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Lauren Cuthbertson
Soloist, The Royal Ballet
interviewed by David Bain
Swedenborg Hall, London
23 March 2005.
BORN IN DEVON IN 1984, as a youngster
Lauren was a bit of a tomboy so her mother
thought that channelling her energies
into gymnastics and ballet would instil
some discipline before she started school.
She loved her first ballet class and never
looked back.
Between 1987 and 1995, both Pamela de
Waal and Corrine Coremi taught Lauren.
In 1992 Lauren joined the Royal Ballet
School’s Junior Associate (JA) Programme
as a monthly student. As a JA she did
well, however she found it challenging
to her free spirit. Until this point she
had been used to doing her own thing and
suddenly she was in a classroom, expected
to be perfectly groomed, etc. Looking
back, Lauren feels being a JA was, overall,
a good thing as it made her more aware
of placement, port de bras etc.
In 1995, aged 10, Lauren went to White
Lodge. Lauren’s brother (Arron)
was already a student there, having joined
the previous year, and “it was lovely
to have him there.” Arron had started
ballet after Lauren. At home in Devon
their mother would take her brother to
Cubs, then Lauren would do ballet class
followed by Brownies. One day, when he
was seven, Cubs finished early and Pamela
de Waal encouraged Arron to join in. His
mother was surprised to find him dancing
when she picked him up. “He is multi
talented. When he left White Lodge he
went on to study at Arts Educational as
he is both a good singer and dancer, as
well as being musical.”
Dame Merle Park was in charge of the Royal
Ballet School when Lauren first arrived.
In her first year Lauren thought ballet
was going to be easy! (Little did she
know!) She just loved it and naively assumed
she would become a ballerina! She soon
realised the hard work it would entail.
She’d seen copies of all the old
dance magazines showing ballet dancers
like Margot Fonteyn, aged 15 in them,
and so she thought to herself “Okay
I’m 11 now, so by 15 I’ll be
a ballerina!”
It was during her second year at White
Lodge that she was warned, that from now
on she would have to work very hard. She
has just performed on the main stage at
the Opera House in Swan Lake and from
this time onwards she became a secret
‘bun-head’. She loved White
Lodge and got up to all sorts of mischief
with her friends (Grace Poole, Hayley
Forskitt, Zachary Faruque and Paul Kay).
Lots of dancers from that year managed
to get contracts with companies all over
the world.
At the end of her fourth year at White
Lodge (1999) Gailene Stock arrived. With
her arrival came a greater emphasis on
competitions. In preparation for the Phyllis
Beddell Prize and the Adeleine Genée Awards,
Gailene also introduced The Royal Academy
of Dance (RAD) syllabus. Lauren rushed
through the RAD exams and during her last
year at White Lodge won the Lynn Seymour
prize for expressive dance, was joint
winner of the Phyllis Beddell prize and
came second in Young British Dancer of
the Year (YBDY). She got through competitions
by treating them as if she was just performing
a solo rather than competing for a prize,
enjoying the uninterrupted space and time
that they provided. She learnt so much
during these experiences. A thrilling
moment for her was being coached by Darcey
Bussell for the YBDY finals.
During Lauren’s first year at Upper
School she won the Young British Dancer
of the Year competition and got a Silver
Medal at the Genée Awards. During the
course of these competitions Lauren danced
Gamzatti, Aurora, Woodland Glade and the Dryad from Act II of Don Quixote.
At the end of year school performance
at the Opera House in 2001 she danced
with the 3rd year boys in a piece called
Souvenirs. As a 1st year girl she was
totally smitten with the 3rd year boys
and had to dance with 10 of them!
During the summer holidays after her first
year at Upper School, Lauren went to Japan
with James Wilkie (now also dancing with
the Royal Ballet) and Lynn Wallis (Artistic
Director of the RAD) to perform at an
RAD summer school gala. She danced two
solos and loved Japan.
Lauren skipped 2nd year Upper School and
went straight into the 3rd year. During
this final year at school she had the
opportunity to tour with the other 3rd
years. Before Christmas they went to Germany
and in February of 2002, during the Winter
Olympics, they performed in Salt Lake
City. They were supposed to perform during
the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony but
sadly that fell through. However, they
saw lots of events, skiing, etc and even
stayed with a Mormon family!
It was whilst Lauren was on tour in Salt
Lake City that she discovered she had
been offered a contract with the Royal
Ballet. On their final night there she
was handed two envelopes. The first one
she opened was from the Royal Ballet and
was over the moon to find she had been
offered a place as an Artist. “It
was the best evening, wonderful.”
She was also offered a soloist contract
with BRB, however, after much soul searching,
she felt she needed to start at the bottom
and therefore decided to accept the offer
from the Royal Ballet.
When they got back to London, the following
day, they had to go straight from the
airport to the Opera House to sign contracts.
Lauren joined the Royal Ballet the very
next day. That afternoon there was a mad
rush to catch the ballet shops before
they closed, because the only dancewear
Lauren owned was school uniform and she
didn’t think she should turn up
for Company class the next day wearing
that! On her first morning with the company,
suffering from terrible jet lag and little
sleep she had to have costumes fitted
and promptly fainted (in nothing more
than a thong!). She was trying to learn
the timetable and find her way round.
She couldn’t figure out why she
needed 10 pairs of shoes or why she would
need a dresser! Later that first day there
were rehearsals for the Shades in Bayadère,
but they were all dropping like flies
so Lauren, along with the three other new
girls were told they would have to learn
it. “It was a question of grab some
peanuts, Ribena and back to rehearsal.”
This one rehearsal turned out to be only
time she would dance a Shade and she was
very wobbly having fainted earlier in
the day. Not the greatest of first days
but certainly not lacking drama!
Dramatic ballets weren’t taught
at school so it was a nice surprise for
Lauren to discover that she enjoyed acting
the different roles. Lauren explained
that when you join the Company you have
to perform many different roles: a peasant,
a whore, etc. and no matter how small
a role may be, each person has their own
story to tell within the ballet and this
can include minute detail. This came as
a surprise to all of them and they had
to learn fast.
After she joined the Company, Lauren’s
first lead role was in a piece for the
Clore Studio choreographed by Cathy Marston
– Between Shadows – based on The
Go Between. Initially Cathy had
asked Lauren to just cover for Gillian
Revie, who was the lead female. A few
days before the show she was told Gillian
was suffering from whiplash (she later
found out she was pregnant) and therefore
Lauren would have to go on. She now had
10 days to get ready for the first show.
“I knew I would have to learn masses
of new steps as I hadn’t done that
sort of dance before. After a week I knew
the steps and then began to work on the
interpretation.” Cathy kept saying
“I need you to do more” and
Lauren knew she had to, but as yet lacked
confidence in the studio. Then on the
first night “I just went for it
and really enjoyed my first role in a
Cathy Marston ballet.”
During her first year with the company
Lauren was thrilled to be cast in the
corps of Christopher Wheeldon’s
new ballet Tryst. (She had worked with
Chris when she was at school). However,
no one informed her she was also supposed
to be covering a soloist role and therefore
didn’t turn up to rehearsals. A
week or so later Chris Saunders asked
why she hadn’t been attending rehearsals,
as they were more than half way through
creating the work. As a result, Lauren
missed learning some of the crucial parts
and the counting was particularly difficult.
During the tour in Australia that June,
Jamie Tapper’s knee wasn’t
good and Lauren was told she would have
to go on. “I had just gone up to
class and was told ‘It’s you
– you’re on. Tonight!’
” There was half an hour of rehearsal
and then the stage call. At this point
Lauren only knew two of the three sections.
Christopher Saunders gave her every free
moment he had and she somehow managed
to learn the rest of the ballet in time
for the show. “Was it the adrenalin?
Somehow my body remembered.” It
was very difficult, coping with different
steps for the same music she’d danced
as corps member, but she thoroughly enjoyed
dancing the role. When she had to dance
Tryst in Russia the following season Lauren
found it very hard to dance on the rake
– “it made me feel sea sick!”
During the Australian tour, Lauren turned
18 and had a birthday party in her room.
She decided to go childlike – water bombs,
jelly, soda, etc but the popcorn in the
microwave set the fire alarm off – three
fire engines turned up. Not everyone was
happy with her the next day!
Lauren was asked about Makarova’s Sleeping Beauty. She has worked with Makarova
twice on Beauty. Firstly during the 2002/2003
season when Makarova chose Lauren, who
was still an Artist, to dance Lilac Fairy.
The second time was the following season
when Lauren had been promoted to Soloist
and this time they worked on the Bluebird
pdd and again on Lilac Fairy. In between
these two, Lauren also worked with her
on Gamzatti. Before Lauren’s first show of Sleeping
Beauty she had never seen the whole of
the ballet from the front and the transformation
scene had still not been finalised. She
described the solos in the old Act I as
co-ordinated and flowing, but that the
new solos are done in a different way
and are more difficult to make seamless.
However, she thought the Company looked
wonderful in the production. “Makarova
made you very aware of port de bras, placement,
épaulement, footwork, etc. I loved
working with her. She has so much to give.”
“In the summer of 2003 on tour in
Russia, Johan asked me to film the end
of his show of Romeo and Juliet so I decided
to stay and watch the whole thing –
the Russians went crazy for him and Alina.
At the end there was endless applause
and then Monica took me on set and told
me that I would have shows of Juliet the
following season with Edward Watson. I
couldn’t believe it, all my birthdays
and Christmases had come at once.”
I was told to keep it secret so I didn't
even tell my mum. A while later Monica
asked me what mum had said when she had
heard – and I said “but I
haven’t told her!”
During her first season as a soloist Lauren
danced in Symphony in C. Initially she
was just down to cover one of the side
girls in the first movement. Then a couple
of people became ill and another pregnant.
Suddenly she was told she should go to
rehearsals for the lead role of the second
movement, but didn’t realise until
the rehearsal of the finale with the three
other lead girls that she would actually
be going on and would also be the only
cast for the second movement and therefore
be in every show. Very frightening. The
Benesh notators taught her the steps.
Lauren loves the music, especially second
movement. “But, however much I practised
I knew I couldn’t fulfil the role
as one day I hopefully will – I
felt I couldn’t be a diamond in
their eyes. But I’d heard Balanchine
would do that with young ballerinas –
put them in at the deep end to see what
they could do. Towards the end I started
to enjoy it more.”
The same season Lauren loved the Romeo
and Juliet rehearsals. She had done her
research and knew the music inside out
– “with music you are not
alone on stage – you are with the body
of the orchestra.” She had already
danced a lot with Edward [Watson] and
got to know him well during the rehearsal
process. Johnny [Cope] and Lesley [Collier]
were coaching them. It was hard work as Beauty was also coming up and trying to
concentrate on Romeo whilst performing
in Symphony in C, Agon, etc., made it
the busiest time of her life. It was also
the most memorable.
The previous season when Lauren had first
covered Juliet, Monica had asked Lauren
to take part in a Romeo and Juliet masterclass.
Although she was covering the role she
hadn’t been to any Romeo calls.
Monica said “‘Come along in flat
shoes and I will teach you.’ It was amazing.”
She learnt all of the Act III potion scenes
and family scenes with Monica acting the
parts of the entire Capulet family!
Last season Lauren was in everything and
loved being busy. But after Juliet last
season it was quiet – “a sort of
anticlimax.” It’s been the
same so far this year, but Lauren is trying
to use her time well. However, now she’s
rehearsing David Bintley’s Tombeaux (second cast with Federico Bonelli). Lauren
finds it tiring – “but I’m
gaining more stamina as I learn when I
can have peaceful moments.” She
is very much enjoying working with David
and Federico for first time. Adam Cooper
has described the ballet as a one act
Mayerling, it terms of the stamina needed.
Lauren was asked how it felt being held
upside down during a lift in Tombeaux?
Being second cast Lauren was taught from
Benesh notation and watched Alina and
Johan – “it looked pretty
scary but it is actually quite fun. I
like that lift but it’s a bit weird
seeing the auditorium upside down.”
Looking back on her career to date, Lauren
said “Being given the Soloist/Principal
roles when you are still young means you
get individual coaching, which is invaluable
and enables you to keep improving.”
Favourite roles? “I always want
to be in the role I have last seen. So
for now it is Juliet – again and again,
Mary Vetsera in Mayerling and Manon. I
also dream of doing the classical ballets
including Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping
Beauty, Bayadère, etc. I also love dancing
Balanchine, Wheeldon and McGregor.”
Which dancer has inspired you? “There
have been so many. When I was at school
people like Darcey Bussell, Mara Galeazzi,
Viviana Durante and Sarah Wildor, etc.
But now I have seen a whole load of other
dancers like Sylvie Guillem, Alina Cojocaru,
Marianela Nunez and Tamara Rojo, I couldn’t
possibly pick just one because they have
all inspired me in different ways. It
is also incredible to see the different
training and style of the Russian dancers:
for example I am a huge fan of Uliana
Lopatkina from the Kirov. Of course I
have to mention Makarova who has always
been a huge inspiration for me from since
I was a tiny girl, as I used to watch
videos of her for hours and hours.”
Funny incident: “My hat fell off
in Romeo and on a different occasion (and
although this was obviously not very amusing
at the time) on the first night of Agon the heel of my shoe came off. I tried
to put it back on, but couldn’t.
By the time I’d got it back on I’d
missed a few bars. Next time I was dancing
it, Johan Kobborg (my partner for that
section) asked ‘So are you going
to do those steps with me tonight!’”
Report written by Belinda Taylor, corrected
by Lauren Cuthbertson and David Bain ©The Ballet Association 2005.