Last year an other corps de ballet was closed by the Italian government, that decided to cut funding addressed to the one in Verona.
In Italy there are thirteen opera and symphonic institutions and previously, for each of them, there was a corps de ballet, but nowadays only four of them survived: Milan, Rome, Naples and Palermo.
There are 1.400.000 young Italian people that study ballet and dream to become professional dancers, but even if they could succeed, they would be probably obliged to go away from Italy. In fact in the other states dancers are more protected by the governments, that allow the maintenance of lots of corps de ballet.
For example Germany has more than fifty corps de ballet and France has 95 local companies and corps de ballet. Having only four corps de ballet in a State with 60 millions of inhabitants can only be considered shameful. The government should support the ambitions of its citizens, and not destroy them by the elimination of the possibilities to find fulfilment. I really hope that in the future things will change and everyone will understand the importance of developing not only the ballet, but all the forms of art and I hope that people will put effort into improving the situation.
Giulia Magri, 5 A Coreutico
