Jacopo Tissi

Leading role debut, partnering Svetlana Zakharova 

On graduating, Jacopo auditioned for several European companies and was accepted everywhere he went. Partly due to the reputation and fame of artistic director Manuel Legris (former ‘étoile’ of Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris), he chose Wiener Staatsballett, where already in his first season he was cast for a solo role in Boris Eifman’s Red Giselle. After a year, however, he decided to return to Milan, where he started out in the corps de ballet of Balletto del Teatro alla Scala, directed at the time by Makhar Vaziev. “I felt intuitively that I should seize that opportunity, and it turned out to be exactly the right decision.” Shortly after joining, he danced his first leading role at the age of nineteen, partnering Russian prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova in Alexei Ratmansky’s Sleeping Beauty. “As Svetlana was temporarily without a partner, I had to stand in for a few rehearsals, and the trust she placed in me meant that we soon went on stage together.” That led to other leading roles in ballets like Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon and Mauro Bigonzetti’s Cinderella. 

Bolshoi Ballet 

In 2017, he followed artistic director Makhar Vaziev to the Bolshoi Ballet, where Jacopo was the first Italian dancer to join the company and was taken under the wing of the famous ex-dancer, ballet master and coach Alexander Vetrov. Jacopo says, “I’m incredibly grateful to Vetrov. Together, we worked intensively on perfecting my technique, on mastering the typically Bolshoi big jumps, and on taking the whole stage, and through all of that I grew enormously.” Already in his first season with the Bolshoi, Jacopo was promoted to first soloist, and in the following years he danced leading roles in nearly all the big classics, as well as in works like Jiří Kylián’s Forgotten Land and Yuri Possokhov’s controversial Nureyev. 

Rapidly changing world  

Following a “magical performance” of The Nutcracker on New Year’s Eve 2021, Jacopo was promoted to principal with the Bolshoi Ballet, in the presence of his parents. Less than two months later, Russia invaded Ukraine. “At first, you’ve no idea what to do. Airports were shutting down and banks were closing. I felt like the world’s boundaries – including those of my own world – were suddenly changing rapidly.” 

After six years in Moscow, Jacopo left the city with a heavy heart and, as he wanted to be closer to his family in those turbulent times, he returned to Italy to consider his options for the future. 

Count Albrecht

For one of the many guest appearances he made in the following months in Italy and abroad, he danced with Olga Smirnova, with whom he had also performed in Moscow and who had moved to Dutch National Ballet in March 2022. When Jacopo went to Amsterdam to rehearse with her, he was pleasantly surprised by the company’s good atmosphere and facilities. “I’d been following the group already for some time, and partly due to that enjoyable first introduction and the company’s broad repertoire, as well as the presence of an iconic choreographer like Hans van Manen, I chose to continue my artistic path in Amsterdam in October 2023.” A couple of weeks later, he was already dancing the role of Count Albrecht, with Smirnova at his side as Giselle. “As the performance was also filmed, it was a big spotlight moment straight away.” Shortly afterwards, misfortune struck, as he broke his foot in a rehearsal. Just six months later, however, he was back on stage, in Alexei Ratmansky’s Firebird. He laughs, “The medical staff called it a miracle.”

A totally different bubble

Since then, Jacopo has chalked up a great many roles with Dutch National Ballet. Besides the classical productions, his highlights include particularly works that challenge him in new ways. “When I left the Bolshoi, my greatest wish was to develop different sides to myself, and now I have that opportunity.” For example, he says, working with Van Manen was a revelation. “If you learn a role like the one in his Four Schumann Pieces, then you learn the rudiments, but working with the master himself gives the work its specific colour and character. And it was fantastic to experience the reception of his work at the Fall for Dance Festival, in New York. Ballet fans there were absolutely bowled over!”

Another extremely precious experience for him was the duet from Postscript, by Sol León and Paul Lightfoot, which Jacopo danced with Smirnova at Dutch National Ballet’s gala in 2024. “You suddenly find yourself in a totally different bubble. The work is extremely difficult, but it’s really fascinating.” The same goes for Rudi van Dantzig’s Monument for a Dead Boy, he says, in which he gave an impressive interpretation of ‘the boy’ in September 2025. “Although the ballet dates from 1965, it actually tells a very contemporary story of how you discover yourself as a young person, with no restrictions at all, despite all the opinions and influences of the outside world.”

Text: Astrid van Leeuwen