biography
Cristiano Principato - 29 years old from Novara, Italy - graduates at the age of 19 from La Scala Ballet School and from the Linguistic Lyceum in Milan, after completing the full eight years training program (list of teachers with whom Cristiano works throughout his training and career).
Right after, he joins La Scala Ballet company as a Corps de Ballet member.
He then moves to Amsterdam to work with the Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet and one year later he is promoted to its main company, where he stays for five more seasons going through the ranks of Élève, Corps de Ballet and Coryphée (Demi-Soloist).
From 2020 he is member of the Estonian National Ballet in Tallinn (first as a Demi-Soloist and then, since August 2021, as a Soloist dancer) and he performs the vast majority of the company's principal roles.
Through the years he dances alongside great soloists and principal dancers, not only for the companies he has worked with, but also as guest in galas and competitions: internationally he performes in Milan (La Scala and Teatro Arcimboldi), Amsterdam (Het Muziektheater and Stadsschouwburg), Saint-Petersburg (Mariinsky Theatre), Hamburg (Staatsoper), London (Coliseum and Royal Opera House's Limbury Stage), Varna (Open Air Theatre),
Madrid (Teatros Del Canal), Granada (Alhambra), Sevilla (Teatro de la Maestranza), Hong Kong and other cities of Italy, Holland, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Croatia, Mexico and Kazakhstan (complete list of theaters).
His repertoire includes plenty of group, solo and principal parts both from classical ballet (Petipa, Bournonville, Balanchine, Nureyev, Wright, Makarova, Lifar, Vainonen, Messerer, Stevenson, Cranko) and from contemporary works by renowned choreographers such as Maurice Béjart, David Dawson, Christopher Wheeldon, Jiri Kylian, John Neumeier, Roland Petit, Angelin Preljocaj, Alexei Ratmansky and Hans Van Manen (among others).
During his dance training and career, he also attends few workshops over specific contemporary techniques (Martha Graham, William Forsythe, José Limon, Wayne McGregor).
In 2017 he receives the Étoile del Domani award in Novara and in 2018 he attends the Varna International Ballet Competition partnering principal dancer Jessica Xuan all the way to her gold medal victory. In 2021 he is nominated for the Annual Estonian Theatre Award.
In 2022 he receives the Annual Best Male Soloist Award from Estonian National Ballet's sponsor MyFitness.
In 2024 the Estonian Ballet Union awards him the Ida Urbel scholarship for his achievements as a young choreographer: ever since 2016, in facts, Cristiano works as choreographer too, making on average one or two new works each season.
He creates various types of works (one-number piece, one-act piece, full length ballet, music video) in very diverse contexts: for Estonian National Ballet, for Estonian National Television, for both Estonian National and Dutch National Ballet's choreographic workshops, for Estonian National Ballet School’s annual performance, for Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's Choreographic Academy, for the gala-concert of the annual summer intensive program in the Estonian National Opera House, for the private touring production Cinderella, for various ballet galas and more (complete list of theaters where his works were performed).
Over the years, Cristiano also gains managing and leading expertise through very diverse experiences, both theoretical (Positioning Ballet Conference, Young Rural Retreat) and practical (as organizer of a charity ballet gala, coordinator of Dutch National Ballet choreographic workshop, representative of the dancers of Estonian National Ballet, stage director of the private touring production Cinderella and more).
He also has experience as jury member, teacher and coach, runway model and photo model.
