MODEL TALK: Marco Bozzato

Italian model and ballet dancer MARCO BOZZATO photographed in Saint Petersburg for MMSCENE by ALEKSEY ZUBAREV sits down for exclusive MMSCENE Model Talk interview by Editor KATARINA DJORIC. Marco talks about his start as a dancer from an early age, the discipline of a ballet dancer and his take on a life of a male model.

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What did you aspire to be when you were younger?
When I was a child I kept telling my parents that when I grow up I want to be a prince, and in a way I did accomplish that by dancing the prince roles in ballets.

How long have you been dancing?
I started dancing when I was only four years old but I didn’t dance at a competitive level until I was eleven. Afterwards I left my family in Venice and moved to study ballet at the best school in my part of Italy.

When did you know that dancing was what you wanted to do for a profession, not just for fun?
There hasn’t been a specific moment when I decided to make a profession out of it since I started dancing very young. I never had any thoughts of doing anything different because I liked what I was doing.

Being a ballet dancer requires a lot of sacrifice. Did you miss out on a typical teenager’s life?
As I mentioned, I started training professionally when I was really young, so to me it always felt normal to be at school and in the studios all the time. When I was fifteen and I went to study at La Scala Academy in Milan, where we trained from 9 in the morning until 4 pm and then went to school from 5 pm to 9 pm. On the weekends we just had half day off. I usually went back home to my family in Venice, but most dancers live in such a different world to other people that I didn’t realize what “normal people” were doing and how they were living.

After La Scala I moved to London to study at the English National Ballet School, where we trained all day as well as studying practical ballet subjects and theoretical subjects in the school. We were basically living at school, and then we were sharing flat with between us classmates and so this life just became normal for us.

After an injury last year, I spent almost a year recovering and In that time I has the opportunity to meet people outside of the ballet world, so I got to see how other people my age lived. It gave me a chance to start my modeling career also.

What has been your biggest challenge to date?
I would say there are actually two. The first is being away from my family and working hard in school after my father passed away when I was sixteen. It was hard to stay focused and try to stay level headed.

The second challenge was to recover from my knee surgery. After the surgery the muscles atrophy and to get them back is harder it seems. I had to go back to the barre and start from the beginning.

What roles are you hoping to play in your career?
This is a hard question, the ballet repertoire is so broad and so beautiful that its impossible to choose just one or two roles! I think my dream would be to dance Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake and Prince Albrecht in Giselle.

What do you think the future holds for ballet?
It is hard to say, In Italy the situation is pretty bad at the moment because a lot of theaters and ballet companies are closing since not many people are interested to go to see a ballet nowadays, and unfortunately they don’t get help from the state. Sadly unlike before, people don’t let their children live the magic of ballet anymore, however its different in the UK or Russia. Every time leave the theater after a performance I see a lot of happy people and many kids with a sparkle in their eye and it it’s the most beautiful thing.

How do you balance dancing and modeling? What does your typical day look like?
My day starts with ballet class every single morning at 11am, then the rehearsals all day, then at night we perform the shows. Sometimes it happens that I don’t have to perform or have rehearsals so I grab my book and I run to castings and jobs.

Did you have any interest in modeling before you were discovered?
Yes it has always interested me but I never really had the time to pursue my curiosity, my injury made it possible.

What’s the biggest misconception about ballet and the male modeling industry?
The biggest misconception about ballet is that is still considered something for girls and not boys, as for the male modeling industry people think it’s easy and you just get a lot of money for being pretty. I’m sure a lot of people would be surprised how different reality is.

Who inspires you?
Of course, I look at the big names in the industry but I usually try to find inspiration from within. All the strength and emotion that I need, I have inside me.

Any guilty pleasures? Something that no one knows about you?
I could literally live on eating mozzarella for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, it is like a drug for me.

What are your future goals, dreams, and plans?
My dream is to dance the most beautiful roles in the repertoire, to inspire people and to reach a level in both industries where people respect my work.

Keep up with Marco on his Instagram @marcbozz

Photographer Aleksey Zubarev
Model Marco Bozzato at Select Management Russia and d’men at d’management Group Milan
Location Open Studio." - Malemodelscene.net