Ballet Master-Producer
Principal Dancer / Artistic Director at Roland Petit’s Ballets
Born in Bra - Italy - he started dancing at the age of 10 years with Susanna Egri in Turin. He took part in numerous television broadcasts on the Italian television. In 1973 he joined the Cullberg Ballet. As a Principal dancer he interpreted the leading roles of the company in Adam and Eve, Romeo and Juliette.
In 1975, Roland Petit takes him into the National Ballet of Marseille and confides him with the role of Coppelius in Coppélia, The Young Boy and Death, Frollo in Notre Dame de Paris, The Phantom of the Opera and Ulrich in The Bat. He took part in numerous TV shows with National Ballet of Marseille, also danced with Margot Fonteyn in Magic of Dance, choreographed by Roland Petit.
Zizi Jeanmaire invited him to take part in Parisiana 25, staged in Marseille and broadcasted on TV. In New-York he appeared in the musical Can Can, then in 1982 he was again engaged by Zizi Jeanmaire to take part in the coproduction CBS, TF1 - National Ballet of Marseille, I Love Paris. He partnered with Zizi again for the show Hollywood Paradise in Marseille (1984), which was later shown at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (1985). In 1990 he performed Carabosse with National Ballet of Marseille – this role was initially written for Zizi Jeanmaire. He danced with Natalia Makarova, Alessandra Ferri and Luciana Savignano in The Young Boy and Death, with Natalia Makarova and Rudolf Nureyev in Notre Dame de Paris performed in New-York Metropolitan opera. Luigi danced with Elisabetta Terabust at Théâtre du Gymnase in 1991 and then with María Jiménez at a festival in Mexico.
Roland Petit chose him as assistant and dancer for Heaven and Hell in June 1984 in Milan with La Scala Ballet Company. He entrusted him the title role in the Puss in Boots performance at Le Palais des Congrès de Paris. He staged the ballet Ma Pavlova for Rome Opera (1986) and the Blue Angel for La Scala of Milan (1988).
He danced Cheek to Cheek with Carla Fracci at Milan La Scala. He became the first interpreter of Charlie Chaplin character for Roland Petit’s new creation Dancing Chaplin. Petit assigned him a tough mission to stage his ballets for various companies. Thus, Luigi restaged La Chauve-souris for the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples (1993), La Chambre for Aterballetto, Carmen and L’Arlésienne at Milan La Scala.
Luigi assisted Petit to stage Notre Dame (1998), The Young Boy and Death, L’Arlésienne for Asami Maki Ballet and with New National Theatre of Tokyo, as well as other ballets for the Bolshoi Theatre (2001), New National Theatre of Tokyo, La Scala, Paris Opera Ballet, Wiener Staatsoper, the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Mariinsky Theatre, Rome Opera, The Teatro Colón in Buenos-Aires, English National Ballet. For the Paris Opera Ballet he staged Notre Dame de Paris, Carmen, L’Arlésienne, Proust ou les intermittences du cœur, The Young Boy and Death, Le Rendez-vous and other.
Since 2001 he is Artistic Director of all the repertoire of Roland Petit’s Ballets.
His recent big stagings include Notre Dame de Paris in Astana Theatre (2016) directed by Altynai Asylmuratova, with whom he has danced many times. He still dances the role of Coppelius in Coppélia, role that Roland Petit create for himself and then passed on to Luigi Bonino.