Alessandra Ferri (born in 1963) is an Italian ballerina. She danced as a Principal Dancer with the American Ballet Theatre in New York, as étoile (rank equivalent to prima ballerina) with the la Scala ballet company in Milan, and as an international guest artist. She retired on June 23, 2007 after a 22 year career with ABT, at age 44, with a performance of Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet at the Met. An internationally known dancer, she is widely considered one of the most famous ballerinas of the late twentieth century.
Alessandra Ferri was born in Milan, Italy, where she studied at the ballet school of the Teatro alla Scala until the age of 15. She then attended the Royal Ballet School, and in 1980 she won one of the three Prix de Lausanne, allowing her to continue studying at the Royal Ballet School on scholarship.
She joined the Royal Ballet in 1980 and she was made a principal dancer in 1984. In 1985 she was invited to join as principal dancer of the American Ballet Theater by Mikhail Baryshnikov, who was then its artistic director.
Ferri appeared with the Ballet National de Marseille in the summer of 1989, where she danced in Roland Petit's Le Diable amoureux, which Petit created especially for her. She danced other Petit's ballets such as Coppélia, La Chambre, Le Jeune Homme et la Mort and La Voix Humaine. Her guest appearances have also included dancing the role of Juliet in John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet with the National Ballet of Canada, the title role in Roland Petit's Carmen and Esmeralda in Petit's Notre-Dame de Paris with the Paris Opera Ballet, Pierre Lacotte's La Sylphide with the Ballet National de Nancy and The Tokyo Ballet, John Neumeier's A Streetcar Named Desire with the Stuttgart Ballet, John Neumeier's The Lady of the Camellias with the Hamburg Ballet, the title role in Alberto Alonso's Carmen with the National Ballet of Cuba and the title role of Kenneth MacMillan's Manon with the Kirov Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre.
Ferri danced with the most important male dancers of her generation: Rudolf Nureyev (in Los Angeles for his 50 birthday in 1988) Mikhail Baryshnikov (also in the movie "Dancers" in 1987), Anthony Dowell, Patrick Dupond, Peter Schaufuss, Maximiliano Guerra, Laurent Hilaire, Manuel Legris, Julio Bocca (her favourite) and Roberto Bolle, which was invited by Ferri for his first time at ABT during her final season.
