Anna-Maria
Prina

Jury member of Benois de la Danse

Anna Maria Prina was born in Italy. She enrolled at La Scala Ballet School at the age of 9. She obtained her diploma in 1960 and in 1963 she was selected to attend the first advanced course at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre. She spent two years in Russia studying in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre and in St. -Petersburg at the Vaganov▓s Ballet School and performing some important solo roles.

Her teachers in Moscow were: Vera Vasilieva, Viacheslav Vlasov, Elizaveta Gerdt, Olga Jordan, Marina Semenova, Asaf Messerer.

As a student, she participated in numerous ballets and operas perfomed at La Scala, including solo roles, demonstraiting great artistic temperament and technical preparation.

As a classical academic ballerina with a natural turn for modern intepretation, Prina continued to dance several important solo roles at La Scala too. After completing advanced studies in academic dancing, Prina was appointed by then Superintendent Paolo Grassi, to manage La Scala Ballet School where she holds this position to this day.

In 1979 the Italian Ministry of Education awarded A. -N. Prina a Diploma for Skill & an Honorary TiHe for her teaching activities. Since 1976, yearly master-classes have been held on her initiative.

She has been a jury member for important ballet competitions, such as the “Prix de Lausanne“ and the Moscow and Nagoya contests. A. -M. Prina has received several prizes for her work in teaching classical ballet including the “Premio delle Muse“, the “Maschera d-argento” and the"Premio Positano Leonid Massine per „Arte della Danza”.
Prina translated from the Russian Nadezhda Bazarova▓s „Classical Dance” and often contributes articles on ballet for encyclopaedias, books and magazines. In 1995, Prina published her first book on classical ballet teaching method.

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