Paolo Bortoluzzi - ballet dancer - Obituary

Dance Magazine, Jan, 1994

Paolo Bortoluzzi, a major international ballet star of the 1960s and 1970s, died in Brussels of a cerebral hemorrhage on October 16, 1993. He was fifty-five years old.

Born in Genoa, Bortoluzzi studied with several noted teachers, including dell'Ara, Kiss, Gsovsky, and Messerer. He made his debut in 1957 at the Nervi Festival and later joined Leonide Massine's Balletto Europeo. In 1960 he joined Bejart's Ballet of the Twentieth Century as a leading soloist. In addition to performing as a guest artist with many major European theaters, he danced as a principal with American Ballet Theatre after leaving the Bejart company in 1972.

Bortoluzzi created major roles in many ballets, especially those of Bejart. His work for the choreographer included leads in Bolero (1960), Ninth Symphony (1964), and Baudelaire (1968). His career as a choreographer began in Brussels in 1965 with La Valse. With his wife, the dancer Jaleh Karendi, he opened his own school in Turin in the 1970s. At his death he was artistic director of Ballet Theatre de Bordeaux.