The Teatro Manzoni opens the 2024/2025 theatrical season with a rich program of events. The prose section will feature great performers and directors such as Umberto Orsini, Franco Branciaroli, Vincenzo Salemme and Massimo Popolizio, bringing to the stage works ranging from Molière to Eduardo De Filippo to Neil Simon. The new musical festival promises moments of great emotion, with performances by leading artists such as Ron, Irene Grandi and Rita Pavone.

Among the most anticipated performances, for Dance, “STRALUSC” by Gisella Zilembo, for Associazione MAB. The dance show, already applauded on 16 March, during a preview sponsored by Regione Lombardia, at Galleria Condominio di Milano, is preparing to bring on stage with a cast that combines professionals and emerging talents from the MAB world: Mike All, The Zizzi, Beatrice Risiglione (former RA student), Ester Papini (MAB finalist) and Andrea Cheldi (MAB multiple runner-up).

“STRALUSC”, which literally means “flash”, promises an intense and joyful artistic experience. This tribute danced to Alessandro Manzoni, on the occasion of the 240 years since his birth, tells a humanity “on the way”, which questions itself with lightness, in dialogue with the great classics. The musical narration, inspired by the most famous pieces of artists such as Cochi and Renato, Jannacci, Vanoni, Cattaneo, Vecchioni, Gaber and Mina, answers the question that gives the start to the action, carried out in close relation with the artistic installation of Ivan Nadin (for sculpture and design) and Gianni Tolentino (for Hautw couture Fashion):

What would happen if the Promessi Sposi were catapulted into the Milan of 2025?

On Sunday, 9 June, the Teatro Manzoni in Milan will be the stage for the fifteenth edition of the MAB Prize. The international recognition of Classical Dance entitled to Maria Antonietta Berlusconi. The event, strongly wanted by his son and MAB President, Silvio Beretta, promises an evening full of emotions and surprises.

Full links:

• Primavera: Kamilla Latifi (Italia)
• Juniores: Nali Dobrin (Romania)
• Seniores: Penelope Phelan (USA)
• Entertainment: Andrea Cheldi (Italia)
• Interballet: Andrea Cheldi (Italia)
• Turku Dance Camp: Harin Yum (Corea)
• Premio alla Carriera: M° Julio Bocca
• Premio Amici di MAB: Dott.ssa Veronica (Crego decana del corpo consolare milanese)
• Premio Gioia di Danzare, Sabrina Beretta: Fondazione AIEF

On 17 September, at the Teatro Carcano in Milan, in the context of the celebrations for the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Rep. of South Korea and Italy, the show “Gyeonggi in Fiore” was staged The presence of international political and cultural representatives. Ass. MAB participates in the evening, attending a refined kermesse of traditional Korean dances and music, in the name of excellent relations with the country and mutual esteem with the operators of reference sector.

The 2024 edition of the MAB Summer Intensives has just ended, with a large participation of young dancers at the locations of Cavallino/VE (Le Terrazze del Mediterraneo Camping Village 5*) and Riace Marina/RC (Il Partenone Resort Hotel 4). The participants attended lessons, masterclasses and workshops in the various choreographic disciplines, and auditions for access to the institutional training programs.
The MAB teachers shared their knowledge in a climate of great technical, artistic and human collaboration, welcoming students from all over Italy and abroad.

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The last stage of the Intensives took place in Finland with the first edition of the Turku Dance Camp, an international dance event that involved Finnish and Italian professionals. The camp and the gala were organized by Ruusuilla tanssijat ry, in collaboration with the MAB Association, Raija Lehmussaari Ballet School, the City of Turku, Turku University of Applied Sciences and EventiDanza.
Ruusuilla tanssijat ry, founded in early 2024, aims to promote ballet and other dance disciplines, creating new connections between local, national and international realities, and organizing dance shows, courses and events.
The closing Gala of the Turku Dance Camp represented the end of an international training course, with the performances of the participants, accompanied by the dancer Marko Juusela. The show, which was sold out, was prepared in the space of a few days of the Camp.
The performances began with an ensemble choreographed by Raija Lehmussaari, in which students from the various work groups performed, creating a friendly atmosphere despite the differences in age and level.
MAB talents shone on stage: Andrea Cheldi interpreted Pierre Beauchamp’s choreography Les Bourgeois with expressive ease, giving life to a young rebel. Giuseppe Fava instead enchanted with a variation of Giselle, obtaining great appreciation. Alisa Strygonkova and Maria Strizhak gracefully performed the variation of the Pearls from the ballet The Hunchback Horse.
Gisella Zilembo’s Renaissance choreography shifted the focus to artistic expressiveness, reaching very high peaks. Francesca Carobbio stood out in Jennifer Ravasio’s choreography, which fused fluid movements and tango accents, accompanied by the song “Guarda che Luna” by Nuda.
The Gala concluded with a spectacular pas de deux from Don Quixote, performed by Andrea Cheldi and Ester Papin.

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The next appointment with the Intensives will be the MAB Winter Camp, which will be held as usual during the Immaculate Conception long weekend (December 6-8). For more information, contact info@premiomab.it.

Stralusc at the FourMazione Project
The show funded by Regione Lombardia ‘STRALUSC’ created by Gisella Zilembo, which stars Andrea Cheldi, Beatrice Risiglione, Mike All and Ester Papini went on stage at the FourMazione Project in Vicenza, thanks to the invitation of Free Harmony Dance Time SRL – dir. Lidia Stragapede.

Among the students of the Artistic Residences MAB 2024, the M Posa. Francesco (teacher of reference for modern technology) selects Alessia Boccagni and Denise Boccagni (Teatro Oscar Milano – dir. M. Cagnani), Andrea De Giosa (Pas De Deux- dir. P. Tedone) , Giuseppe Fava (Liceo Coreutico G. Verga Modica.- dir. A. Moltisanti ) and Alessia Bertoldi (Asd ARABESQUE – dir. A. Sormani) , for the realization of a choreographic project, at Carducci Association of Como. The creation, entitled “Awakenings”, brings young dancers closer to the world of professionalism, also through a video production path, dedicated to the national and international circuitry of the performance.

The preselection for the third edition of MAB Usa continues, which will take place in New York on 28 (semi-finals) and 29 (finals) March, at the KNJ Theater, in Manhattan. The jury, composed of leading names on the international scene (Igal Perry, David Parsons, Nikki Holck, Melanie Person, Dandara Amorin Veiga, Giuseppe Bausilio) will evaluate the young talents who will reach the Big Apple, to pursue the MAB dream. Among them, also the Italians Andrea Cheldi (already winner of MAB Italia 2023), Noemi Cobelli (already finalist MAB Usa 2023) and Simone Bellia (promising Sicilian dancer, identified by Gisella Zilembo during the first edition of Eduardo Dance Competition – dir. art. Francesco Annarumma – held at the Teatro Eduardo De Filippo in Arzano – Naples, 24 and 25 February).

For information and registration: click here

MAB was born in the perspective of “transformation”, “evolution” and “looking ahead”. It does so from the very moment in which it sublimates the human experience of a far-sighted Woman, prematurely deceased and always in love with Life, young people and Ballet, in a project that serves the new generations and Classical Dance, for fifteen years, celebrates the idea that Art is a clear expression of the most precious values of existence itself.

This is a legacy, gathered with visionary strength by Maestro Roberto Fascilla, founder of the event and translated into a precise programmatic dimension by General Manager Gisella Zilembo, who was the creator, at the request of President Silvio Andrea Beretta and his family. It is a project, celebrated by “his city”, the Milan in which he was born and which has awarded him the highest civic honor, The Golden Ambrogino, and today known and appreciated worldwide.

MAB is the son of a great dream and the tireless work of many, to make it true.

MAB’s synergy and understanding with the iconic personalities of the International Ballet (which have always been recognized and gathered in the name of Mrs Etta, committing themselves as jurors in the different stages of the competition, with the responsibility to accompany with rigor and honesty the path of those who, over time, have ventured on the stage of the Teatro Manzoni) has built the future of many current stars of the ballet scene, which at MAB owe their debut and, as they often say, their own “luck”.

Among the finalists and winners, to give some examples, Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko, Emma Mardegan, Angelo Greco, Antonio Casalinho, Rebecca Storani, Linda Giubelli, Claudio Coviello, Oscar Valdez… among them also how many, from an idea of the outgoing director Julio Bocca, shared with the MAB management and welcomed by the 2024 board, one of the personalities called to succeed him at the head of the artistic committee of the fifteenth edition : Salvatore Manzo (First winner of the MAB Prize and now winner of the San Carlo in Naples). At his side in the jury, for the final 2024: Giuseppe Bausilio (whose podium of MAB earned the opportunity to fly to NY and become the first Billy Elliot in the history of Broadway, inaugurating a career admirable worldwide), Flavia Stocchi (first to win the title in the junior category and now professional in strength at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome), etc…

The idea of the Maestro Bocca, fully in line with the nature of MAB is that the Dance is such if alive and vital, deeply rooted in tradition to be able to project courageously into the future: for the fifteen years of the Prize, which bases its DNA on Classical and Neoclassical Dance, “looking ahead” means declaring the deep sense of the legacy of the Great Ones who made its history and reading its dynamic power.

The Ballet remains an intrinsic and essential object of the event, the Great Masters remain points of reference in the various stages of the event, which during the final celebrates the invaluable contribution, with a Lifetime Achievement Award and a passing of the baton to the winners of the first editions.

Not only that: the artistic direction duplicates and consolidates the founding idea that DANCE is ONE and that CLASSICAL is the essential basis, as such capable, with its lexical rigor and its precise poetic quality, to create avant-garde.

Thus, according to a vitalistic principle that intertwines tradition and innovation, roots and perspectives in line with the world of the current scene, is entrusted to a young étoile (Salvatore Manzo, in fact), exponent of the “pure classical world” and to an artist worldwide known for having practiced the contamination stage as the key to an extraordinary choreographic language, unthinkable regardless of a solid technical basis matrix Classical: Lizt Alfonso.

Classic is, in itself synonymous with universal: something that is able, in its titanic essence, to survive time and space, declining to the folds of human experience without losing its identity, able to evolve precisely in the name of the ability to “speak” outside and above circumstances.

MAB Award, for fifteen years it intends to support young people, promotes the Ballet and, for this, remains strictly focused on the Classical and Neoclassical world: foundations and springboard of a living legacy, which is itself, future.