‘Thais’ at the Mariinsky Gala 2008
‘Thais’ at the Mariinsky Gala 2008
Lucia Lacarra was born in San Sebastian, a basque town with no ballet school. Finally, a small ballet school opened which enabled her to commence her ballet training. At the age of ten, she attended a summer course directed by Rosella Hightower, who strongly advised her mother to support her talented daughter’s development. After three years of hard work with Mentxu Medel, she felt prepared to audition for Victor Ullate’s school in Madrid. By her second year there, she was given a contract to the Ballet de Victor Ullate. At fifteen she danced Balanchine’s ‘Allegro Brilliante’.
I first saw her dance recently in the ‘Russian Icons’ ballet event at Covent Garden in the company of the world’s most gifted dancers. Even among such a hand-picked few, she stood out.
“In 1994 she joined Roland Petit´s Ballets de Marseille as Principal. Petit immediately entrusted her with the role of Esmeralda, with Patrick Dupont as her partner, in Notre Dame de Paris, replacing Dominique Khalfouni. From Roland Petit she learned above all to always be emotionally present on stage and she felt that in this company everything was danced in a somewhat more classical style. Within three years she danced the leading roles in seven ballets by Roland Petit, four of which were created on her, most notably Angélique in Le Guépard and, as partner of Nicolas Le Riche, in the famous Le Jeune homme et la Mort. In her pursuit of classicism she then decided to join the San Francisco Ballet. Under the direction of Helgi Tomasson she could dance Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty for the first time, i.e. some of the classical roles that a young ballerina has to master”. [Bayerisches Staatsballett]
Lucia Lacarra was awarded with the Prix Nijinsky in Monte Carlo in December 2002, followed by the Prix Benois which she won in Moskau in April 2003. She was nominated in 2004 and 2005 for the Merkur Theaterpreis in Munich. In November 2005 she was awarded with the Spanish Premio Nacional de Danza 2005. This prize, endowed with 30.000,- Euro is one of the highest awards the Spanish government gives out. In 2007 she was announced honorary citizen and cultural messenger of her home town San Sebastián. In 2008, she was awarded the honorary title “Kammertänzerin” by the Bavarian Ministry of Culture.
‘Lady of the camellias’
‘Duke Ellington Ballet’
