Philip Mosley 2025

Philip Mosley

Artistic Scheduling Manager & Character Artist, The Royal Ballet

Interviewed by David Bain
American International Church, Tue 09th Dec, 2025

David welcomed Phil who began by talking about the role of Widow Simone. He said it's been an emotional journey this time, he's older (nearly 59) and the last time which was eight or nine years ago he only did one performance as he shattered his elbow and chipped his wrist in a cycle accident. Also, he's not on stage so much so it was more of a challenge mentally with the build up to doing a big role again, though it was all in his head, and he used to be a tap dancer, so he'd nailed the clog dance. He had done Sancho Panza two years ago, but this is a main role, and you have to deliver. When Kevin asked if he'd do it, he decided to go for it but understood that during the process he could drop out if he wanted to or if Kevin felt he wasn't up to it. He lost 10 kilos to prepare for the role and wanted to do the matinee with Anna Rose O'Sullivan and William Bracewell, but Kevin wanted him with Akane Takada and Calvin Richardson which gave him a schools’ matinee. He'd done the matinee last time with Frankie Hayward and Marcelino Sambe who asked for him again, but he didn't want the stress of another cinema relay. He'd not done such a big role for a long time but once on stage it was fine. The first time he did Widow was when Ros Eyre, who was ballet mistress with the company, organised a tour to Kenya for the Kenya Wildlife Service 25th anniversary. Christopher Newton taught him the clog dance which he found easy and even in the clog dance now no one else does the double pick ups, and only do shuffle, whereas he does shuffle pick-ups, which is harder. People remember him in the role which he's done so many times, and he wanted to be able to deliver as he used to. Both times the sound was great and once the show started, he was back in his element and was glad he decided to do it again as it was his 40th year in the company and he wanted to do something he enjoys. Chris Saunders said it was really great, and it was one of the best Widows I've ever seen you do, and his partner said why not go out with a bang. Kevin has asked him to do it again in the summer on tour in Japan but he hasn't yet said yes or no. Isabel McMeekan is trying to get him to do it with some of the other younger couples who are coming up as it would be good for them to be with someone so experienced to help them to a better performance. He's never given his clogs back to the Shoe Dept, they're really old and were Ronald Emblen's, his first teacher at White Lodge, so have a special connection. Jean Pierre Christophe came to the House to teach principals and said Phil's clogs sounded so much clearer and better than the other clogs. He doesn't want them to disappear as the sound they make is amazing. This time he taught James Hay how to clog and make the sounds clearer and louder. Jean Pierre thinks because his are old they create a better sound. In the past the orchestra have asked who was clogging as it was one of the clearest sounds they'd heard. He wanted to do it again, in his 40th year, and prove he could still do it.

Talking about Akane, Phil said she's a sweetie. The Japanese have their own way and have to process things, they'll do a rehearsal, go away to think about it and come back having processed it to be perfect. Miyako Yoshida was the same. Akane has an amazing jump and will grow into the role which suits her, and he's glad he did it with her and Calvin, newcomers to the roles he's helped on their journey from first rehearsals to performance.

He first did just the clog dance in Nairobi, and at the end he was introduced to the President who suddenly realised he was a man and was quite upset at shaking his hand as the Africans didn't really approve of such things. He did a skid and cartwheel at the end and the first time doing it back home was during the house closure when they were at the Festival Hall, there were five of them new to the role – Luke Heydon, Alastair Marriott, Ashley Page, Will Tuckett and himself. It was something he could do easily and he was the best of all of them. He wouldn't give his secrets away then but now wants to pass on the knowledge to James and others. The part has grown and grown and he's now performed with eight Lises – Jane Burn, Mara Galeazzi, Helen Crawford, Roberta Marquez, Natalia Osipova, Akane and two others, all different characters so each performance is different.

Nutcracker is special for him. As a student in his final year, there was a call for a dancer to come to the stage, and he was in a little corner near the stage manager. Christopher Newton was there and said Philip come here, I'd like you to learn the Trepak, he said yes thank you Mr Newton, I'd love to, and he said go upstairs to learn it during Act I and you'll go on in Act II! He went with Christopher Carr and rehearsed, and at that time they had to do split jumps down to cobblers on the floor and he'd never done a cobbler before. It helped him get his job and in his first-year Peter Wright gave him Nephew. He's done so many roles over the years, but initially he was the Nutcracker and now he's the grandfather. It's one of the most amazing productions which can't be beaten. The transformation scene is so beautiful. His first time as nephew Christina Arestis, a White Lodger, was Clara. They were making the fly on the wall documentary about the House and filmed Nutcracker. Last week their legal adviser said she'd just seen him on The House programme when he was in Elephant and Castle shopping centre in tights and a red top, with people wolf whistling, while they did a demonstration to promote a brief performance in the Paul Hamlyn where there were cheap tickets for people who'd never seen the ballet.

Phil hasn't done class for 15 or 20 years. He cycles to work several times a week; he's an early bird with a well-trained labrador who keeps him sane so at 6.45 he's out on his bike with her running alongside. His next profession will be a dog trainer. He's normally in by 7.30 or 8am and goes to the gym for 45 minutes. He and his partner have a little house in Dorset, and he's often swimming in the sea and comes across our member, Frances.

His last big role was Sancho Panza two years ago, so has now done three different productions - Baryshnikov, Nureyev and this one. The character is the same. He was quite young when he did the Baryshnikov version and as you age you grow into things, he did the Rudolf version when Ross Stretton was director, and when he saw the curtain going up his mind went blank and he couldn't remember what came next. It was the only time he wanted to run off stage but with the music it came back to him. This production is a bit of a challenge because of the suit he has to wear. It's made by the same people who did Shrek, can't get his legs together, he has big calves, and there's padding, and this one it was the heat. It was really hard with the suit on and it's far worse than Beatrix Potter but it's one of the funniest roles and normally he's on stage with Chris Saunders who was at school with him and in management now there are four of them who were in the same year at school. He enjoys it as you're on stage quite a lot, and it's a fun role because you can do what you like and make it yours. Of the three, Phil prefers the current production which is probably the one he's done the most. It's the one he enjoys and remembers more than those of 20 years ago when he was on stage all the time so more special as he's not on stage so much.

Manon is a ballet he loves, an all-time favourite, the gem of the Royal. He has fun on stage, you watch and learn from other people. He loves Act II as the dirty old man. Now you have talks about touching people. The second cast on one occasion when Akane who was Prix de Lausanne dancer and he thought he couldn't do it as he didn't know her. She went back to dressing room and was upset as he didn't touch her! Other kids learn from you. Marcelino says we need people like Phil with experience on stage so they can learn and that's how ballets are passed on. They went to Paris some years ago and Sylvie Guillem said we should have taken Manon and shown the Paris public how it should be done because the characters are so important. Phil remembers watching Christopher Carr and Garry Grant in his role and learning from them as others are now learning from him and developing it in their own way. This is how knowledge gets passed down.

Other MacMillan ballets. Judas Tree was quite hard. He wasn't in the first production but did a lot of rehearsals as someone was off. Mayerling is great, he was in the whore house again doing things you can't do now. He remembered his first performance when Fiona Marshall grabbed him, took him behind the screen and three girls came and stripped him, so then he was running across stage pulling up his trousers trying to get to his place. Chris wanted him to do a big role in his 40th year but he likes his nights off now!

Conversations about intimacy. Slightly different with them as they grew up and were at school together, and close, now things have to be done properly, every production has a pre-production meeting with the company, some girls may not like to be touched, and some boys may not like to be touched by girls. These things are part of the process of putting on ballets.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It's one of their biggest ballets in the rep and it has to be given time. They used to think Swan Lake and Mayerling were big but the new MacGregor and Wheeldon ballets are enormous. They were the first company to do it, and Phil half choreographed the Duchess as he did a lot when Simon Russell Beale wasn't there. It was a great and fun role to do. It was quite a challenge as he also had the office job and Chris Wheeldon wanted him in the studio a lot, so it was tough. It's not just a ballet, it's a West End show piece. He would have loved to have done the Mad Hatter tapping role.

Why does Yorkshire produce so many good dancers? Phil comes from a village called Perth where two well-known people come from - Michael Parkinson was born there, and Phil was at school with David Hurst, an England footballer. At one stage five people from Barnsley, Phil's nearest town, were in the Royal Ballet – Christopher Carr, David Pickering, Jonathan Watkins, Ruth Bailey and himself. There's a lot of dance schools in Yorkshire who produce quite good dancers.

Phil has six brothers and sisters, his grandfathers were miners as was his brother, dad was a plumber, mum worked in a clothes factory. His brothers took karate lessons, and his sister dance classes, so he went with his mum to karate and then walked into his sister's dance class where he was the only boy and did tap who thought he was a Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire. The mother of Bruce Barraclough, a former Royal dancer, saw him do something and told his parents she thought he was good enough to go to Royal Ballet School. Parents didn't know anything about the ballet or the school and said they couldn't afford it, but she said audition and if accepted they would be means tested. They'd never seen a ballet or know what it really was, but they got up at 3.30am to drive to London for an audition with Mike (Stuart) Cassidy who was so much better, very confident, and already with the Junior Associates. Phil passed through two auditions for White Lodge which really changed his life. It was a very hard decision for his family, to separate him from his twin brother and send him away to a school they'd never heard of, so it was a big challenge for them. He had a successful time at White Lodge, where Viviana Durante was in his year. During his first week he walked onto the Opera House stage, without even knowing what the Opera House was, then a week later, in the history of dance class the teacher said they were going to see the general of Swan Lake when Phil put up his hand and asked what was Swan Lake? It was the first ballet he'd ever seen but thought maybe he could do it. He was very home sick, and his parents said they'd come and collect him but Jennifer Jackson did a ballet for White Lodge at the end of that year and he and Viviana were chosen to perform. In the second year a documentary called 'I Really Want to Dance' was made on him with Viviana with two other students. At the end of that year there was a gala which opened with himself and one other alone on stage and went through the ranks and that was the start of his parents realising he might have a talent. At White Lodge he had some good teachers and also went to Paris Opera Ballet school on an exchange. He then went into the Upper School, which was great, he was in a work made by Ashley Page on ten guys. He recalled Merle Park phoning him at home to say they wanted to send him to the Peking Academy for a month's exchange and he stopped himself asking where was Peking! Then in the third year he went on a nine-week tour of North and South America with Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet. He was in a panic as he'd lost his passport on the way to the airport, but Peter Wright said don't worry and he hoped Phil would join the company so he knew he'd got a job at the end of the year and joined in 1986. He has to pinch himself as a young boy on that stage he would never have thought he'd still be here 40 years later. He recalled when the Opera House closed for refurbishment and Darcey Bussell as the Lilac Fairy went around the stage putting the House and people to sleep, he was on stage with his partner out front and he cried thinking it would probably be his last time on the Opera House stage, but he's still there.

How did Lee Hall get to know of him? He wrote to Royal Ballet asking if there was any dancer from a mining town. His brother was a militant miner during the strike, his grandfathers and uncles were miners, so Phil wrote to him and eventually they met. The Billy Elliott story is loosely based on him, Julie Walters was his dance teacher to a T, and her daughter, though he went to karate, not boxing lessons. There was a guy at the Royal Ballet school with Phil called Joseph Barker who became a trans-sexual. Finally, Lee only spoke to Phil but nothing happened for some years. Then his mother saw Jamie Bell on Breakfast TV talking about the film Billy Elliot and phoned him saying that could be you! So, he told her some of it was him. The world got to know him as Billy Elliot and Phil said the press took him and his parents to town. He did 45 or 50 interviews, and his mum and dad did Breakfast TV interviews. Kevin was Company Manager when they were going to Mexico and said he would make him a star in Mexico. They took Coppelia and he was Dr Coppelius; there was a massive press conference with Carlos Acosta and Tamara Rojo but all they wanted to do was talk to Phil. It was a massive film in Mexico. He did ten TV interviews, photo shoots, and when he walked on stage in the role the whole audience started screaming and clapping. He wondered what was happening, it was the first and only time he'd walked on stage to applause and Kevin said, 'I told you I was going to make you a star'!!

Turning to his other job, Artistic Scheduling Manager, Phil said he was the Union rep for the Royal Ballet and was always a problem solver. If there were union problems that needed negotiating or sorting out, he'd often come up with a solution to keep both sides happy. In his early 30s the company manager's job came up and he'd never had to interview for a job but applied knowing he wouldn't get it, but it would be an experience for the future. Anthony Russell Roberts asked a question about a problem with the Unions (a cheeky way of getting Phil's help!) but after that he contacted Rachel, their HR person, to ask how he did and she said he'd done really well, it was amazing what he knew, although there were things he'd never done, like computer work. She said they'd send him on a touch typing course and learn to use a computer. They asked him to assist Christopher Newton who was scheduling manager. Anthony Russell Roberts had an idea, it was the end of the ROH closure, and they wanted to move the company back into the House with new union rules. Phil used to work out overtime for the dancers and knew what was costing them money, so Anthony wanted Phil on board to renegotiate the new contracts. He helped Christopher Newton for two years until his retirement and then took over during Ross Stretton's directorship. In his first year he cut the overtime bill by a third but had to learn the scheduling on the job.

His main job is to do the day-to-day scheduling for the Royal Ballet. Every Tuesday staff and choreographers give him what they need for the following week. Some give him nothing as he's learned what's needed after so long on the job. Knowing union rules is important. It's a big jigsaw puzzle. The way he does it is by layering. The main thing to get correct for that week is the corps, as he has to take into account the union rules on how many hours a day they can work, the breaks they must take. Then he adds the principals in order of seniority or who's on the next day, a lot was in his head, then came an Excel spread sheet and things have progressed so now he's on his third scheduling system. Kevin likes huge amounts of casts – he has 16 different Nutcrackercasts to go on – so sometimes he schedules 50-60 rehearsals in a day, depending on the ballet. A work like Sleeping Beauty has so many solos, some needing a quarter or half an hour, and he has scheduled 65 rehearsals in one day. That's his main job but he also does future scheduling so they are now planning season 2028/9, he has to plan stage calls within union rules, ensure they have enough time, barter with the opera company to get enough stage time, he plans more ahead as Kevin likes to give younger dancers a chance, he makes sure there are enough stage calls for everyone, or in a long run he may change a performance into a stage call. They try to do 135 performances a year. He still does the overtime, but his new scheduling system helps the calculations to a certain extent. He does fittings, the developments, the Linbury schedule, so Kevin can't do without him! It's a big job and at nearly 60 he's not sure how many more years he can go on but they'll split his job into two. He works with Jaime Tapper, former Royal Ballet principal, advancement of management practices at the Royal. A lot of the knowledge is in his head. They'll probably soon get an assistant to work alongside Phil for a couple of years to take over. A lot of dancers have private rehearsals so he'll do that in his spare time and that can add 50 or 60 rehearsals if someone's doing a gala. He's also on stage often doing a 15-hour day, but he loves the job and that's probably why he got the Gold Medal last year from the Governors of the Royal Ballet. It's really his home. He's known Kevin and Chris Saunders since he was 12 and Michael Cassidy so four within the establishment who were all at White Lodge at the same time within a year or so of each other. And he loves looking after these kids and they have a mutual appreciation.

Lot of principals in the company are going around the world. They don't tour as much as previously so principals going abroad are spreading what the Royal is. We have the most amazing men in the world, Twyla Tharp agrees with this and it's great that they can travel. It may be part of the Billy Elliot effect. After the film came out there were more male applications to the Royal Ballet School than ever before and that has continued ever since. It's great that they have the opportunity to travel but that makes Phil's life harder as he has to work around their trips away.

Visiting choreographers are sometimes a challenge. Chris Wheeldon makes his big three act ballets at the Royal where the productions are amazing and he knows he can get the time. Both he and Wayne are beyond the spectrum, it's unbelievable what they do and Phil wonders how their brains cope. Wayne is super-organised; Chris works slightly differently but they have produced some of the best ballets for the company in the last 10 years.

Speaking of Phil's week, he said some days are tricky. Tuesday and Wednesday he's in at 8am and doesn't finish till 10pm, that's starting the schedule. They have injuries to deal with. He does performance casting for the main ballets and prefers to type them himself so when he comes to schedule, he knows every role that each dancer does. He's called the Red Pen as changes on the performance sheet are made in red pen for the performances that night which sometimes change several times. In the morning, he deals with emails, he may have 100 fittings to organize in a week, new fittings are coming in all the time. Schedule changes for the week need to be sorted out before 12 noon on Wednesday to avoid overtime. Then he's doing future scheduling and checking performance casting which goes out to the public that night, sometimes he's also in the studio, but by Thursday morning he gives the ballet staff a rough detail of the next week's schedule for their comments so it can be published by noon on Friday. It's non-stop for Phil but it has been, and still is, a joy and he loves it.

Kevin oversees casting and sometimes Phil is aghast at how many casts he wants but they have so many amazing dancers who need opportunities to grow but it is a challenge to get them rehearsed and on stage. He also schedules coaches and Kevin, and he, go through each principal cast and who will take them. Then he schedules the staff to make sure they're not double booked. Before Covid they started building a new system along with Norway called DS which helps them not to double book, it will hopefully help with calculating overtime which will make life easier. If he can schedule 104 dancers on the system, the whole Opera House will go on the system too including the crew and front of house staff. A lot of ballet companies in the world are moving on to the same system.

Asked if he had written a book, Phil said no but it was suggested by someone from New York a few years ago who would get a ghost writer and he wasn't sure he was ready but maybe in his retirement.

The dancers' salaries are negotiated through Equity, working on a 40 hour week, 33 hours of rehearsal, five hours of class and two hours for other things like fittings. They can only go so long without having a break if not that's overtime. If they go for more than six hours a day including a performance can lead to overtime. Double shows at the end of a week can take them over the 40 hours so his job is to keep the overtime bill as low as possible. Another part of his job is the health care suite. He schedules profiling for dancers twice a year. If there are a lot of peformances he tries to make sure they have a day off, so a lot is to do with prevention and he has workload meetings looking at people's workloads along with the health care team. He also schedules people coming back from injury, days on, days off, jumping days, non-jumping days, so this is an additional job now.

When they're scheduling for the future, they have meetings with the opera but the ballets aren't always chosen so when it comes to scheduling he may have to rearrange a year including stage calls and longer runs.

Visiting choreographers. Wayne likes to come in for a block and does a job. For Alice Chris came in and out for two years before it opened, using different dancers. He mainly made it on Lauren, but Sarah Lamb was also involved. But they do come and go as they have productions elsewhere as well.

Asked if he gets a chance to see other companies, Phil said not as much as before as he likes to go home to his dog and his partner as he spends so much time in the Opera House and at weekends he likes to have his own time.

Speaking on the future of his clogs, Phil said he feels he wants to keep them but at the same time someone else could get that sound out of them as modern ones aren't made that way now. They are actually under his desk right now. A week before his first performance he was panicking as they'd disappeared, but the shoe lady had come to paint them.

Coaching the clog dance, he enjoyed and helping people in character roles he's happy to do, but actual teaching or being a repetiteur isn't him.

David said it was a delight to speak to Phil and thanked him not only for tonight but also for his cooperation with the Ballet Association and in return Phil said he was grateful for our continued support. He'd been really worried he wouldn't be able to talk for long enough – no fear of that!

Report written by Liz Bouttell and edited by Philip Mosley and David Bain.

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Philip Mosley 2025

Philip Mosley

Artistic Scheduling Manager & Character Artist, The Royal Ballet

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