Giovanni Rotolo

Biography

Italian dancer Giovanni Rotolo is one of the Czech National Ballet’s leading men. He began training relatively late, at fourteen, at the Accademia Internazionale Coreutica under Elisabetta Hertel, yet within two years he was winning prizes: third place at the Rieti Danza Festival 2008, bronze for senior contemporary dance at the Settimana Internazionale della Danza (Spoleto 2011) and a World Ballet Competition bronze medal (Orlando 2011). During a summer course in Prague that same year he was spotted by artistic director Petr Zuska and invited to join the Czech National Ballet in August 2011.

His rise through the ranks was swift—demi-soloist in 2013, soloist in 2015 and, at the start of the 2016/17 season, first soloist. At twenty-five he tackled the title role in John Cranko’s Onegin, praised for combining psychological nuance with heroic partnering. Signature classical roles soon followed: Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake (John Cranko), Solor in Javier Torres’s La Bayadère, Prince Desiré in Márcia Haydée’s The Sleeping Beauty, the Nutcracker and the Old Money-lender Scrooge in Vámos’s Christmas version, and the comic tour-de-force Mother Simone in Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée. Zuzka's Romeo and Juliet brought his first Thalia Award nomination for the role Tybalt (2014).

On the contemporary front Rotolo excels in William Forsythe’s vocabulary, dancing both In the Middle Somewhat Elevated and The Second Detail. Jiří Kylián’s masterpieces (Petite Mort, Bella Figura, Gods and Dogs) are also central to his repertory. He originated the title role of Josef K. in Mauro Bigonzetti’s Kafka: The Trial (2018) and created King Shahryar in Bigonzetti’s Scheherazade (2024). February 2025 saw him add Monsieur G. M. in Kenneth MacMillan’s L’Histoire de Manon, confirming his dramatic stature.

Beyond the National Theatre Rotolo is a frequent guest at international galas—in Salzburg, Munich, Stuttgart, Bratislava and elsewhere. At Prague’s 2019 Velvet Ballet Gala he performed the solo Dear Soaring Thought, choreographed for him by Julien Guérin. In 2016 he was shortlisted in the wider nominations for the Thalia Award for Mauro Bigonzetti’s Vertigo. In total, he was nominated four times in this wider category: for In the Middle Somewhat Elevated (2012), Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet by Petr Zuska (2013), Vertigo (2016), and Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire by John Neumeier (2023).

Classical repertoire

• Coppélia – Doctor Coppélius (Ronald Hynd)
• La Bajadère – Solor (Javier Torres - Marius Petipa)
• La Fille mal gardée – Colas, Simone's Mother (Frederick Ashton)
• La Sylphide – Madge (Johan Kobborg)
• The Nutcracker – Christmas Story – Nutcracker, Old Scrooge, Arabian Dance (Youri Vámos)
• Onegin – Onegin (John Cranko)
• Picture of Dorian Gray – Dorian Gray (Paul Chalmer)
• Romeo and Juliet – Tybalt, Mercutio (John Cranko)
• The Sleeping Beauty – Prince Désiré, Carabosse (Márcia Haydée - Marius Petipa)
• Swan Lake – Prince Siegfried, Rothbart (John Cranko)
• Swan Lake – Prince Siegfried (Kenneth Greve)

Contemporary & Neoclassical repertoire

• A Streetcar Named Desire – Stanley Kowalski (John Neumeier)
• Beyond Vibrations – Frank Bridge Variations (Hans van Manen), Fly Paper Bird (Marco Goecke), Moving Rooms (Krzysztof Pastor)
• bpm – Artza (Eyal Dadon)
• Cinderella – Chief Steward (Jean-Christophe Maillot)
• Decadance (Ohad Naharin)
• Forsythe / Clug / McGregor – The Second Detail (William Forsythe), Handman (Edward Clug)
• Holo Harmonies (Mauro Bigonzetti)
• In the Middle Somewhat Elevated (William Forsythe)
• Kafka: The Trial – Josef K. (Mauro Bigonzetti)
• Kylián – Bridges of Time – Petite Mort, Bella Figura, Gods and Dogs, Psalm Symphony (Jiří Kylián)
• Leonce & Lena – Valerio (Christian Spuck)
• L’Histoire de Manon – Mr. G. M., Jailer (Kenneth MacMillan)
• Phoenix – Prelude und Liebestod (Cayetano Soto), Puppet (Deglas Lee)
• Reflections on the Fate of Human Forms (Jacopo Godani)
• Romeo and Juliet – Tybalt, Mercutio (Petr Zuska)
• Sarcasms – Sarcasmen (Hans van Manen), Katastrof (Eyal Dadon)
• Scheherazade – King Shahryar, King’s Followers (Mauro Bigonzetti)
• The Snow Queen – Wolf, Lead Gypsy Boy (Michael Corder)
• The Sun, the Moon and the Wind – Sun, Fly (Viktor Konvalinka)
• Timeless – Serenade (George Balanchine), The Rite of Spring (Glen Tetley)
• Valmont – Vicomte de Valmont (Libor Vaculík)
• Vertigo – Rain (Radu Poklitaru), Vertigo (Mauro Bigonzetti)