If you've read any of the UK dance magazines in the last few months you'll know all about Johan Persson's new career as a photographer. His book 161 images was launched in September of last year coinciding with an exhibition of his work in the Link at the Royal Opera House. His work is currently being exhibited in the National Theatre where you can see 60 of the images from his book. It's a stunning show and runs until 28th February 2004.
Johan was a dancer before he became a photographer, however, and it was his Mother who got him interested. When, as a child of 4, he joined his sister's ballet class, it was at his Mother's insistence. At that age, he admits, he was a bit of a Mummy's boy and always tried to please her. (Now, of course, he's grateful that she did push him into ballet.) He enjoyed those early lessons at Broadstairs in Kent (where his family were living at the time) and joined another class (then aged six) when his family returned to Sweden. Here he attended a school in Malmo which was attached to the Stadsteatern. It was a wonderful opportunity and he really enjoyed the chance to appear in ballets and operas. He continued his lessons when the family moved to the States and later, when they once again returned to Sweden, Johan joined the Royal Swedish Ballet School. (His father was a business consultant so moving house was a regular experience; he attended 6 different schools in Sweden.) When the family returned to Rochester, Minnesota, his Mother saw, in a dance magazine, that the National Ballet School of Canada were holding auditions in Toronto. After a 24-hour bus journey, Johan and his sister arrived for the auditions ... and Johan won a place in the school, starting at the age of 12. 'It was easier for boys in ballet,' he says modestly, 'as there were fewer of us.'
After all that travelling, he had finally found a base. When he graduated from the school, he joined the National Ballet of Canada in 1990 and spent the next 11 years of his life in Toronto - until he joined the Royal Ballet in 2000. His first major role in Canada was the Russian dance in their version of The Nutcracker, where he was the middle boy. He remembers it being quite technical, with a lot of pirouettes and tricks. He got to dance solos and pas de deux quite quickly in a variety of productions but his first full length role was Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew ('A really unusual one to start with because it's damn hard.'). The pas de deux was particularly difficult, but Johan was fortunate in his director; Reid Anderson, 'is a genius when it comes to teaching a pas de deux. He breaks it down so well that it all works and it was a great role to start with.' Most roles after that seemed easy by comparison.
Looking back, he feels that it is the prince roles that were the least fulfilling, since it's so hard to put your own character into these. He did, however, have a great 'rep' in Canada, dancing in a lot of Cranko's work (the National Ballet of Canada had a good connection with Stuttgart Ballet). The highlight for him, however, was dancing with Jaimie Tapper in the 1995 Eric Bruhn Competition; they performed 2 pas de deux, one of which was the balcony pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet. The competition was quite new at the time, with dancers coming from all round the world. So they were very happy when they won. It was wonderful for the company, too, as the competition was held in Canada. And afterwards a performance of Romeo and Juliet was added to the schedule for Jaimie and Johan. The competition was a high point for personal, as well as professional, reasons - Jaimie and Johan became close friends - and were married in the summer of 2003.
Joining the Royal Ballet was another high point in Johan's life, although it was also quite scary. After being at the National Ballet of Canada for 11 years he was very settled: everyone knew him there and he'd been made a principal in 1996. It was Jaimie who was the driving force for change. While auditioning in Europe, she was influenced by a friend to try for the Royal Ballet, a company she hadn't really considered. When she did audition, she liked what she saw and joined the Royal Ballet in 1999. Johan followed her across the Atlantic and was invited to take class with the Royal Ballet. He found it very nerve-wracking, though, to be judged during class, a time which is normally seen very much as a warm-up for the day - not a chance to show yourself off at your best. All went well, however, and after being watched by Anthony Dowell, Monica Mason and other members of ballet management, he was offered a place and joined the company in 2000.
His first role in Britain was Siegfried in Swan Lake, partnering Tamara Rojo. He'd never danced with her before and the rehearsals were being taken by Anthony Dowell. After having danced the part so many times, he was now being asked to perform it in a slightly different way. The style was different and although the changes that new coaches asked for may have been subtle, they gave him a lot to think about. He feels now that, although his career at the Royal was quite short, he became a better dancer. He loved the fact that he was finally able to dance Colas in La Fille mal gardée. (He had understudied the role in Canada in his first year with the company when he was dancing Alain.) He had always thought of it as a role that would be good fun - and wasn't disappointed. At the time there were some injuries within the company so he picked up a few shows and opened the run on tour with Miyako Yoshida. He loved the fact that he was able to dance with so many partners at the Royal Ballet, although unfortunately he never danced with Darcey, not being quite tall enough. He built up a strong partnership with Leanne Benjamin which turned into a good friendship as well, although initially he was surprised and taken aback by the fact that she spoke her mind very freely in rehearsal, stopping as soon as something wasn't right.
At the end of his first season at the Royal, Johan's knee started to ache, swell up and click. Not having had many serious injuries in the past, he decided to have it looked at. 'It was really scary that the list of problems was so long,' he says, although the doctor told him that if you checked most people's knees you'd find a lot of problems. A decision was made to operate and clean out some of the debris that was floating about in there. After dancing for another 6 months, however, he found that his knee had become very bad, occasionally locking up; when this happened he wasn't able to walk properly for a couple of days. He'd been dancing Lensky in Onegin, a part he really loved. In Beyond Bach, however, his knee problem during one show meant he could only do the partnering, leaving the solos to Ricardo Cerveras. During the show his knee gave way completely while he was carrying Leanne Benjamin off stage, he knew this was going to be bad news. Faced with the prospect of a second, more serious, operation, Johan 'took a tour of doctors around the world', before deciding to have his operation in Sweden. Having been warned that rehabilitation might take a year and a half (with no guarantee that he would ever get back on stage), Johan finished building his darkroom before he left for Sweden: he knew he would need something to do while he was recuperating.
Click here to find out what that was!
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