The dancer Carla Fracci during a performance at La Scala in Milan in 1969. Mario De Biasi / Mondadori / Getty Images
The Milanese ballet dancer Carla Fracci died this Thursday at the age of 84, according to her family.
Fracci, who had suffered from cancer for a long time, opened the past from his humble origins to become one of the great Italian ballet stars of the 20th century, sharing the stage with emblematic figures of his time such as Rudolf Nureyev, Erik Bruhn and Vladimir Vasiliev.
She excelled in her leading roles in romantic ballets, particularly the French composition
Giselle,
which she performed first in London in 1959 and then to different parts of the world for several decades.
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Carla Fracci plays Artemisia Gentileschi
Fracci was born in Milan in 1936. His father was a tram driver and his mother worked in a factory. The dancer began her career of more than half a century at the prestigious La Scala theater at age 10, graduating in 1954 and ascending to the rank of
prima ballerina
in 1958. The Milanese married in 1964 the theater director Beppe Menegatti, with whom had a son. At the end of his life he dedicated himself to directing several ballet companies in Naples, Verona and Rome and sought to bring classical dance to the interior of Italy, in a country traditionally dominated by opera.
The head of state of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, issued a statement due to the death of the dancer. "Carla Fracci has honored our country with her elegance and artistic commitment," said Mattarella, who has praised "her extraordinary artistic and human qualities that made her one of the greatest classical dancers of our time."