Lucia
Lacarra

Benois de la Danse laureate

From earliest childhood Lucia Lacarra knew that she was born to be a ballerina. When she was ten she was sent to a summer course directed by Rosella Hightower. Then Lucia went to San Sebastian to Mentxu Medel who had worked with her for three years in a completely unselfish way to prepare her for the audition at Victor Ullate School in Madrid.

Already in her second year there she was given a contract to the Victor Ullate Ballet. She was just fifteen when she danced Balanchine's Allegro Brillante. In the course of four seasons this was followed by Concerto Barocco, Fokine's Les Sylphides, four works by Hans van Manen, Nils Christe, as well as four pieces by her mentor Ullate who gave her the necessary self-confidence.

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 partner in Notre Dame de Paris. Within three years she danced the leading roles in seven ballets by Roland Petit, four of which were created for her, most notably Angelique in Le Guepard and, as partner of Nicholas 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. Her repertoire included the ballets by Jerome Robbins, Victor Gsovsky, Helgi Tomasson, MacMillian, Van Manen, Nacho Duato, Roland Petit, Lubovitch.

Lucia Lacarra has joined the Bayerisches Staatsballett in 2002/2003 season in order to return to the leading European choreographers. In the course of the first three months in Munich she danced Raymonda, Tatyana and Odette/Odile as well as the third pas de deux of In the Night, always together with her partner of many years, Cyril Pierre who has also joined the company as principal. Together they are guests at the big theatres around the world.

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