Roberto Bolle: An Athlete In Tights is a new photography book by Bruce Weber that celebrates his three-year collaboration with the Italian ballet sensation. Roberto Bolle was born in Casale Monferrato, Italy. At a young age, he entered the Teatro alla Scala ballet school. Rudolf Nureyev was the first to notice his talent and chose Roberto to interpret Tadzio in the ballet Death in Venice. In 1996, at the end of a Romeo and Juliet performance, and just 2 years after he joined the Theatre Company, Roberto was promoted to principal by Elisabetta Terabust who was at that time the Director of the Corp de Ballet. Since then he has starred in many contemporary and classical ballets and he has been invited as a guest artist to work with the most prestigious ballet companies in the world. In recent years, his international acclaim has only grown. Roberto is now the first male Italian ballet dancer to join the American Ballet Theatre as a principal. In his new monograph, Bruce Weber has captured the spectacular convergence of artistry and physicality in this dance phenomenon, the grace and beauty that have captivated Roberto’s audiences around the world. The book is largely pictorial in nature [127 duotone and 24 color plates] with original photography and writing by Bruce Weber, original writing by Roberto Bolle, texts by D.H. Lawrence and Pier Paolo Passolini, and illustrations by Paul Cadmus and Jeremiah Goodman.
