Ivan Cavallari

Ivan Cavallari is the artistic director of the Ballet du Rhin in Alsace, France in 2013 and the former artistic director of the Western Australian Ballet Company 2007-2012.

A Dancer on the Rise
Cavallari was born in 1964 in Bolzano, Italy. He received his initial training at the Teatro alla Scala Ballet School in Milan. His Ballet teachers noticed his talent and awarded him a scholarship to the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow. He was with the Boshoi Ballet School from 1981 until 1983. Cavallari danced with the Teatro alla Scala Ballet from 1984-1985. In 1986 he joined the Stuttgart Ballet. He became a soloist in 1991, advancing to a principal dancer in 1994 under the successive directions of Marcia Haydée and Reid Anderson.

The Dance Goes On
Cavallari's repertoire included leading roles in choreographies by Balanchine, Ashton, Fokine, Béjart, Tetley, Kylián, Forsythe, van Manen, Scholz, Mac Milan, Neumeier, Thoss, Spuck and Lee. He worked with international artists such as Massimiliano Guerra, Alessandra Ferri, Alina Cojocaru, Tamara Rojo, Johan Kobborg et Adam Cooper. He danced all the leading roles of John Cranko's ballets and staged regularly the latter's works with companies such as the Royal Ballet Covent Garden in London, the Teatro alla Scala Ballet, the Czech National Ballet, Prague, the Hungarian National Ballet in Budapest, the Opera di Roma, the Swedish Royal Ballet, the National Ballet of China, the Universal Ballet in Corea and the West Australian Ballet.

Cavallari also staged numerous works by Uwe Scholz. He choreographed ballets for the Stuttgart Ballet, the State Opera Ballet, Hanover, the Lodz State Opera Ballet in Poland, the Mannheim Ballet, the ballet company of the State Opera in Vienna and the State Gallery of Stuttgart which asked him to create a piece for the opening of an exhibition of paintings by Franz Marc. In 2002 he created 'The Last Emperor and I' with the Liaoning Ballet in Schenyang, China and received several rewards.

Artistic Director
In 2008, his choreography of 'The Nutcraker' for the West Australian Ballet received critical acclaim. Cavallari was the artistic director of the West Australian Ballet, the oldest company of Australia created in 1952 by Kira Abrissokova (Bousloff) from 2007 till 2012. In 2013 he left Perth for personal reasons and will take up the position as artistic director of the Ballet du Rhin in Alsace, France.

Cavallari and the Western Australian Ballet
Karen van Ultzen in her article tiled "Ivan the Wonderful" on the "Dance" website discusses Cavallari's achievement while artistic director of the WA Ballet.