“Amici” is an Italian talent show created by Maria De Filippi which began in 2001 on Canale 5. The show is based on an academy school of a class of about 20 young talents who aspire to become professional singers, songwriters and dancers. Each season is around a year long and in the latest season (22), started last September, Italian viewers discovered 22 years old dancer Gianmarco Petrelli.
While Petrelli will not win the show, his career is bright. In a recent interview, he stated “I owe my passion for dance to Michael Jackson”.
He continues: “The passion was born growing up, I used to swim as a child and there was not the slightest idea of changing discipline because I liked it a lot. I remember when I was in third grade, I went to the pool, my cousin accompanied me, and I told her: ‘not today I don’t want to, I don’t want to go anymore’. I haven’t been there since. In the family we tried to figure out what could be a nice sport to do, I liked basketball, and maybe if I had not discover dance during my journey, I would have chosen that. Then it happened that Michael Jackson died, I didn’t even know who he was, at the time I was nine years old. I fell in love with his character, his music, his dance. I secretly danced to his songs trying to recreate his dance.”
His mother noticed and secretly signed him up to a dance class where the passion and talent grew stronger.
Now the young dancer would like to go to the other side of the world and try to dance on a tour for an international artist. When asked who he would like to dance for, Petrelli said “Since I won’t be able to dance for Michael Jackson for obvious reasons, I’d love Dua Lipa, Justin Timberlake, Ariana Grande, big names in the world.”
Here two snippets of what Gianmarco can do:
Good luck for your bright future Gianmarco! Once a MJ fan, always a MJ fan!
You can follow Gianmarco on Instagram
