Well, this isn’t something you see on the daily. This ballerina was spotted dancing in St George’s Square in Victoria, on Malta’s sister isle. But what was the performance all about? 

“In the video I am performing a variation from the one-act ballet Carmen. This is a ballet danced to a score known as the 'Carmen Suite' which is a musical arrangement by composer Rodion Shchedrin based on the music of Georges Bizet's opera Carmen. The 'Carmen Suite' was originally choreographed by Alberto Alonso for the Bolshoi Ballet's Prima Ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. Alonso's version is still performed to this day by the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Ballets,” says Gozitan ballerina Giannella Cassar.

She explains that her performance was part of the Opera is Gozo activities. “The event consisted of a display of street theatre (or rather street opera) where the aim is to bring opera to the people, to raise awareness about this classical genre and to reach out to the wider public outside the theatre,” she explains.

The street opera programme featured a number of Gozitan performers and was directed by George Mizzi, who approached Giannella’s tutor to enter three performances for the programme, and Giannella was one of them. “As Carmen is a well known and much-loved opera in Malta, Sarah thought it would be the perfect opportunity to perform this challenging variation from the classical repertoire, and so she asked me if I would like to attempt it. Although dancing in a square on a hard unsprung surface isn't the conventional place to dance, especially en pointe, I accepted and we both took the challenge (I had to learn and perform the variation and my tutor to coach me in a short amount of time).”

“In the end it was a success and we are glad we brought a little piece of classical repertoire to Gozitan audiences,” Giannella says. “After all, very often dances used to be (and continue to be) integrated in operas which feature 'ballabili' in their musical score, and some operas also have their famous ballet counterparts as well.”

Giannella says that it was a great experience to perform and also talks about the importance of the arts. “It is important that people appreciate the relationship between opera and ballet, music and dance. We hope that we succeeded in conveying this message with Carmen.”

Watch her performance here: