When Wayne McGregor first asked Alessandra Ferri to come out of retirement and anchor his ambitious ballet Woolf Works in 2015, it was an easy yes—and not only because the endearingly polite British choreographer asked her nicely, over tea.
Now, nine years later, the Italian dancer—one of the very few awarded the title of prima ballerina assoluta—has agreed to dance the role McGregor created for her once more. This month, at 61, Ferri will perform in two shows as the award-winning work, inspired by the life and writing of Virginia Woolf, has its New York premiere with American Ballet Theater. (ABT principal dancers Gillian Murphy and Hee Seo will alternate the role on other nights.)
Though Ferri seldom performs these days, she didn’t need much persuading to work with McGregor again—nor to dance on stage in the city that she called home for 30 years. In fact, she was enamored with the idea. After beginning her career at London’s Royal Ballet, she was invited to join ABT as a principal in 1985 by Mikhail Baryshnikov himself. As an international guest artist, she also lent her talents to La Scala Theatre Ballet in Milan—where one of her performances in Romeo & Juliet, showcasing her prowess not only as a dancer, but as an actress too, would have a profound impact on McGregor.
“It has really been my favorite role of this ‘second chapter,’ if we’ll call it that,” Ferri tells Vogue of her Woolf Works part during a break in her rehearsal schedule. Since announcing her retirement in 2007, she has emerged on several occasions to delight a grateful public. “I’ve been lucky to have many wonderful roles created for me, but this one has stayed very deeply inside of me,” she notes. “It has so many facets, depicting an amazing woman and artist who is incredibly strong and revolutionary, but who is so fragile and vulnerable at the same time.”
Ferri dived into her own well of life experience to unearth personal parallels, keenly aware that continuing to dance at her age, and defying preconceived notions about what the female body is capable of, was an important act in itself.
“Ballet is thought of as a young person’s game—ballerinas often retire in their 30s or 40s,” adds McGregor. “But why is it like that? Why have we allowed that limitation on people’s physical expression? I’m a massive advocate of working with people at all ages because they bring a completely different creative intelligence to the work.”
