“It is curious to see that almost all men who are worth a lot have simple manners.” Thus wrote Giacomo Leopardi. Two hundred years later, the phrase seems to be even more current.
Usually, the greater the personality, charisma and talent of those interviewed, the greater their humility in telling their story, and Luciano Cannito is a perfect example of this.
Dancer, extraordinary doorman, choreographer, director, entrepreneur, pianist, president and artistic director of several theaters, private plane pilot, creator of creativity. Degree in Literature, undertaken after leaving Medicine to be able to dedicate herself totally to dance.
Luciano, have I forgotten something?
“A few years ago they called me “the UFO”, because no one could place me in a specific sector; I believe this has been my advantage and my disadvantage in my career. I am extremely curious and I have touched various profiles of the world of entertainment: dance, cinema, opera in ballet and, recently, musicals.”
You were born as a classical dancer, with the passion born as a boy
“It is inevitable that passion is born and cultivated from a young age to raise it to a professional level. I have an absolutely academic path of very rigid training, almost fundamentalist I would dare say, of the severity of dance, of discipline, of the search for excellence and detail. I lost my father at sixteen, and since my mother didn’t work, in the morning I went to the general markets three times a week (at that time we lived in Naples). I woke up at four, worked, and at half past eight I went to high school classic.
When I tell it, I don’t remember it as a sad experience “from a Heart book”, but as a positive experience that enriched me: the fact of being able to work and learn new things, even like being in the rain in the winter on the stalls.”
When they say working your way up, but always with a smile, curiosity and enthusiasm
“Curiosity must move artists. As Albert Camus argued, “progress comes from the absurd”. Obviously everything that isn’t absurd already exists, and consequently I’m never afraid to take a risk, drop everything and start over with another topic. Having been at the Metropolitan in New York with one of my productions, as well as at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, at the Bolshoi in Moscow in the world of ballet, in Paris, Japan, China, has so given me back all the dreams I had dreamed of, that the desire to explore other worlds automatically arose.”
One can only imagine how it would feel to bring one’s own show to the sacred monsters of world theatre. I’m thinking for example of the Metropolitan. Bring it, see it accomplished and applauded. A beautiful emotion, but perhaps not very easy to manage
“You’re right, but the real motivation that pushes artists to do this work is precisely to have new goals to reach, and once achieved, to have new ones again. I admit that at the Metropolitan, as well as at La Scala, my legs were shaking: they are places that have made the history of humanity, so it’s clear that you feel not only the sense of satisfaction, but also that of responsibility, which is not so simple. When you have a premiere where Mikhail Baryšnikov is in the room watching your show, you not only have the pleasure of seeing it in the front row, but you have the feeling that in that moment you are part of the history of dance: if you are doing something stupid, you are doing it sensationally!
At that moment you have so many emotions in your head that you are not one hundred percent aware of what is happening, but it is like when you have to speak a language that is not yours. You have to allow yourself to be able to make mistakes. If you’re afraid of making mistakes, you never learn.”
At a very young age you created your first company
“The truth is that I have always been interested in the more creative part, I started doing dance because I wanted to create ballets.
Create the show, don’t perform it. I danced in Austria, England, Israel, but I couldn’t wait to start my own company. My first international tour was to Austria while working in Israel.”
You may try to keep a low profile, but you are a man who has lived ten lives. You created your own company at twenty-seven, whose first tour was in Austria, the rehearsals were held in Italy, while you danced in Israel. All this when the Internet didn’t exist and even traveling wasn’t as easy as it is today!
“At twenty-seven I was a manager, when a phone call from Israel cost a shot! But everything was done, I did everything.
I have faced efforts and sacrifices, but they have all been abundantly repaid.
I fought, I risked a lot, I believed in it strongly, perhaps because I’m a little crazy – because in this job you have to be a little crazy – and this brought the results.”
You have danced and created shows all over the world. What pushed you to return to Italy?
“I am very proud of our cultural history. For too long we have cried over ourselves by looking abroad like chimeras, saying that things were better abroad. We have a thousand-year-old, stratified culture; we breathe art in every city. I returned to Italy despite having a wonderful career abroad, because I wanted to express myself in my language, to reclaim my culture.”
Hunger, Cabaret, Singing in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. You are also in love with the world of musicals
“There are all four live performing arts, dance, singing, acting and music, which coexist in a harmonious, coherent way, without any discipline dominating the others. I really like to bring the profound work of prose into the world of musicals where often, especially in the Italian one, it is not explored in depth. When you speak different languages you can broaden the possibility of communicating and sharing what you want to tell, your emotions, your thoughts. I believe that people want to have fun, they want to share the pleasure and joy of being in a beautiful and unplug for two hours. I define myself as pop, I want to work and invest for the general public and not just for insiders or an elite audience. This is my path and this is me.”
And on his way there is also the musical “Raffaella”the third most watched show in Spain after Wicked and the Lion King, and which will come to Italy next year.
But that’s another story, which will be told in due course.
