Text by Stefania Cubello

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The place where he was born, Buenaventura in Colombia, is from always in his heart. In fact, it was in this country on the Pacific coast that from child Fernando Montano (March 6, 1985) discovered dance on television, beginning a path that led him to to become a principal dancer at the Cuban National Ballet and the Royal Ballet in London, performing in the most prestigious theaters and festivals, such as the 66th Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto.

Now, following in the footsteps of his compatriot Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel laureate in literature in 1982, who recounted the events of the imaginary Macondo in his masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude, Montano presents his new show Buena ventura inspired by Ovid and Kafka's Metamorphoses to explore the relationship between the animal world, nature and man. On stage, we see him stretch his body and soar through the air with delicate, precise, rigorously groomed movements, feline elegance. The most astonishing leap, however, was the one that from Buenaventura took him, the first Colombian to to achieve, to London's Royal Opera House, the world's most respected classical ballet company of which he is a major star. His incredible story, which he also told in his autobiography Una buena ventura, could be made into a movie for the cinema. She recounts it in the interview she gave for the audience at Festival dei Due Mondi.

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The new show you are premiering at Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto 'Buena Ventura' recalls your hometown in its title: is this a specific choice? What does he bring to the stage?

The show in a way is about me, about my life, about the 'good luck' that from Colombia brought me to Cuba, then to Italy and to London. A long journey filtered on stage to Spoleto by dance but also by music, rhythm, the many elements I assimilated along the way.

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What inspired Buena ventura?

I wanted to do something fresh and more modern, connecting it to current events, to what is happening in the world especially in relation to the behavior humans have toward animals and nature. Colombia, for example, is the second country, after Brazil, with the highest percentage of biodiversity. But the Amazon Rainforest, its green lung that benefits the entire planet, must be protected just as its wildlife and animal species in general must also be respected. So I wanted to show what, for example, an animal can feel when, transformed into a human being, it is to living to contact with a world full of contradictions, aggressive but also full of beauty and feelings of love. And vice versa, how can a human transformed into an animal being feel, forced to to live in its violated natural environment. In this 'play' of parts, man has the opportunity to learn much from nature. The ballet also embraces issues related to the climate crisis.

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What is the message you want to send with Buena ventura? Is there a sign of hope at the bottom to all that will save us?

The answer is in love for ourselves, for life, for the environment, for nature. This will save us. It is the only hope we can still count on. We must not let it go away. There is room for everyone, humans, animals, nature, each with their own differences in culture, in thought. We must accept each other as we are and share even the little we have with our neighbors.

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Using art, talent also for charitable and social purposes, to inspire others to help, to become aware. In an age like ours of digital dictatorship, of environmental crisis, how does the role of the dancer also change ?

The world is constantly changing. At one time perhaps it took ten years to form a new generation, today it only takes a year to have more than one. Everything is in constant motion. I think art and artists need to keep up with the times, to be involved in the process of social transformations as it is happening, so as not to also risk losing our essence as artists. Art has a special strength, it is an important form of communication that does not discriminate. Talent and art can be found everywhere, no matter the place or country of origin. Especially at this difficult time, it is important for artists to be present, to work to show reality to the world.

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Is it also because of this, because of his love and respect for the environment and nature, that since 2020 he has been engaged as an Ambassador of the Marine Conservation Society UK, and organizer of Ocean Voices, a panel discussion on ocean health?

But not only that. Beyond dance I try to contribute to socially, for example with the Children Change Colombia Foundation, an annual charity gala I organize to raise funds to for Colombian children. And with the Amy Winehouse Foundation, in which I participate to support and bring help to the many young people who are victims of addiction, so that they can develop their self-esteem and be better able to manage their emotional well-being. I use my art and my body as a means of expression to reach to raise awareness in a different way, sharing issues that then lead them to to reflect.  

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Her human and artistic story is extraordinary. It comes from a 'forgotten' village in Colombia where ballet is not part of the cultural background. How did you discover ballet?

Buenaventura is a small port in Colombia, but also the most important one. I discovered ballet by accident, while watching a children's program called Nubeluz on TV. That's how I learned my first ballet steps and realized that I wanted to be a dancer. Everything about that world fascinated me. to six years old, then, with my family I moved to Cali, a city much larger than Buenaventura. Here I began to taking lessons in folk dance and tango, but also to playing to soccer, a career to which I would have been more easily destined. to 11 years old, however, I hung up my from football shoes and donned those from dance shoes, more attracted to the experiments and charisma of Rudolf Nureyev and Nijinski and, among the contemporaries, from Carlos Acosta, Julio Bocca, Roberto Bolle, Alessandra Ferri. to that age my 'good fortune' began. Although I was considered old enough to begin a classical arts education, I had been admitted to Incolballet de Cali. After two years of study and preparation, I entered to a competition to Cuba where I won a scholarship to study at the Cuban National Ballet School in Havana. My family has very humble beginnings and has always made great sacrifices to support me, and the scholarship allowed to 14 me to leave Colombia and start my career. After graduating, thanks to to a friend of mine who is a prima ballerina, I arrived in Italy, at the Teatro Nuovo in Turin.

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How did entry from étoile at the Royal Ballet in London come about and what difficulties did you face?

After an audition made thanks to my teacher's interest with the then director of the English National Ballet School. It was a difficult audition, without music because the CD I had prepared did not work. But everything went well, I became the first Colombian dancer in history in this great ballet company that is the Royal Ballet. On several occasions I also danced for the Royal Family.