Julio Bocca

Bocca, Julio (b Buenos Aires, 6 Mar. 1967). Argentinian dancer and company director. He first studied with his mother, a ballet teacher at the National Dance School in Buenos Aires, and later with his father, who taught Argentine folk dancing. He studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte de Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires from 1974 and later studied with Maggie Black and Wilhelm Burmann. Principal dancer with Fundación Teresa Carreño de Venezuela, Caracas (1982) and Ballet del Teatro Municipal de Rio de Janeiro (1982-5). He leapt to international attention when he won the gold medal at the Fifth International Ballet Competition in Moscow in 1985. He was a guest artist in Russia with the Bolshoi Ballet and Novosibirsk Ballet that year. In 1986 he joined American Ballet Theatre as a principal where, despite his short stature, he has danced most of the leading male roles in the classical repertoire. A fiery and intense dancer, he is particularly noted for his interpretations of Basil in Don Quixote and Romeo in MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet. He created leading roles in Morris's Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes (1987) and Tharp's Brief Fling (1990). He has appeared frequently as an international guest artist, with the Royal Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Paris Opera, La Scala Milan, Royal Danish Ballet, and English National Ballet among other companies. In 1990, with Eleonora Cassano, he founded Ballet Argentino to showcase young Argentinian dancers. The company tours internationally.