourages his dancers to push themselves is through coaching them technically. Indeed, the technical tradition of ballet is foundational to Ventriglia’s leadership ethos.

“The pillar of my artistic direction is traditional innovation,” he says. “The roots of classical ballet are extremely important. A ballet company without strong roots would be wobbly, like a table with three legs.”

But Ventriglia is not necessarily a traditionalist — he says his vision is to solidify these strong classical ballet roots within the company in order to be more cutting edge. By balancing traditional “white tutu” performances like last season’s La Sylphide, an Alberta premiere, with contemporary works like Grimm, a world premiere, audiences can see Ventriglia’s ideology of “traditional innovation” brought to life.

With the increased workload and demand for excellence, Ventriglia also prioritizes the dancers’ physical and mental well-being.

Alberta Ballet has partnered with Peak Health & Performance, a local group of multidisciplinary sports and injury clinics, to give the dancers access to a range of injury-preventing services, like physiotherapy and massage therapy, as well as mental health support.

“[The dancers] are artists, but, first of all, they are athletes,” says Ventriglia. “They use their bodies for hours and hours a day. I try to look after them in all aspects and create an environment where they are safe, protected, and where they can feel brave to try things.”

Ballet dancers perform on stage. — La Sylphide with Alexandra Hughes. Photo by Alberta Ballet/Nanc Price.

According to Hughes, Ventriglia has infused the company with an enthusiastic energy.

“In the studio, as a choreographer, as a person, Francesco gets very excited about everything,” says Hughes. “He jumps in with both feet.”

Indeed, this energy was one of the qualities that set Ventriglia apart from the more than 80 other applicants interested in the position of artistic director, in addition to his rich and varied experience.

“We were really looking for someone that had a lot of passion, that would be able to communicate well with our audience, and really elevate our performances,” says Heather Rae, Alberta Ballet board chair, about the search to replace long-time Alberta Ballet artistic director Jean Grand-Maître.

Rae says that what is most inspiring about Ventriglia is his absolute passion for the artform — specifically for dancer development and the connection between the professional company and the Alberta Ballet School.

A 1997 graduate of La Scala Theatre Ballet School, Ventriglia went on to perform with La Scala’s professional ballet company.

At the same time, he began his career as a choreographer with his own company, Heliopolis. At the age of 32, Ventriglia was the artistic director for the Florence Opera House — making him the youngest artistic director in Europe. In 2014, he became the artistic director for the Royal New Zealand Ballet, followed by his role as adjunct artistic director for the National Ballet of Uruguay from 2018 to 2020.

Understanding the importance of providing students the opportunity to perform with the professional company, Ventriglia has supported Ashley McNeil, the Alberta Ballet School director, in more than doubling the number of students participating in the Alberta Ballet Trainee Program.

Ventriglia also introduced the Alberta Ballet’s Winter Gala in 2023. For this event, the entire company and school comes together for one spectacular night of performances in Calgary and Edmonton.

“I think the way Francesco incorporated the full school through his annual Winter Gala is a really incredible vision, and an incredible opportunity for the students,” says McNeil.

Along with community building between the professional company and school, Ventriglia is passionate about community outreach throughout the province. For example, he visited both children’s hospitals in Edmonton and Calgary, accompanied by dancers dressed in their roles for The Nutcracker and Ventriglia’s own The Wizard of Oz, respectively.

“It’s very important to me, because I was a child in a hospital in the north of Italy, many, many years ago, and lots of dancers came every afternoon to entertain the kids,” says Ventriglia. “When I was out of the hospital, I asked my parents to become a ballet dancer. That’s where my journey with ballet started.”

As for dancers like Hughes, who accompanied Ventriglia to Edmonton’s Stollery Children’s Hospital as Sugar Plum, connecting with the community creates an opportunity to replace the “sea of black” with genuine connections. “I think visiting the kids was super special and really important,” she says.

Through all of these efforts to reenergize the community, the ballet school and the dancers, it is clear Ventriglia is bringing something new to the Alberta Ballet stage, both literally and figuratively.