NEW YORK (AP) — When Alessandra Ferri, one of the most celebrated dramatic ballerinas of this or any time, takes the stage Friday at the Metropolitan Opera House to channel Virginia Woolf, logic dictates it will be her last dance appearance. It’s not merely that she’s now 61 — albeit dancing exquisitely — and sharing a stage with dancers one-third her age. It’s also that she’s about to embark on an exciting new chapter as artistic director of the Vienna State Ballet, and plans to devote herself “200%” to the task.
But back to that logic thing: It hasn’t played much of a role in Ferri’s rather astounding career. After all, she’s retired before — in 2007, from American Ballet Theater — with fanfare and glittery confetti and countless bouquets. Logic would have dictated she stay retired, but there she was in 2015, creating the Woolf role in Wayne McGregor’s “Woolf Works,” which she’s reprising this week with ABT.
And there she was her signature role, at ABT for a night, somehow making a lovesick teenager believable at age 53. So it’s understandable if Ferri will not, even now, say “never again.” “I’m not going to think about it!” the dancer said laughingly (but firmly) in an interview last week, taking a break between rehearsals.
”I mean, I do THINK this is it, because I know what’s coming next.” But life, she adds, can be very surprising. Like that time she ran into choreographer Martha Clarke on the street, six years after .
