Erik Cavallari

Available to sponsor

 

1) Do you have a favourite web site?
I check the Italian newspapers almost every day, I like to know what’s going on in my country.

 

2) What is your favourite ballet? Or role?
It has to be Basil in Don Quixote, I think it is the happiest ballet in the classic repertoire. No drama going on, it’s just nice music, nice colour as Cervantes would describe it. I have never had the chance to dance that role but would like one day to dance it.

 

3) How do you relax whilst on tour?
We don’t have much time to relax, but when I have the chance I like to play classic guitar and I actually like to paint as well. I do landscape in oil colour, and I have sold one recently.

 

4) What is your favourite meal/type of food?
Obviously Italian food, especially pasta. I eat pasta everyday and I can cook it in at least 30 different ways!

 

5) What made you take up dance as a career?
It’s not a career that you choose to take up. Dancing is part of who you are.

 

6) What is or has been your favourite venue to perform in?
I’ve performed in a Greek amphitheatre in Siracusa in Sicily. It is 2,500 year old and there are 2,500 seats and from each of them you can hear even a whisper from the stage, because the acoustics are so great.

 

7) What is your greatest extravagance?
I like to spend the summer bungee jumping and white water rafting. I’m an adrenaline junkie!

 

8) Describe yourself in five words
Five words are not enough

 

9) What’s your favourite album?
Strange Days by The Doors

 

10) Who would you most like to be stuck in a lift with?
I would be in the lift with Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister because I have something to say to him that I couldn’t say in polite company!

 

Biography

 

Erik was born in Brescia, Italy and trained at the Associazione Balletto Classico under the guidance of Marinel Stefanescu. He joined the company in 1997 and performed as a soloist, dancing in classic and neoclassic repertory. In 1999 he appeared with the Ballet de Victor Ullate in Madrid and joined Scottish Ballet in 2001.

 

Since joining the Company, Erik has danced in Page’s Acrid Avid Jam, Cheating, Lying, Stealing, The Nutcracker (The Nutcracker Prince), 32 Cryptograms, Soft Underbelly, Nightswimming intoday, The Pump Room, Walking In The Heat, Cinderella (The Prince), Fearful Symmetries and The Sleeping Beauty (The Prince), Alston’s Dangerous Liaisons, Darrell's FiveRückert Songs and Othello (Othello), Loosmore’s Sirocco and Chasing Ghosts, Balanchine's The FourTemperaments (Third Variation - Phlegmatic), Rubies, Agon and the title role in Apollo, van Manen’s Two Pieces For Het, Forsythe’s Artifact Suite, Ashton’s Façade and Petronio’s MiddleSexGorge.   

 

Quotes:

 

The Sleeping Beauty (2007-2008)

.The Daily Telegraph, 13 December 2007 – …beautiful opening night performances from Soon Ja Lee, Claire Robertson and Erik Cavallari in particular.

 

.Scotland on Sunday, 16 December 2007 – Some of the duets in the wedding scene, particularly the stylish, spiky pas de deux between Sophie Martin and her Prince and the pure romance of the ballet danced by principals Claire Robertson and Erik Cavallari as Princess Aurora and the Prince, showcase Scottish Ballet’s talent at its best.

 

.Northern Echo, 22 February 2008 – Claire Roberson’s Aurora is charmingly fresh and youthful and Erik Cavallari as the Prince is the epitome of the romantic hero.

 

EIF 2007

Page’s Fearful Symmetries

.The Herald, 21 August 2007 – Erik Cavallari is the wonderfully self-possessed Alpha Male, with three stunning ballerinas – Eve Mutso, Claire Robertson and Sophie Martin – servicing the different facets of his technique.

 

.Criticaldance.net, 22 August 2007- Erik Cavallari, as the male soloist looked in his element. Not surprisingly then, this is one of the best performances I have seen from Cavallari, who sped through the swift steps with an unforced, slick power.

 

.The Sunday Times, 26 August 2007 – …the impressive Erik Cavallari

 

.Sunday Express, 26 August 2007 – It’s all about one man, the undaunted Erik Cavallari

 

SPRING 2007
Balanchine’s Agon
.Edinburgh Evening News, 19 April 2007 – the skill of Eve Mutso and Erik Cavallari shone through.

 

.Dancing Times, June 2007 - Eve Mutso and Erik Cavallari danced the pas de deux with firm strength and bold physicality - theirs was the best classical dancing of the evening.

 

Cinderella 2006/2007
.Sunday Herald, 17 Dec 2006 – Robertson and Cavallari makes a dreamy couple, near luminous in bright white… Their pas de deux at the ball has all the other-wordly beauty and purity of line you could hope for from a romantic duet.

 

.Ballet.co.uk, Jan 2007 – Erik Cavallari is most elegant with beautiful lines

 

.UKTheatrenetwork.com, 11 Dec 2007 – Erik Cavallari’s Prince was superbly realised in the ‘super-smooth’ mould

 

.South Wales Echo, 26 Jan 2007 – Cinderella is well partnered by her dark and handsome prince Erik Cavallari and even their most intimate pas de deux is danced with vibrance, verve and youthful enthusiasm.

 

.Criticaldance.net, 10 Dec 2006 – Erik Cavallari, as the Prince, added some wonderful touches of characterisation.

 

EIF 2006
Balanchine’s Agon
. ballet-dance.com, Aug 2006 – Eve Mutso’s pas de deux with Erik Cavallari was one of the finest moments audiences have yet seen from Scottish Ballet. This was cool, effortless dancing with knife-edge precision from both dancers… If the rest of the company can keep up with Mutso and Cavallari, audiences are in for a treat.

 

.The Herald, 21 Aug 2006 – The honours go to Erik Cavallari and Eve Mutso for a duet of intensity that’s ice-hot.

 

.The Times, 23 Aug 2006 – Balanchine’s formal eccentricities hit a peak at the central pas de deux, danced by Erik Cavallari and Eve Mutso

 

SPRING 2006
Forsythe’s Suite from Artifact
. The Herald, 31 March 2006 – Hines, who lasered through the whole programme with fierce finesse – and Lehmus, Mutso, Claire Robertson and Erik Cavallari collected burnished honours in Forsythe’s Suite from Artifact, a tour de force that deserved the cheering ovation.

 

. Ballet.co.uk, March 2006 - .. and although there were individuals it would be impossible not to notice – Paul Liburd, Patricia Hines, Erik Cavallari, Eve Mutso and several others…

 

. Onlinereviewlondon.com – 12 April 2006- … a striking Erik Cavallari with the profile of a young Byzantine potentate. Cavallari is a muscular, accomplished dancer…

 

CINDERELLA 2005-2006
Page’s Cinderella
. Ballet.co.uk, March 2006 – Both (Erik Cavallari and Claire Robertson) are strong dancers and delivered their solos well.

 

. Financial Times, 16 March 2006 - …it was Erik Cavallari, in the usually blank role of Prince Charming, who gave the positive and dance-credible interpretation. He played as if he believed in what he was given to do – a noteworthy achievement.

 

AUTUMN 2005
Balanchine’s Apollo
. The Herald, 12 September 2005 – Erik Cavallari goes from strength to strength as Apollo, not simply dancing superbly but clearly motivating the stylised movement.

 

Page’s The Pump Room
. Ballet-Dance Magazine, October 2005 - Patricia Hines and Erik Cavallari (in jazz shoes), and Sophie Martin (on pointe) and Paul Liburd all gave an excellent showing of smooth virtuosic contemporary dance.

 

EIF 2005
Balanchine’s Apollo
. Mail on Sunday, 28 August 2005 – Apollo here was Erik Cavallari, who presented an immensely dignified and composed figure. Graceful as a swan, he leapt across the stage with a, well, god-like sense of control that was entirely in keeping with Balanchine’s historic vision.

 

SPRING 2005
Ashton’s Facade
. The Independent, 19 April 2005- Erik Cavallari and Cristo Vivancos are sublimely deadpan in the Popular Song.

 

THE NUTCRACKER 2004-2005
Page’s The Nutcracker
. The Observer, 8 January 2005 - … The amiable Erik Cavallari…

 

AUTUMN 2004
Van Manen’s Two Pieces for HET
. The Herald, 16 September 2004 - … in Two Pieces for HET with the wonderfully poised, mischievous Claire Robertson and Erik Cavallari turning up the heat with every glance…

 

. The Times, 17 September 2004 – Erik Cavallari and Claire Robertson gave mature performances.

 

. Ballet.co.uk, 20 September 2004 – It is a rich concoction which was further enhanced by the elegant performances of Claire Robertson and Erik Cavallari.

 

. The Sunday Times Culture, 26 September 2004 - … Claire Robertson and Erik Cavallari convoyed a potent electric charge in Two Pieces for HET.

 

SPRING 2004
Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments
. The Sunday Times, 11 April 2004- Erik Cavallari proved a strong, subtle replacement in the marvellous Phlegmatic variation.