Mariafrancesca Garritano was sacked unfairly in 2012, the Court of Cassation concluded in a definitive ruling on a case that turned the spotlight on eating disorders in the high-pressure world of professional ballet.
Now 37, Garritano has told Italian media she is ready for a return to the stage – even if that looks unlikely to be at La Scala, which has been stonewalling requests for comment on the written court order since it was issued on Friday.
“All I am waiting for is a call from La Scala,” Garritano said in an interview with Milan daily Il Giorno, while acknowledging there had been no contact from the company about a ruling which confirms an October 2014 appeal court victory.
“Already in 2014, I expected to be rehired after two years of interruption. Now I expect the same thing,” said Garritano, who dances under the stage name Mary Garrett.
“I never stopped working on my physical condition to be in the best condition possible when the moment came.”
The dancer was dismissed for bringing the name of the company into disrepute with claims made in a book about her experiences and in related interviews.
One of the interviews which got her sacked was with Britain's Observer in December 2011.
“When I was training as a teenager, the instructors would call me 'mozzarella' and 'Chinese dumpling' in front of everyone,” she told the Sunday newspaper.
“I reduced my eating so much that my period stopped for a year and a half when I was 16 and 17, and I dropped to 43 kilos (94 pounds).”
Garritano said 70 percent of dancers who were with her at La Scala's dance school had eaten so little their periods had stopped and linked her own recurring stomach pains and frequent bone fractures to extreme dieting.
FIRE
La Scala told to rehire dancer who spoke out about anorexia
Italy's top court has ordered the rehiring of a La Scala ballerina sacked after suggesting the famous company's dance school was responsible for multiple cases of anorexia among its young dancers.
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FIRE
Why have there been so many fires in Copenhagen this year?
Thursday’s fire at Denmark’s tax ministry follows a blaze at the historic Old Stock Exchange and several fires at the headquarters of pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk on the outskirts of Copenhagen.
A fire broke out on Thursday morning on the roof of the building which houses Denmark’s Tax Ministry in central Copenhagen, which fire services in the capital were able to put out shortly afterwards.
The Tax Ministry fire is at least the fifth high-profile blaze in and around Copenhagen since April, following three at different buildings owned by pharma giant Novo Nordisk and the devastating fire which turned parts of the historic Old Stock Exchange (Børsen) to rubble.
The high number of fires occurring within a relatively short period appears to be down to no more than chance, Jens Kastvig, an expert with the Danish Society of Engineers said to newswire Ritzau.
“There’s always a risk that a fire can break out in a building,” Kastvig said, noting that the average annual fire rate is around one per 100,000 to 150,000 square metre of building.
“That could be anything from a smaller to a larger fire,” he said.
Kastvig said that he initially guessed the Tax Ministry fire was the result of renovation work.
Both Børsen and the Novo Nordisk buldings were also undergoing renovations at the time of their fires. This increases the risk of fire breaking out in a more flammable material such as bitumen waterproofing, or a fire otherwise related to the ongoing work.
No renovations were ongoing at the Tax Ministry however, the building’s owner ATP Ejendomme has confirmed.
“The fire services are busy at the moment. But I hope it’s a coincidence,” Kastvig said.
Tim Ole Sørensen of the Copenhagen Fire Service, Hovedstadens Beredskab, said on Thursday that there was no suggestion that the fires were related.
“There’s nothing that indicates any form of connection at all to us, and we are talking about very different businesses and types of building,” he said.
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