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, Principal Dancer. 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, 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. Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet brought him both Tybalt and Mercutio—his Tybalt earned a first Thalia Award nomination (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

• Bajadère – Solor (Javier Torres)

• Coppélia – Doctor Coppélius (Ronald Hynd)

• Swan Lake – Prince Siegfried; Rothbart (John Cranko)

• Swan Lake – Prince Siegfried (Kenneth Greve)

• La Sylphide – Madge (Johan Kobborg)

• The Nutcracker – Christmas Story – Nutcracker; Old Scrooge; Arabian Dance (Youri Vámos)

• La Fille mal gardée – Colas; Simone's Mother (Frederick Ashton)

• The Picture of Dorian Gray – Dorian Gray (Paul Chalmer)

• Onegin – Onegin (John Cranko)

• Romeo and Juliet – Tybalt; Mercutio (John Cranko)

• The Snow Queen – Wolf; Lead Gypsy Boy (Michael Corder)

• Sleeping Beauty – Prince Désiré; Carabosse (Márcia Haydée)

Contemporary & Neoclassical repertoire

• Artza (Eyal Dadon)

• Trembling; Déjà vu; Lyrical (Petr Zuska)

• Decadance (Ohad Naharin)

• Fly Paper Bird (Marco Goecke)

• Frank Bridge Variations; Sarcasmen (Hans van Manen)

• Handman (Edward Clug)

• In the Middle Somewhat Elevated; The Second Detail (William Forsythe)

• Kafka: The Trial – Josef K. (Mauro Bigonzetti)

• Swan Lake – Prince Siegfried (Dumbala/Vlačilová)

• Leonce & Lena – Valerio (Christian Spuck)

• L’Histoire de Manon – Mr. G. M.; Jailer (Kenneth MacMillan)

• Moving Rooms (Krzysztof Pastor)

• Petite Mort; Bella Figura; Gods and Dogs; Psalm Symphony (Jiří Kylián)

• Cinderella – Chief Steward (Jean-Christophe Maillot)

• Prelude und Liebestod; Puppet (Cayetano Soto)

• Reflections on the Fate of Human Forms (Jacopo Godani)

• Romeo and Juliet – Lorenzo (Petr Zuska)

• Sarcasmen – duet (Hans van Manen)

• Serenade – Boy in Elegy (George Balanchine)

• The Sun, the Moon and the Wind – Sun; Fly (Viktor Konvalinka)

• The Rite of Spring – The Father (Glen Tetley)

• Scheherazade – King Shahryar; King’s Followers (Mauro Bigonzetti)

• T.O.M.L; Katastrof (Eyal Dadon)

• A Streetcar Named Desire – Stanley Kowalski (John Neumeier)

• Valmont – Vicomte de Valmont (Libor Vaculík)