For Alessandra Ferri, Playing Virginia Woolf in New Woolf Works Ballet Was 'A Great Honor' and a Challenge (Exclusive)

Virginia Woolf’s beloved novels come to life in ballet, now making its New York premiere with American Ballet Theater (ABT).Woolf Works, in performances at the Metropolitan Opera House through June 29, is more than a tribute to the beloved English writer. With choreography by Wayne McGregor and music by Max Richter, the award-winning production brings the author’s most notable works to life off the page. The ballet, which debuted in London in 2015, is divided into three parts. “Me Now, Me Then”, based on Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway, features a single dancer who plays both the protagonist Clarissa Dalloway and the author herself. “Becomings” originates from Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando, which is now considered one of the first transgender novels in the English language. “Tuesday”, the final part of the triptych, shows themes from the author’s book from 1931. Waves, and ends with Woolf’s death; the writer died by suicide in 1941.

For Alessandra Ferri, who will play the dual role of Clarissa and Woolf in two plays during Woolf WorkS’ run, the role has been with her for years, in more ways than one.

Alessandra Ferri in ‘Woolf Works’.

Asya Verzhbinsky

“I’m reading [Woolf’s] work when I was young,” Ferri tells PEOPLE. “Actually, I read Mrs. Dalloway many, many years ago Orlando and thoroughly enjoyed and loved them. Of course, it is quite different when you read things just for your own pleasure and when you relive them with such a close connection to the work, because then you try to become aware of the impressions that the work leaves on you. That’s what happened when I read it again.”

The PEOPLE Puzzler has arrived! How fast can you solve it? Play now! Ferri, 61, is an Olivier Award-winning performer and prima ballerina assoluta (an honor given to the most distinguished female dancers) which was associated with such prestigious companies as the Royal Ballet, La Scala and the Hamburg Ballet. She came out of temporary retirement to dance Woolf Works with the American Ballet Theatre, where she was a principal dancer for more than two decades.

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It’s a fitting homecoming, as the dual role of Clarissa and Woolf was created for her by McGregor in 2015, and the dancer finds it especially important at this point in her career. “I have a completely different experience in this second part of my artistic life, and I think the honesty and strength of being able to dance is who I am and [as] characters my age,” Ferri says of his connection to the role. “Dance can be a language that can represent life in every aspect. It’s a lot of work. It’s not easy, because obviously the body is the body, so sometimes you have to fight with it… but there is a very beautiful, liberating and calm feeling when you just [being] on stage.”

Alessandra Ferri in the movie “Woolf Works” in 2015.

Tristram Kenton

While Ferri has worked with respected choreographers throughout her career, including Jerome Robbins, the Broadway choreographer behind shows including story from the west side, and Sir Frederick Ashton, chief choreographer of the Royal Ballet, collaboration with McGregor is a new experience for her. Like Woolf’s signature stream-of-consciousness writing style, Ferri says McGregor approached the work in a similar way. “With Wayne, you just create without boundaries, without a sense of time or place, within ballet,” says Ferri. “I didn’t know if what we were doing was the beginning of ballet or the end of ballet. I did not know. We would just create things, movements, situations and then everything would fall into place. Some kind of work arises by itself.”

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Playing a real person, Ferri agrees, was both “a great honor” and a challenge. Her interpretation of Woolf taught her that “we can be so strong, so innovative and so fragile and so alone with our demons.”

Alessandra Ferri in the movie “Woolf Works” in 2015.

Tristram Kenton

“She was such a revolutionary woman, really, in her writing and the strength she had,” Ferri says of the author. “She was actually the first modern writer. And at the same time, she was so devastatingly lonely, with this condition that she had that was destroying her and eating her alive.”

“When you’re an artist and you’re writing a story, that’s who you are,” says Ferri. “Even we as translators, when [we’ve] did something, that’s us. We lend ourselves to that character… In fact, [it] it could be a very different life, but inside you are you.”

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Despite its roots in Woolf’s literature, no prior knowledge of the author’s work is necessary to enjoy the ballet. Ferri, who will begin her term as artistic director of the Vienna State Ballet in 2025, hopes the audience will “take away whatever they get.”

Never miss a story — subscribe to PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. “It’s just very powerful, moving work,” she says. “You don’t have to take anything literally. You just have to let yourself feel.”Woolf Works now running at the Metropolitan Opera House through June 29.

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Source: HIS Education