Early Life and Professional Achievements

Alessandro Rafaele Bellarmine was born in Casale Monferrato, Italy. When he was the tender age of 5, he saw a television show with ballet on it, and was hooked on it since then. About the same time however, he suffered from a fall from a tree, and spent 4 months in a coma. When he awoke, he asked his parents who were all the people around him. Not just his living family, the doctors and nurses, but the dead that had passed on to the other side. From that point on, Alessandro was to not only become a world famous male ballet dancer, but a medium. He was told to keep his "gift" a secret, but secrets have a way of climbing out of the bag they are put in. Alessandro would go on to develop his skills as a dancer, and as a paranormal. At the age of 11 he entered La Scala Theatre Ballet School in Milan, a child prodigy. Rudolf Nureyev was the first to notice his talent and he chose Alessandro to interpret Tadzio in the ballet Death in Venice. In 2001, just two years after he joined the Theatre Company as a member of the corps, at the end of a Romeo and Juliet performance, Alessandro was promoted to Principal by Elisabetta Terabust who was at that time the Director of the Ballet. Since then he has starred in many contemporary and classical ballets such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Don Quixote (Nureyev), Swan Lake (Nureyev – Dowell – Deane – Bourmeister), The Nutcracker (Wright – Hynd – Deane – Bart), La Bayadère (Makarova), Etudes (Lander), Excelsior (Dell'Ara), Giselle (also in the new Sylvie Guillem's version), Spectre de la rose, La Sylphide, Manon, Romeo and Juliet (MacMillan – Deane), Onegin (Cranko), Notre-Dame de Paris (Petit), The Merry Widow (Hynd), Ondine, Rendez-vous and Thais (Ashton), In the middle somewhat elevated (Forsythe) and Three Preludes (Stevenson). He has also had many neoclassical roles: Agon, Cajkovsky pas de deux and above all Apollon musagète, which led to his nomination for the “Benois de la Danse” Prix.

Since 2003 his international career has grown enormously. He has danced with the Royal Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, the Stuttgart Ballet, the Finnish National Ballet, the Staatballett Berlin, the Vienna Staatsoper Ballett, the Staatsoper in Dresden, the Munich Ballet, the Tokyo Ballet. Derek Deane, the English National Ballet director, created two productions for him: Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet both of them performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London. On the 10th anniversary of the Opera Theatre in Cairo he performed in a fabulous Aida at the pyramids of Giza and afterward on live worldwide television at the Arena in Verona for a new version of the opera. Since December 2008 he has been Resident Guest Artist at La Scala Theatre. In October 2008 he opened the season at Covent Garden Opera House in London performing Anthony Dowell's production of Swan Lake and in November he was invited to the Bolshoi to celebrate Majja Plisetskaja's 75th anniversary in the presence of President Putin. In June 2009, on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee, he danced at Buckingham Palace in the presence of the Queen. The event was broadcast live by the BBC and transmitted to all the Commonwealth countries. In October 2008 while La Scala Ballet was on tour in Moscow, he danced Romeo and Juliet with Alessandra Ferri in Kenneth MacMillan's production at the Bolshoi Theatre. In 2009, to celebrate St Petersburg's 300 year anniversary, Alessandroo danced Swan Lake with the Royal Ballet at Mariinskij Theatre. Immediately afterwards he performed Amedeo Amodio's L'après–midi d'un faune to celebrate the return of the Dancing Satyr to Mazara del Vallo (Trapani).

During the 2004/2005 season he was promoted to Etoile at La Scala Theatre. In February 2004 he performed L'histoire de Manon for the first time with Alessandra Ferri at Arcimboldi Theatre in Milan; it was a huge success. In March he danced The Fire Bird, a solo made specifically for him by Renato Zanella at the prestigious Italian San Remo Festival, which was broadcast worldwide. Afterwards he was invited by the Mariinskij Theatre to dance for the third International Ballet Festival where he performed De Grieux in L'histoire de Manon and for the closing Gala he danced the pas de deux from Excelsior and Kudelka's Summer. On 1st April 2004 he danced in front of the Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square to celebrate Young People's Day. The Paris Opéra invited him to dance Don Quixote in May and The Sleeping Beauty in December. On 7th December, to celebrate the re-opening of La Scala Theatre after its restoration, he danced Europa riconosciuta with Alessandra Ferri and three weeks later in the New Year's Eve Star Gala. In March 2007 he was invited to dance Apollon musagète at the Mariinskj Theatre in St. Petersburg on the occasion of the fourth International Ballet Festival. In December 2008 at Covent Garden Opera House in London he performed Federick Ashton's production of Sylvia, broadcast by the BBC on Christmas Day.

In February 2006 he danced at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Turin where he performed a solo created for him by Enzo Cosimi. The ceremony was broadcast worldwide and seen by 2.5 billion people. Among his numerous partners: Altynai Asylmuratova, Darcey Bussell, Lisa-Marie Cullum, Viviana Durante, Alessandra Ferri, Carla Fracci, Isabelle Guérin, Sylvie Guillem, Greta Hodgkinson, Margareth Illmann, Susan Jaffe, Lucia Lacarra, Agnès Letestu, Marianela Nuñez, Elena Pankova, Lisa Pavane, Darja Pavlenko, Laetitia Pujol, Tamara Rojo, Polina Semionova, Diana Vishneva, Zenaida Yanowsky, Svetlana Zakharova. In 2008 he performed for the first time as a guest artist with ABT, on the occasion of Alessandra Ferri's farewell performance. For the 2009 Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, he performed as a Principal Dancer with the American Ballet Theatre: it was the first time that a male Italian dancer had joined the Company as a Principal. Since 2009 he has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and in 2010 he visited Sudan on his first trip into the field. 2011 brings with it the hope of opening a studio in the hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans area, as part of his Ambassadorship duties, and bring ballet to life for many underprivileged children who may not otherwise be able to afford their tuition at a traditional ballet studio. He still sees and hears dead people, but can block negative entities, channel spirits, among many other skills he's honed over the years.

Personal Traits: Alessandro is an energetic, charismatic, communicative, witty individual with a child-like fascination with the world and with new experiences. He knows something about just about everything, making him a good conversationalist and interesting acquaintance. Alessandro is inquisitive and quick to digest new information and ideas. Intelligent and logical, but with a lot of nervous energy, he likes to keep busy and expand his horizons whenever opportunities arise, often multitasking between several interests. Because of his superior communication skills and innate charm, Alessandro usually does well at work, with others often seeking him out for advice and new ideas. Conversely, he will not hesitate to seek others out for advice and ideas, always striving to stay on top of the information chain. When interested, Alessandro can accomplish more in a day than other people can accomplish in a week. When disinterested, however, he will procrastinate and eventually move on to more interesting pursuits. No surprise then, that Alessandro has the tendency to change jobs several times during his lifetime. His office will have lots of communication devices including computer, phone, Blackberry, cell, and a rolodex full of names, and he will constantly be networking and seeking out new connections. Alive, or dead.