Darcey Bussell: My Life on the BBC

Hello, I'm Darcey Bussell.

As a little girl, I thought ballet would just aid my gymnastics and

my swimming, which were my real passions.

But then ballet took over.

During my training, I was told I was too tall, too energetic.

One teacher even told me to give up.

But I can be very stubborn.

Ballet dancers are seen as this kind of like alien thing.

You know, we're not really normal people at all.

MUSIC PLAYS

Tomorrow, five people will be flying to Switzerland to represent Britain

in the Prix de Lausanne, one of the toughest international competitions.

But it's not for a sport.

It's for something even more strenuous - ballet.

Darcey Bussell is 16.

Now, your modern piece is very unusual. Can you describe it?

Well, I'm speaking in it.

-It's an awful shock.

-So there's no music?

-No music.

-Did you find it unnerving to actually work to that?

-Yes, it is, actually.

-It's a very striking piece, though, good luck.

I am a dancer.

I believe that we learn by practice.

Whether it means to learn to dance by practising dancing,

or to learn to live by practising living.

MUSIC PLAYS

Hello! That was the newest star of the Royal Ballet.

Her name is Darcey Bussell.

She's already a principal dancer at the age of 21.

And her rapid rise to fame is just like one of the fairy tales she dances.

Her new ballet has been choreographed especially for her by

one of the great choreographers, Sir Kenneth MacMillan.

Critics describe her as the dancer of the decade,

the new Margot Fonteyn, a new princess and a brand-new star.

Well, here's Darcey as the Princess Rose dancing a solo

from Act One in the ballet that was created for her,

The Prince of the Pagodas.

MUSIC PLAYS

I used to just do it with my friends,

we used to just go every Saturday, doing class and stuff.

I went to a stage school when I was about 11,

and it was kind of a trend to try for the Royal Ballet School.

Everybody tried for the Royal Ballet School.

I enjoyed it more than my friends did.

They kind of stopped doing it and I carried on.

The Prince of the Pagodas is a full-length ballet to music by

Benjamin Britten.

The leading roles of the Prince of the Pagodas and

the Princess Rose are danced by Jonathan Cope and Darcey Bussell.

MUSIC PLAYS

I think she's a wonderful young dancer.

She's going to go places.

She's not in the mould of the usual Royal Ballet dancers.

A, because she's tall and always in the past the leading dancers of the

company have been rather petite and small.

She has an attack which is very refreshing, unlike English dancers,

and it reminds me of American dancers.

She has an enormous jump,

which is unusual for an English female dancer to have.

She has a complete innocence and radiance.

I just wanted to impress Kenneth so badly,

because I realised he was this major guy.

And the nice thing is he really liked me and I didn't know that

because he never showed anything in his face.

He was very scary.

He used to sit there and go like this.

Really grumpy. And it was really weird.

And you'd kind of go, "Do you think he liked it?

"Do you think I did the right thing?"

MUSIC PLAYS

First night, after the show, the curtain went down,

it was a big success, we had a great audience.

And the director, Sir Anthony Dowell,

came up to me while we were still on stage, and I was still in shock,

going, "We've done the first night."

And he goes, "I'm going to make you a principal."

I was just like...

You know, I was just like... And I think I said to him,

"Are you sure?"

I want you to go over here.

-Backwards.

-And he stays where he is?

Irek, you just have to go...

Well, I think it's maybe that her youth.

That grown-up child, that young woman who eventually will

become the greatest ballerina in the ballet world.

That's what amazed Kenneth,

I presume it's what he's trying to pull out of Darcey.

The point of Kenneth MacMillan's choreography, it's naturalism.

So if we're talking about a kiss, so it has to be a natural kiss.

It's not just with kissing air. It's really, we really do kiss.

And really in the kiss, it comes whole passion.

And he would kiss me in front of everyone

and I'd be in a state of shock,

like, "Are you going to do this every rehearsal?

"You know, kiss me like this every rehearsal?

"Can't we just leave it until the actual performances, or on stage?"

To make sure she's believing me I do love her,

I have to give her a proper kiss,

so I gave her a proper kiss and I was shocked with that, as well.

And Darcey was shocked with that, as well.

But I think that's actually a very nice memory about it.

MUSIC PLAYS

Darcey Bussell, dancing Winter Dreams with Irek Mukhamedov.

I said Mukhamedov.

Do people pronounce it all the same or do they pronounce it differently?

Well, there's different views.

Gordon is ready for a little bit of a work-out with you, Darcey.

Because I know that you didn't particularly want to dance in the

-studio this morning.

-We're going to have a bit of stretching.

If you wouldn't mind. Bit of stretching.

Now, his legs, as you'll notice, he's got a dancer's legs.

-Flexible.

-Instant six o'clock position, there.

-Touch that ear.

-Some dancers work for years to get to that.

-Let's go to the phones, first of all...

-OK.

-..if we may, Darcey.

Let's go to line three, who's there?

-Hello.

-Hello, who's that?

-Richard.

-Richard, what's your question?

How do you stop yourself from getting dizzy when you do the spins?

-Good one.

-Yeah, well, you spot on a spot,

like when you're on stage or something, there's usually a light.

And you leave your head.

I mean, you have to demonstrate, I wish Gordon could.

But you leave it there and you leave your eyes...

If I hold your phone, why don't you do it?

-Yeah.

-I'll hold your phone.

-If you're spotting on something like

that, you leave your head to the last minute and whip it round at the

last point. So you have to work on it.

You have to work on it, Richard.

Good luck to you.

MUSIC PLAYS

Just dipping a little bit here, Miss Bussell...

..before we warm up.

And we're ready.

I'd like to start at the barre, first, if possible.

-At the bar?

-Yeah.

-Ah, Madame normally likes us to do it here.

I don't think they're actually open for another half an hour.

I'll see what we can do.

Erm, Madame, big problem.

(She's a drinker.)

Olga Khokhlova was a dancer in Diaghilev's company.

He used to knock at the door of my hotel room.

No, no, Monsieur Picasso, you cannot come in.

He did not know that Russian girls, you have to marry.

She asked too much of me.

MUSIC PLAYS

The dancer who's become the brightest star of British ballet,

Darcey Bussell, was dancing last night at the world-famous

Mariinsky Theatre in the home of the Kirov company.

The invitation was a first for the member of the Royal Ballet.

Even Dame Margot Fonteyn was never accorded such an honour.

I do think at an end of performance when I'm in my bath relaxing, that

being a ballerina is probably one of the oddest ways of earning a

living at the end of the 20th century.

You have to have your feet fastened on the ground and being able to take

a lot of criticism and everything,

that you're going to be knocked around

and told that this isn't good enough.

My mother said that she did want to straighten up my legs because I had

very knock knees.

Most of the time, I'd be under the piano and my mum would come and get

me and she'd go, "Hasn't she come out from underneath the piano?"

And the teacher would go, "No, I haven't been able to get her out."

You've got to be confident enough in yourself that you can push

yourself and get better and keep improving.

MUSIC PLAYS

'They used to have these lovely glass windows where the stairs used

'to go down towards the studio.

'And I used to be devastated sometimes turning around and realising there

'was quite a few students looking down at me, having a good laugh,

'because they knew I couldn't do the exercises properly.

'If you don't have that discipline behind you and the people pushing

'you, you know, you'll have trouble.

'It seemed hard at first but you had to become tough if you wanted to go

'into a ballet career. And now being in a company, I realise that I'm so

'glad I did those exercises.'

You need that strength in yourself to cope with the work.

If somebody isn't bullying you or making you strive, you won't achieve

the goals you want. It's like an athlete, you know,

if you want to be at the top, you have to train every day.

And you have to train hard.

And we can't be all pampered and, "Oh, yes, that was lovely, darling."

You can't have that. Because then you wouldn't be strong enough to cope.

You know, there's so many people that want the top.

You know? And so they're all fighting.

And if you don't have that strength, then you just won't make it.

Tonight, we're doing Birthday Offering, and it's by Sir Frederick Ashton.

And it was first done in the '50s and it's quite a stylised piece.

I suppose it's quite romantic, as such, and a very English quality.

I mean, I don't know what he wanted from the ballet.

It always seems like the first entrance we make

looks like a horse's parade, because we all go in those circles.

And the step we do looks a bit like that, I always felt.

This is definitely the principal ballerina role.

It is the princess role, I suppose, because we have all the diamonds,

all the diamantes,

that lovely image of what a ballerina used to look like.

And that lovely kind of Margot Fonteyn princess effect.

Everybody loves that romantic side of the ballet.

And if you think, "Oh, they must be in love, you know,

"there's some magic between them," audiences love that.

MUSIC PLAYS

APPLAUSE

I'm honoured to welcome our greatest ballerina, star of the Royal Ballet,

please welcome Darcey Bussell.

APPLAUSE

# Pres des remparts de Seville

# Chez mon ami Lillas Pastia

# J'irai danser la seguedille

# Et boire du Manzanilla,

# J'irai chez mon ami Lillas Pastia

# Oui, mais toute seule on s'ennuie

# Et les vrais plaisirs sont a deux, donc pour me tenir compagnie

# J'ammenerai mon amoureux!

# Mon amoureux!

# Il est au diable!

# Je l'ai mis a la porte hier!

# Mon pauvre coeur, tres consolable

# Mon coeur est libre comme l'air!

# J'ai des galants a la douzaine

# Mais ils ne sont pas a mon gre

# Voici la fin de la semaine

# Qui veut m'aimer?

# Je l'aimerai!

# Qui veut mon ame? Elle est a prendre!

# Vous arrivez au bon moment!

# Je n'ai guere le temps d'attendre

# Car avec mon nouvel amant

# Pres des remparts de Seville

# Chez mon ami Lillas Pastia

# J'irai danser la seguedille

# Et boire du Manzanilla

# Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la

# Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la- la-la-la! #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Thank you so much. That was absolutely brilliant.

Ladies and gentlemen, I should explain that this is a brand-new piece of

choreography that Darcey learnt for us specially for the show tonight.

It was amazing.

Now listen, I would have sung anything for you to dance to, anything.

Now why did you pick the seguidilla?

Well, I've always been passionate about Carmen, and actually we don't

actually have Carmen in our repertoire.

-I didn't know that.

-So this was a great chance to dance to it.

Well, Darcey, thank you again for coming and being a perfect Carmen.

-Ladies and gentlemen, Darcey Bussell.

-Thank you.

APPLAUSE

The Queen arrived at a Royal Opera House that's been transformed at a

cost of £214 million, over a third of that from the National Lottery.

There's a buzz in the air, everybody's excited, everybody's, you know,

wanting to do their best because they've got a building that's one of

the best opera houses in the world now.

MUSIC PLAYS

'I suppose, with my busy schedule,

'to be able to go into the physio room and actually sit down and get

'somebody to work on my ankle, or have a massage,

'and somebody do my back, however tight or painful it might be,

'it is actually time for me.'

I'm a bit tight down the side, but it feels so much better.

'But it is a lot of TLC and knowing that somebody's caring for you.'

Don't look at my feet!

-Flexing OK?

-If your feet didn't do the right job, then you wouldn't be

in the job.

They are part of...

Considering we're on point constantly.

They are the ballerina's tool,

as in everybody remembers the satin pointe shoes, don't they?

Let's look at... Oh!

OK, can't speak now.

Oh!

MUSIC PLAYS

SHE LAUGHS

I tried!

'Welcome to the backstage of the Royal Opera House, where, tonight,

'I'm going to dance the title role of Sylvia in this magical three-act

'ballet choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton.

'Whilst the audience are settling down,

'all of the dancers for the first act begin to gather on stage to

'practise their steps and get the feel of the stage.

'Everybody seems very calm, but we're all concentrating like mad to

'get ourselves ready for the performance.'

-STAGE MANAGER:

-Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats,

this evening's performance of Sylvia is about to commence.

This evening's performance of Sylvia is about to commence.

APPLAUSE

'On the other side of the curtain, we can hear the audience applauding

'our conductor, Graham Bond, and the orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

'There's a short overture and then we start.

MUSIC PLAYS

I can't do this.

'My character, Sylvia, is a nymph of the hunting goddess Diana.

'Like all Diana's attendants, she has sworn to renounce love,

'but the next hour and a half will change her life.'

MUSIC PLAYS

'Act One is so exhausting, you feel you hardly have time to breathe.

'It's a good job there's an interval now to recover.

'There are no dancers allowed on stage while the stage crew change the last

'scene and start to build the set.

'And the villain tonight is Orion, an evil hunter, danced by

'Thiago Soares.'

MUSIC PLAYS

I remember the first time we danced together, it was immediately very nice.

We had immediately a very good feeling.

She was very supporting because I was really scared.

Sorry, I was a bit late.

'She's a beautiful dancer, but she's especially a beautiful person.

'She's very relaxed.

'She's tall, I have to say,

'but because I'm tall, I think we have a very good proportion.'

'Here we all go, back on the stage for the third and final act of Sylvia.'

MUSIC: Pizzicato by Leo Delibes

'It feels now as if the whole of the Royal Ballet are on the stage.

'This act is a real gear change.

'It's strictly classical ballet all the way.'

MUSIC PLAYS

APPLAUSE

'The principals, soloists and artists of the Royal Ballet,

'who tonight have performed Sylvia, choreographed by our founder,

'choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton, and music by Leo Delibes.

'This is the first time as a dancer that you see the audience.

'It's so dark when you're out there performing.

'You don't believe anyone is there.

'It can be quite a shock.'

Talk me through it, then, love. This is where I walk round?

Yeah, you walk round. I go one and two and then you walk round.

-One, two.

-Head.

-And one, two.

-Now your favourite.

-That's all right.

-Is this going to kill you?

-No, I'm not very strong in the arm yet,

but I will be. I've got a week.

We'll do a bit of gym, we'll be all right.

I haven't actually danced for four months, so this rehearsal was kind

of... Haven't been in class, I haven't been to the gym, I haven't done anything.

So it was a little difficult for me because it was sort of recalling the

pas de deux and getting back in shape etc, just for this one-night stand,

-as it were.

-Ooh, you do that nice.

'You know, it was just like putting on an old pair of shoes, really,

'getting back with Darcey. It was very comfortable, no problems at all.

'We both say what we think. And we get the job done.'

-And...

-On one hand?

-Yes.

-Do we always do that?

-Yes. Hand. Now you can rest me.

-When is the show?

-Not until Sunday.

Right. So you've got loads of time, then.

Well, no, it was OK.

You were running around like an idiot.

-You don't need to do that.

-Because I think I was a little bit late.

Each ballerina is a little bit different and they have a slightly

different weight distribution.

They either like to be slightly forward or slightly back or whatever.

And they actually feel different, so it just takes a while just to, you know,

get the hang of that again.

Ooh, sorry, babe. Morning!

HE LAUGHS That's OK!

-You enjoy practising.

-I'm glad I'm retired.

MUSIC PLAYS

'Darcey has been invited to dance her interpretation of the role

'with one of Europe's premier dance companies,

the Ballet of the Teatro alla Scala, Milan.'

The company are here, yeah?

'She has three performances to give over the next week,

'and even before she can settle into her dressing room and try on all her

'costumes for size, she's due on stage for a complete run-through of

'all three acts of the ballet.

'And although she's known her partner, Roberto Bolle, for six years now,

'she's never danced with any of the rest of the company before.'

'To work on three-act ballets like Manon is fabulous because you are

'playing a real person and the story is so real.

'And also finding a partner that I feel totally comfortable with,

'that I could risk anything and I know he'd always be there.

'I think the only hard ballets are when you're doing the classics,

'when you're Sleeping Beauty or Aurora, and you're this princess,

'basically. And then those aren't as challenging.'

The steps are, the choreography,

but actually for me to be playing a character in Manon or Juliet in Romeo

And Juliet, you know, is fabulous.

For Darcey, it's the first time actually

she's guesting with my company, with La Scala.

Everybody, I have to say, they were really amazed.

'It's always very scary and you don't know what they're going to think of you.'

'"Is she really worth coming here to do the shows, you know.

'"One of our dancers could do them just as well", or something.

'And when we have a lot of guest artists come in, and they come in,

'they feel like they don't need to know anybody.

'I didn't want to feel like this total snobby kind of Royal Ballet,

'you know, the Royal Ballet has such a name to it, doesn't it?

'That it sort of puts this image of what we're meant to behave or be like,

'be these prima donnas. And I've always hated that.'

'I think I'm kind of used to seeing Darcey, so I know she is beautiful,

'I know she's a beautiful dancer and a beautiful person and everything like that.

'But everybody in the company, they were so surprised at how

'such a great star, such a great ballerina can be so simple,

'so nice with everybody.

'And they say, "She's so beautiful, she has everything,'

"and you look perfect together."

'For me, it's really important that finally she danced with the

'Ballet Scala. Because she's one of the best dancers in the world at the moment.'

Because technically, she's very strong and she has incredible

technique, but artistically, what's interesting me more,

she gives a lot of sentiment, a lot of passion.

Roberto has arrived to really the point of majority,

and he has completely this role in his hand.

Together they are perfect.

First, looking, they are beautiful, the two.

The line, and the face.

And afterwards, they start to dance together, they are very... Complicity,

incredible complicity together.

I think they don't really need to talk, they just feel.

'I think we feel very natural with each other now.

'And he's able to express himself so much more.

'He hadn't had that much experience in a lot of principal roles.

'He was conscious of me knowing that.

'Some people think they shouldn't tell you anything, but he can tell

'me hints, you know, "It'd be better if you did this, Darce."

'And I'd go, "Great." It's the only way you're going to keep improving.'

Da-da-da. And hold....

And one and two.

-But...

-And there are two.

-I was counting the first one.

No, you can't count this, not the accent, it's not the same.

HE LAUGHS

The show's at eight o'clock.

-I have to have my hair done at 5:30!

-5:30?!

HE LAUGHS

'There are a lot of pressures that, I suppose, the other dancers don't

'have to go through.

'But the nice thing for me is I started out like that, you know?

'As soon as I got into the Royal Ballet it was,

'it's always been like that. It hasn't been any different.

'It hasn't suddenly, I've gone through a change in my life when I was a

'professional dancer.'

MUSIC PLAYS

You know, you have to be stubborn and you have to be happy to take lots of knocks.

If you don't have that ability to be able to be slightly thick-skinned,

you're not going to make it as a professional dancer.

Because there will always be knocks,

you'll always have injuries and you'll have to fight back and

try and be noticed again.

And I did have that stubbornness that I was always going to stick my

heels in and make something happen.

If you were stuck on a...

desert island, what couldn't you live without?

The way I am at the moment, I can't live without my Stanley knife.

'Darcey is now in her 19th season with the Royal Ballet,

'and has announced that as from next year, she's to step down as principal

'dancer and take on a new role as a guest artist.'

'It's the only thing that keeps me going,'

is knowing that it's not going to be going forever.

That there is an end.

You see so many dancers, you know,

because they have audiences out there that go, "Please,

"please perform again, whatever, we just want to see you on stage."

And, you know, really don't.

Because you come back and, "Oh, the back is a little bit stiffer," and,

"Oh, your feet don't point as well as they used to."

And if I don't feel happy about how I'm performing, then it will stop

and I'll come to a grinding halt and there'll be no more ballet.

Darcey, you're going to be dancing on the Opera House stage for the

very last time. You have chosen Song Of The Earth,

I think Kenneth MacMillan's finest ballet.

And I think what everybody wants to know is,

what sort of emotions will be going through your head?

Um, I'm not somebody that... I always take one day at a time.

So I haven't already decided what it's going to feel like.

For me, I can only concentrate on that and I won't be able to actually

realise that the show is finished until it actually is finished.

And do you think there will be a slight sense of relief,

not sort of stopping the performing and the dancing, but, you know,

the pressure of being Darcey Bussell and having to live up to everybody's

expectations all the time?

I am really waiting to escape that

sort of who I'm meant to be and what

I'm meant to look like as a dancer.

There's just all those things that, after a while, you just don't want

-to have to keep up any more.

-No.

-I find those difficult.

I love what I do. I could go on stage endlessly.

If I didn't have to worry about all the other things.

-Anyway, I shall have a tear in my eye.

-It's the last show!

MUSIC PLAYS

'One of the pieces I love the most is Song Of The Earth,

'with music by Gustav Mahler.

'Six songs performed by a tenor and a mezzo-soprano evoke the journey of

'life with three central figures, the Man, the Woman,

'and the Messenger of Death.'

MUSIC PLAYS

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

APPLAUSE CONTINUES

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

'Darcey Bussell making her final appearance here on the stage at Covent Garden.

'The performance was Song Of The Earth, music by Gustav Mahler,

'choreography by Kenneth MacMillan.

'And what a stunning performance it was.'

I've finished now, I'll be able to look back and be really happy.

I think if I keep going for another five years,

I might not have the same feeling about it, and I want to have a good

feeling about it.

APPLAUSE

CHEERING

Now, when Katherine Jenkins and Darcey Bussell took to the stage,

there were goose bumps upon goose bumps.

This is their performance story.

I'm here today to perform on Strictly Come Dancing with

Darcey Bussell. We're doing a song from our show Viva La Diva.

I can't believe I'm actually on Strictly Come Dancing,

this is so cool.

Darcey and I were friends and I knew that she was going to be

leaving the Royal Ballet and we just started talking about our influences.

It was all, you know, all from the movies, Hollywood,

black and white movies, you know.

She had a bit of Judy Garland, and I had a bit of Audrey Hepburn.

And we thought that was a good concept for a show.

We had a rehearsal in here and it was the first time that we've come

together, Darcey and I, in five months.

So it was a bit nerve-racking but I'm hoping that it's going to go well

and that the audience respond well.

Darcey and Katherine, one's very bendy, one's very loud.

She's like, um, an elastic band, like this.

Ten million people tonight? OK, I'm not going on, then.

That's it! KATHERINE SINGS

No, it's very exciting, you know,

there's always a little bit of nerves, but if there isn't, then you're not

-going to make it special, are you?

-Here we go!

# ..We have the chance

# Viva tonight

# I'm by your side

# Viva our star

# Our guiding light... #

Loved every minute of it, thank you very much.

Invite me again, won't you? SHE LAUGHS

On Strictly. Bye!

'Live, from London.

'This is Strictly Come Dancing.'

-Eight.

-APPLAUSE

-'Darcey Bussell.'

-Eight.

Now, Darcey, since you've retired from the Royal Ballet,

we saw you on Strictly Come Dancing.

Here you are performing a Latin dance.

Doing it marvellously as well, as far as I can see.

-A jive.

-It's a jive.

-So what's the difference between that and ballet,

apart from the fact you've got heels on?

Yeah, the heels didn't help, I slipped over a lot in them.

I landed on the floor a couple of times in rehearsal, actually.

But, no, it was sitting in the hip, and...

What do you mean by "sitting on the hip"?

Well, in classical ballet, you're constantly pulled out of the hip and long,

and the core, it has to be very strong and still.

And then suddenly in jive, well, in any Latin American,

you sit and you wiggle a bit more.

And that was, that like reversed to what I was taught, you know?

But I suppose I've done a lot of performing and the show has to go on.

Should I do it again?