After all our hard work in rehearsal Roberto (Bolle) and I opened The Royal Ballet season on the 20th October with Swan Lake. As you know the rehearsals had been going well and we both enjoyed the show. Of course there were a few little aspects of the performance we thought we could improve upon and we were looking forward to the next two. Fitting in rehearsals, however, was not easy. Roberto has other commitments with La Scala, so it was a case of him flying back and forth to London between shows. After all that rehearsing, I somehow managed to come down with food poisoning on the Sunday before our Tuesday performance. Eventually it was decided that I would dance Act 2, but that Zenaida Yanowsky would replace me in the very strenuous third act.
I hate to miss shows; it makes me feel I'm letting the audience down. But, as I hadn't been able to eat, I knew I wouldn't have the strength to dance the whole ballet. Sir Anthony Dowell made an announcement at the beginning of the evening explaining the situation and I tried to get through the show (even loosening my costume for part of the second act to help my breathing) but I was just too ill to continue after the second act. Zenaida did a great job of stepping into my shoes for the remaining two acts - on the day before her official debut in the role. Thanks Zen. I am slowly recovering and I hope all will be well for our final show!
8 days after the first night of the season we had the world première of Dance Variations , the Michael Corder piece. There were 14 dancers in all - and sometimes in rehearsal there seemed a lot more of us than that. The costumes, by Anthony Ward, were fun: leotards with short skirts for the women and all-in-ones for the men - not what you would call classical, though the steps definitely were. Johnny (Cope) and I enjoyed the show and the audience seemed to like it, too. Of course, all dancers love to have new pieces choreographed on them and I've been very fortunate in that respect. Just hope my good luck continues!
I have been rehearsing Lilac Garden, a piece by Anthony Tudor that has not been in the Royal Ballet rep since 1968. Sylvie Guillem and I are alternating in the lead role. Sylvie is dancing with Johnny and I am being partnered by Inaki Urlezaga who was promoted to principal this past summer. I've had the pleasure of dancing with Inaki before, of course, and we are also performing Monotones II (Ashton) in this mixed bill. I recently performed Monotones II in the Ashton/Cecchetti Gala 8 years after I made my debut in the role at the ROH. It will be good to perform it again on the main stage.
Follow the link to Part Two
to see what else, apart from Dance, I've been up to - and enter the pointe shoe competition!
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