Rumors are swirling again in Uruguay that Maria Riccetto will soon take over the direction of the Ballet Nacional del Sodre. The Minister of Education and Culture, Pablo de Silveira, just informed Ballet Artistic Director Igor Yebra that Yebra would not continue in the position in 2021. Yebra replaced Julio Bocca in 2017. At that time, Bocca and many others thought that Maria would make a fine artistic director. Word was that her wish to continue performing as a member of the company made her appointment difficult.
Maria officially retired last December and has been Academic Coordinator for the Sodre Training Schools. However, she still occupies a huge space in the hearts of Uruguayans. The populace is not going to let go of Maria. No way. No how. Every time something comes up with regard to the Sodre Ballet, she gets mentioned as its most celebrated dancer ever and its most loved. They're not going to give up on her as a director of the ballet company -- ever.
El Observador tried to squeeze info out of the Director of the Soder's Board of Directors, Martín Inthamoussú, but he said that the announcement of who would run BNS next year would be made by Minister de Silveira.
Stay tuned.
Pictures from El Observador. The last photo is from her ABT days - Clark Tippet's Some Assembly Required which she danced so perfectly with the also perfect Jared Matthews:
I first saw her in the corps of ABT's "Swan Lake" in 2000 - she was in the front line. I knew she had something special.
Posted by: Solor | June 16, 2020 at 11:15 PM
I hope that things work out for Ricetto. I remember a beautiful Duo Concertant with Hallberg...a rare time when ABT did Balanchine justice. I recently saw her starring in a South American all-stars gala at the main opera house in Santiago, Chile...Coppelia pdd with fellow Sodre principal Gustavo Carvalho.
Posted by: Jeannette | June 17, 2020 at 07:26 AM
Maria was among that group of soloist women (Ricetto, Kajiya, Abrera, Lane) whose careers got derailed during McKenzie's "Star Strategy" decade when he brought in guest dancer after guest dancer for principal roles and used the talented soloists as wallpaper. Sadly, this generation's brilliance was muted because of it.
Posted by: Haglund | June 17, 2020 at 07:47 AM