Julio Bocca, the most famous Argentine dancer in recent memory, will be the next artistic director of Argentina’s national ballet company, starting in February, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires announced Tuesday.
As a star of American Ballet Theater, Bocca was known for his ardor and for his explosive onstage chemistry with the ballerina Alessandra Ferri. When he retired from ballet in 2007, the expectation was that he might one day direct Argentina’s national ballet troupe, based at the grand and venerable Teatro Colón. Now that has become a reality.
The Colón, where Bocca was trained and began his professional career, has long suffered from work inefficiencies, rivalries and labor unrest.
“What I want,” Bocca said in a video call from Buenos Aires, “is for this company to find its place among the best in the world. I want what happens inside the Teatro Colón to be as celebrated as the theater itself.”
Bocca, 57, will be the linchpin of a new leadership team at the Teatro Colón, including new directors for the opera and symphony orchestra, led by the Uruguayan Gerardo Grieco, an experienced manager, who recently became the theater’s general director. Bocca and Grieco worked together at the Ballet Nacional Sodre in Montevideo, Uruguay, where Bocca was the director from 2010-17.
Bocca twice turned down offers from the Colón. He was interested, he said, but “each time, when I gave my conditions, I was told that they were simply impossible to meet.”
Those conditions included more working hours for the dancers, more performances for the company, the dancers’ attendance at daily classes, and the autonomy to make artistic decisions about casting and repertoire.
What changed? The city government, which controls the theater, has new leadership as of last year. The new culture minister, Gabriela Ricardes, has made reforming the Colón a priority.
In a phone interview, Ricardes said she was determined to “find the best people.” It was essential, she said, to move from a “personalist, top-down model to a model based on teamwork and collegiality.”
Bocca was central to her vision. “He represents everything we Argentines are capable of,” she said, “the best of us.”
It’s important that Bocca arrives with the support of Ricardes and of Grieco, who has lengthy experience negotiating with powerful unions. “I bear the scars,” he said.
Previous ballet directors have not had such backing. In 2022, Paloma Herrera — also an established international star — resigned as the company’s director, citing intractable challenges: insufficient rehearsal time, and interference in casting decisions. “It’s impossible to make significant changes without directorial or political support,” Herrera said in a WhatsApp message, “and I never had that.”
Grieco has already succeeded in adding an extra hour to the workday (for a total of six), with a corresponding pay increase. Bocca hopes it will encourage the dancers to come to morning class, which falls within working hours, and which he considers “part of the essential daily work needed to achieve excellence as a dancer.”
Another, longer-range challenge is that the dancers, as public employees, have a retirement age of 65. Most dancers stop performing long before that age, so almost half of the troupe’s 88 members no longer appear onstage. Additional dancers have to be hired on yearly contracts.
Ricardes and Grieco are committed to tackling this problem. Grieco said he hoped a solution might be found in two or three years. “We’re taking this to the national government,” Ricardes said, “and we’re trying hard to find a solution.”
Bocca’s plans for the company are wide-ranging: He wants to invite choreographers like Christopher Wheeldon, Mats Ek and the Spaniard Goyo Montero to make ballets in Buenos Aires. His wish list includes works by Nacho Duato, William Forsythe and Jiri Kylian, as well as the 19th-century classic “Paquita.” He would like to do co-productions with the Vienna State Ballet, now headed by Ferri, his former dance partner; and San Francisco Ballet, directed by Tamara Rojo, with whom he has also danced.
Bocca also plans to invite guest instructors who will challenge the dancers, including José Manuel Carreño, a fellow Ballet Theater veteran, and Herrera. He is in talks with the school of the Paris Opera Ballet about creating a partnership with it and the Colón’s affiliated school, the Instituto Superior de Arte. “The Paris Opera brings that quality of detail, that excellence, that is what we need the most right now,” Bocca said.
Bocca said he hoped that by making these changes, the level of the company would rise, encouraging the most talented dancers to stay. In previous decades, many, like Bocca and Herrera, left for companies abroad.
“There is so much talent here,” he said, “we need to value it and show it off.” He has already reached out to Argentine dancers working across the world, asking whether they might consider returning. “A few have said, ‘I’d like to, but let’s see how things go.’ That tells you a lot,” he said with a laugh.
But he’s undeterred. “When the curtain goes up,” he said, “people should see the best of the best.”
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