Patricia Ruanne

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty one, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:25

On our desert island this week is a ballerina. It's Patricia Rouan.

Presenter0:31

You play discs a lot.

Patricia Ruanne0:33

Quite a lot. Yes. I mean, I've got an awful lot of records. It's th the time element. I mean, it really is only on Sunday that one listens to music. By the time I come in at night, it's not the hour of night to put music on in case the neighbours can hear,'cause they've all been in bed for two hours or more.

Speaker 20:42

Yeah.

Patricia Ruanne0:49

So I don't listen to music as much as I'd like to.

Presenter0:52

Did you find it difficult to choose just eight records?

Patricia Ruanne0:54

Absolutely impossible.

Presenter0:55

What's the first one?

Patricia Ruanne0:57

The first one is Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

Presenter1:00

Why'd you choose that?

Patricia Ruanne1:01

Well, I chose I mean, I love the score, I think it's a marvellous piece of music, but specifically I think because I found it rather funny that when I was training to be a dancer, of course we would do repertoire classes where you would learn all the things that you would be expected to do when you first joined a ballet company, hopefully.

Patricia Ruanne1:18

And so we learnt endless kind of swans and sylphieds and all those things. And when I did join the Royal Ballet Company, the very first thing I was expected to do was Travinsky's Riot of Spring, which was a rather far cry from all those three, four rhythms I'd been dancing to for the past year.

Presenter1:32

Uh

Presenter1:33

Not a swan in sight.

Patricia Ruanne1:34

Not a swarm inside, no.

Presenter2:32

An excerpt from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring

Presenter2:35

The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abado.

Presenter2:39

Now, you were born in Yorkshire, Patricia. Whereabout?

Patricia Ruanne2:43

It leads.

Presenter2:43

Rouen, a French name.

Patricia Ruanne2:45

Irish.

Presenter2:46

That's it.

Patricia Ruanne2:47

It's Irish, yes. My family came from Mayo, my father's family.

Presenter2:51

Mm-hmm.

Patricia Ruanne2:51

And that's it. I mean, I I don't know if it's derived from the French originally.

Patricia Ruanne2:56

I think they had a lot of visitors on the west coast of Ireland in the past.

Presenter2:59

Yeah.

Presenter3:00

Was there any special feeling in the family for music and the art?

Patricia Ruanne3:05

Not specifically. I d my mother was uh adored the theatre. I mean, we had small opportunity to go, I think, but when she was a young girl, I think she would have loved to have been in on the stage, but wasn't allowed to be involved in it in any sense. Her her father was very opposed to it. Um, I had cousins who danced, and I think that's probably how I was sent along, because they clearly enjoyed it, and my mother thought it might be fun for me, and I was an only child. I think she also felt it would get me to meet lots of other children.

Presenter3:35

How old were you when you were first sent along?

Patricia Ruanne3:37

Fool.

Presenter3:37

Yeah.

Presenter3:38

To Miss Pinckney's class.

Patricia Ruanne3:40

That's right. Yes, absolutely.

Presenter3:42

And you got on very well. At nine you won a scholarship.

Presenter3:46

And at eleven you won a trophy. By that time I believe people had started talking about the possibility of a professional career for you.

Patricia Ruanne3:54

Yes, the teacher that I was taking additional classes with then, uh Louise Brown, who's still teaching in York, an RAD teacher.

Patricia Ruanne4:03

said to my parents that she felt that it was worth trying to take me down to White Lodge, to the Royal Ballet School, to audition, because clearly that was the very best training I could have, because it was a specialised school for ballet training. I don't think they considered it very seriously initially because of course going down south to a boarding school was way beyond our means or imagination, but in point of fact somehow it they managed to get off the ground. I mean it's quite amazing that they did.

Presenter4:30

Yeah.

Presenter4:31

Even with a grant it must have been an expensive business.

Patricia Ruanne4:34

I think it was an enormous struggle for them, I really do.

Presenter4:36

What was your first impression on arriving at that lovely school in Richmond Park?

Patricia Ruanne4:40

Just that, that it was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen.

Patricia Ruanne4:43

The surroundings and everything. Glorious.

Presenter4:46

Were you getting nervous? Uh

Patricia Ruanne4:47

Yep.

Presenter4:47

Yeah.

Patricia Ruanne4:48

Much true.

Patricia Ruanne4:49

Not at all. I had absolutely adored it from the minute I set foot in the door to the day I left.

Presenter4:53

Good.

Presenter4:54

Record number two.

Patricia Ruanne4:56

is Liss Wagner transcriptions.

Patricia Ruanne5:00

Really only because I wanted some Wagner and I wanted some Liszt and I couldn't have them both, so I decided to combine the two.

Presenter5:07

And which transcription shall we hear?

Patricia Ruanne5:09

Tristan is old.

Presenter6:10

Michel Campanella playing.

Presenter6:12

The List transcription of Isolde's Lieberstode from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde.

Presenter6:18

So you're at the Royal Ballet School. How does it work? Lessons in the morning, dancing in the afternoon? Roughly?

Patricia Ruanne6:24

No, usually dancing in the morning. All the time I was there, I had class straight after breakfast and then lessons after that. And just one class a day. And also.

Speaker 26:33

Two.

Patricia Ruanne6:35

A folk dancing kind of class on Saturday mornings, which was a bit of a rump.

Patricia Ruanne6:40

We were meant to take it seriously but I didn't think we did.

Patricia Ruanne6:42

Nothing on Sunday, of course.

Presenter6:44

All the children used in Royal Ballet productions.

Patricia Ruanne6:47

Not frequently, no. I mean, some of the junior school may be used in.

Patricia Ruanne6:52

the graduation performance each year, which is mainly done by the bulk of of the upper school students. But I mean, for example, if you're doing Capelia, you would use children from White Lodge as the dolls and that kind of thing.

Patricia Ruanne7:05

It may have changed a little now, but then you were kept fairly separate from

Patricia Ruanne7:09

Being overexposed to the stage or any sense of competition or professional aspect to your training until you're older. I mean, it's very much a school atmosphere.

Presenter7:15

I mean it's fine.

Presenter7:17

What percentage o of the pupils graduate into the company, into the Royal Valley?

Patricia Ruanne7:22

It's variable. My year, there are only two of us.

Patricia Ruanne7:26

who became professional dancers.

Presenter7:28

Is that all?

Patricia Ruanne7:29

That may have been a particularly bad year. I think some years there are more.

Patricia Ruanne7:32

But even if you take six girls in.

Patricia Ruanne7:35

By the time you've gone through ten years, possibly three of those might have left for various reasons, or gone to another company, or given up and had children, or whatever.

Presenter7:43

Your first professional appearance, as you told us, in the Rite of Spring. What was your first solo role?

Patricia Ruanne7:50

My first solo rule

Patricia Ruanne7:54

was probably something like Fairies in Sleeping Beauty.

Patricia Ruanne7:57

My first big solo role, I mean the sense of doing a principal role with a company, was The Girl in the Invitation, Kenneth McMillan's Ballet, which was created by Seymour.

Patricia Ruanne8:06

Which was the single most exciting moment that I recall taking that step was.

Patricia Ruanne8:12

An extraordinary thrill.

Patricia Ruanne8:14

terrifying, but equally when you're very young

Patricia Ruanne8:17

You're usually only excited rather than scared. You learn to get scared when you get older.

Presenter8:21

Huh.

Presenter8:22

Let's have your third record.

Patricia Ruanne8:23

Uh Nielsen simply number five.

Presenter8:26

Why?

Speaker 48:26

Yeah.

Patricia Ruanne8:27

Well

Patricia Ruanne8:28

It's a strange reason really. Years and years ago I had a very bad back injury and was at home with my parents.

Patricia Ruanne8:36

Resting for weeks what seemed interminable

Patricia Ruanne8:39

And I'd just reached the point when I was beginning to quite enjoy doing nothing. I'd stopped resenting every minute that I was lying in bed.

Patricia Ruanne8:46

And my brother was doing his A levels at that tier O levels, I beg your pardon, at that time.

Presenter8:49

Yes, he's younger than you because you were an only child when you went.

Patricia Ruanne8:53

Yes, so he was born when I was nine, and he was at a school where they let them work at home and they just went in for their exams. And of course, being a captive sister who had nothing better to do but sunbathe all day, we used to sit on the lawn and I would test him on his Second World War history and all this kind of thing. And at that particular week, the BBC were doing their composers of the week, and Nielsen was the one, and I'd never heard any of his music before. We both fell in love with this music, and that's really all. I mean, it's it's a kind of recollection of my brother when he was a youngster.

Presenter10:25

The opening of Carl Nielsen's Fifth Symphony, The New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Jascha Horenstein.

Presenter10:32

So you were a fully-fledged member of the Royal Ballet Company. You did a lot of touring, didn't you?

Patricia Ruanne10:37

Enormous amount, yes.

Presenter10:39

Was there or is there a separate touring company?

Patricia Ruanne10:43

Well, it's it's part of the main company. It's just a kind of offshoot that takes performances to the provinces as opposed to j I mean they also perform in London.

Speaker 410:50

Yeah.

Patricia Ruanne10:50

Each year, but the bulk of the work is done in the provinces. But it still belongs to the parent company, which is the Royal Ballet, the big company.

Presenter10:58

The section that tours is presumably smaller than the London Company, so you would probably have better opportunities for playing principal parts in the middle.

Patricia Ruanne11:05

Absolutely. And also, not least, because there are more performances. Of course, there are eight performances a week as opposed to three or four at the Opera House, which means naturally there's much more

Patricia Ruanne11:14

opportunity to develop much faster.

Presenter11:17

What sort of parts did you enjoy most to start with? W were you happiest in classical or character?

Patricia Ruanne11:24

No, not classical. I'm I've never considered myself to be

Patricia Ruanne11:27

A natural classical dancer, it's something that you have to do and you have to learn to do well, clearly, if you want to progress.

Patricia Ruanne11:34

I was always more comfortable in the dramatic roles.

Patricia Ruanne11:37

When I felt that I had uh this sounds terrible.

Patricia Ruanne11:40

something to disguise my defects with, which was playing a real character on the stage, rather than something classical where you are really only displaying your technique in lots of cases. If your technique falls down. Then of course so does your entire performance.

Patricia Ruanne11:53

And I found it very useful when I was young.

Patricia Ruanne11:56

to have a character to hide behind, and I could concentrate

Patricia Ruanne12:00

on that in the performance and not get quite so paranoid about a particularly difficult step or whatever by keeping the sense of the story alive.

Presenter12:07

You've now danced pretty well all over the world. What was the very first overseas tour you did?

Patricia Ruanne12:14

The first time I ever went to ball we just went to Paris for a week.

Presenter12:17

Well, that sounds pretty exciting.

Patricia Ruanne12:17

From Bournemouth. Yes, we went to Paris and Bournemouth and then we went back to somewhere like, I don't know, Hull probably.

Patricia Ruanne12:24

After that, about a year later, we did a a quite an extensive tour of Europe to Scandinavia and Germany and all those kind of places.

Presenter12:33

You spent four years with the new group. Tell me about that.

Patricia Ruanne12:37

Well, that was uh a kind of new development. They reduced the size of the touring company considerably, down to about thirty five dancers, I suppose.

Patricia Ruanne12:47

And the whole structure of it, I think, was to inject a complete repertoire for a company of that size, which meant of course you did all short ballads, all triple bills, no full length worts.

Patricia Ruanne12:57

Which meant, of course, we did get an enormous amount of very exciting work in lots and lots of different choreographers.

Patricia Ruanne13:03

And a very good opportunity for extending your range, clearly, because we started to get some modern choreographers in which at that point none of us had attempted very much.

Patricia Ruanne13:13

Lots of dramatic works, lots of Ashton's earlier works, lots of Macmillan's earlier works, and clearly enormous scope.

Patricia Ruanne13:22

for adventure in a sense that we weren't doing six consecutive weeks of Swan Lake, which is can be limiting after a while.

Presenter13:27

Yeah.

Presenter13:29

Including your years at the school, you spent altogether sixteen years with the Royal Ballet Company, so presumably you were still dancing with people you had started with at the age of eleven.

Patricia Ruanne13:38

Absolutely. I mean that's that's fun in one sense, that it's like you've never left home, but in another sense of course it can also be very insular naturally.

Patricia Ruanne13:48

But of course those friendships formed when you're very small.

Presenter13:50

As

Patricia Ruanne13:51

It just becomes a a fact of life that those people are part of your life and your everyday existence.

Presenter13:56

Is that one of the considerations that led you to resign from the Royal Ballet?

Presenter14:00

And go to the festival.

Patricia Ruanne14:02

Partially, yes. Partly it was because I was in the new group, and of course there were no classical ballets, and I knew if I was ever going to attempt

Patricia Ruanne14:09

To

Patricia Ruanne14:10

Cross this bridge of trying to be an accepted classical dancer and learn to understand that part of my life as a dancer.

Patricia Ruanne14:17

I had to start soon, otherwise it would be too late, and my nerve would go.

Patricia Ruanne14:21

which meant I would have to go elsewhere, because we didn't carry that in the repertoire.

Patricia Ruanne14:25

And also it really was a bit like taking the final step to stop living with mum and dad and set up in the wide world. You are very surrounded. Those people, of course, the staff have known you since you were a child.

Speaker 414:36

Hmm.

Patricia Ruanne14:37

And sometimes it's it's easy to think that you haven't really grown up or made any progress, which of course is nonsense, but none the less you sometimes feel like that. And it was a question of really going out into a slightly

Patricia Ruanne14:50

more what would seem to be an alien existence. You wouldn't be surrounded.

Patricia Ruanne14:54

by that uh familiar background that I had known since I was very small.

Presenter14:59

Quite a big step.

Patricia Ruanne15:00

Seemed to be at the time, yeah.

Presenter15:02

Let's have another record.

Patricia Ruanne15:04

I'd like to hear Pavarotti.

Patricia Ruanne15:07

In La Boheme, simply because I think it's quite the most wonderful voice and I love the opera.

Speaker 415:25

The needs are you.

Speaker 415:56

Yeah.

Presenter16:09

Luciano Pavarotti as Rudolfo in Puccini's La Bue.

Presenter16:15

So, Patricia, to the Festival Company. Tell me about the company. How long has it been in existence?

Patricia Ruanne16:21

R since nineteen fifty.

Presenter16:23

Of course the festival.

Patricia Ruanne16:23

Festival Britain, yes, which is how it took the title, I think.

Patricia Ruanne16:27

It's not really kind of associated with that, but that's how it all seemed to come together. And of course it's had many ups and downs in in the interim.

Patricia Ruanne16:35

But it now seems to be.

Patricia Ruanne16:37

Very established and very accepted.

Presenter16:39

But you have no permanent base.

Patricia Ruanne16:42

No, we do have a opponent base in the sense of our rehearsal studios. We have a home in that sense.

Presenter16:46

Mm-hmm.

Patricia Ruanne16:47

Which we haven't had very long, we're still cherishing. But in terms of a theatre in London, we don't.

Presenter16:54

Did you find a big difference in atmosphere from the Royal Palais, to start with?

Patricia Ruanne16:59

Not a great deal because it was going back to a touring company, which has a very distinct atmosphere of its own because it is uh

Presenter17:02

Which has a

Patricia Ruanne17:06

you know, suitcase company basically.

Patricia Ruanne17:08

And you all live in each other's pockets. So it had a very very similar feeling and atmosphere to the old touring company that I'd always known.

Presenter17:16

Mhm. And more overseas engagement than the Royal

Patricia Ruanne17:20

Not necessarily. We did do quite a few when I first came into the company, but of course it becomes increasingly difficult because it's so expensive to carry a company.

Patricia Ruanne17:29

abroad and the sets and the costumes and of course as we've got

Patricia Ruanne17:33

bigger productions now, it's an enormous expense to take them all abroad.

Patricia Ruanne17:39

But quite a bit. I mean, we have done some marvelous tours, Australia twice, and America.

Patricia Ruanne17:44

We seem to have gone further afield, but not quite so often.

Presenter17:48

China, I believe.

Patricia Ruanne17:49

China. Yes, we won't.

Presenter17:49

That must have been exciting. That was trailblazing, wasn't it?

Patricia Ruanne17:52

It was rather, yes. I mean, it was the first company to have gone there. I mean, of course, nobody went at all for many years. So that was that was very interesting. We were there for a very short time. I mean, it really was now you see it, now you don't kind of feeling. We were only there for two weeks.

Speaker 218:04

In reunion

Patricia Ruanne18:06

Which wasn't enough time to assimilate anything much in terms of the country or how it works.

Patricia Ruanne18:12

But it was a fascinating experience.

Presenter18:14

Was it really a revelation to the Chinese?

Patricia Ruanne18:18

Well, certainly there was a great deal of interest, but I think more in the sense of what really seemed to fascinate the most was how the costumes were made, how our shoes were made.

Patricia Ruanne18:27

Tights, headdresses, all the things that we take very much for granted, they are now relearning how to do all those things for stage.

Speaker 218:34

Yeah.

Patricia Ruanne18:35

And you would have droves of of young dancers in the dress room watching you put makeup on and how you did your hair.

Patricia Ruanne18:41

and even things like a hair slide.

Patricia Ruanne18:44

would fascinate them how the mechanics of it worked.

Patricia Ruanne18:47

We have certain hair slides that have a quick release that you use for certain ballets.

Patricia Ruanne18:51

Everything was taken apart and examined and put back together again. It was really extraordinary.

Presenter18:53

An examining professional.

Presenter18:57

You hadn't been long with with the festival when Rudolph Nereeff chose you as his partner in in his version of the Sleeping Beauty.

Patricia Ruanne19:04

I wasn't in fact the first part. I mean the the the ballet was first done with Ivre Dakinova who spent a great deal of time with us then.

Presenter19:09

Yes.

Patricia Ruanne19:11

Later on when we took the ballet to Australia and we were doing a month of performances of it, clearly it was a bit much to expect her to do every single performance in that time, and so

Patricia Ruanne19:24

I was kind of dressed up for the part and had to begin.

Patricia Ruanne19:27

And uh

Patricia Ruanne19:28

We seem to manage to hit it off quite well.

Presenter19:30

Yes, he is, I gather, a tireless man.

Patricia Ruanne19:32

Absolutely tireless. I mean, he's barely human.

Patricia Ruanne19:36

It's amazing for us as dancers because you discover how much more you can do.

Presenter19:41

Is he explosive or calm?

Patricia Ruanne19:41

Yeah.

Patricia Ruanne19:44

Occasionally explosive, but n uh rarely without good reason. Something that really, really makes him very angry is stupidity.

Patricia Ruanne19:53

If you don't get the point of what he's saying.

Patricia Ruanne19:56

instantly. He can get quite uh I think it's frustration really.

Patricia Ruanne20:00

But equally sometimes he's not as explicit as you'd like him to be. And so you feel there's a little bit of telepathy needed for you to get there. But of course, like anything else, you get to know the man and the way he thinks and understand a bit better. And then you start to be able to meet him halfway, which naturally cuts the time li limit and uh

Patricia Ruanne20:18

Things start to work much more smoothly. You start to comprehend the way he likes to work and what's required of you.

Patricia Ruanne20:26

which is to keep standing for as long as he keeps standing, which is quite a lesson to learn, because he seems to keep going for an incredible length of time.

Presenter20:34

As a partner is he easy to dance with.

Patricia Ruanne20:36

He's wonderful to dance with, because he gives such an extraordinary amount, I mean, his stage craft and his knowledge of theatre.

Patricia Ruanne20:42

How to make the best effect from something is quite amazing. And of course, he's a great teacher.

Patricia Ruanne20:49

And he's teaching you every performance you do. You come off and you've acquired something that you didn't know before.

Patricia Ruanne20:55

Absolute generosity.

Patricia Ruanne20:56

See you on stage.

Presenter20:58

Record number five.

Patricia Ruanne21:00

Record number five is Kabaleski's third piano concerto.

Patricia Ruanne21:05

Again, for no particular reason except that I love piano music. It's really my favorite solo instrument, which just as well as I have spent my life listening to it and dancing to it.

Patricia Ruanne21:14

I hadn't ever heard Kavelowski.

Patricia Ruanne21:17

and discovered it quite late and did a ballet to his music and uh I found it a joy to listen to.

Presenter22:24

The closing passage of the Kawalewski Piano Concerto No. three in D major.

Presenter22:30

the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and the soloist Vladiya Mirfertzma.

Presenter22:35

Norayev invited you to be his partner again in in his version of Romeo and Juliet to Prokofiev's music.

Presenter22:44

Ostensibly you went to the Shakespeare play to study your characterization.

Patricia Ruanne22:47

Well, I sort of had to.

Patricia Ruanne22:49

Because Rudy was following a very literal approach to the play, he did a most incredible amount of study on it.

Patricia Ruanne22:56

And of course the score is written very close to the play also. I mean it's uh Prokofiev did the whole thing based on that.

Patricia Ruanne23:05

And there was no point in thinking that you could just waffle over bits.

Patricia Ruanne23:10

Because the narrative is there in the choreography, the text is there.

Patricia Ruanne23:14

So it meant clearly one had to go back and read the text again if you were going to make any kind of sense.

Speaker 223:17

If you are

Patricia Ruanne23:19

out of uh the kind of movement and the the effect that he wanted. Because you can always use a lot of poetic license, of course, in Bali. You can skip bits that you don't think are going to really work theatrically.

Patricia Ruanne23:30

And he didn't want to skip anything.

Patricia Ruanne23:33

at all. So it seemed much more important to to go and do some study on it than just to hope it would all come into place later, because it rarely does.

Speaker 223:40

Cause it will

Patricia Ruanne23:42

You had to understand the way he was thinking. And of course, if you gave him a sort of strange look when he gave you a particularly strange movement or

Patricia Ruanne23:49

said something that seemed a bit obscure, he would say, Is in the text.

Patricia Ruanne23:54

And you're left, of course, feeling very foolish if you can't immediately refer to what he means.

Patricia Ruanne23:58

And I did find it helped enormously.

Presenter24:00

What's the next major role?

Presenter24:03

What's coming up?

Patricia Ruanne24:06

Nothing that I can think of.

Patricia Ruanne24:08

I have a sneaking suspicion that we may have to put Swanneth back into the repertoire soon.

Patricia Ruanne24:13

Which one big?

Presenter24:13

Swam Lakewell, that goes down very well, doesn't it?

Patricia Ruanne24:19

And I was absolutely overjoyed when we lost it for a few years. And now it means I've got to come back and face it all again. I'm not saying.

Patricia Ruanne24:28

Not so sure that it's such a good idea, except of course that's basically what the whole proceeding is about.

Presenter24:33

Well, it's the discipline of dancing everything.

Patricia Ruanne24:36

Yes, and and forcing yourself into a role that you're not necessarily as comfortable with as some others.

Patricia Ruanne24:42

it'd be easy just to get up and say, I don't like doing that very much. I find it much too hard. Can I just stick to this? Because then you'd only be a part time dancer. It's trying to meet that challenge, which of course makes the development continue.

Patricia Ruanne24:55

As long as your nerves hold out long enough, that's the thing.

Presenter24:58

Where have we got to? Record number six next.

Patricia Ruanne25:01

Uh sansong.

Patricia Ruanne25:02

Symphony number three, the organ symphony.

Presenter25:04

Once again why?

Patricia Ruanne25:06

Simply'cause I

Patricia Ruanne25:07

I think organ music is so wonderful and so stirring and uh

Patricia Ruanne25:12

I have no associations with it at all. Just that I'd love to sit on desert island and listen to that.

Presenter26:15

Closing passage of the Saints Third Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barrenboy.

Presenter26:22

Now, Patricia, in a dancer's life there are those wonderful moments when the theatre is exploding with applause and flowers are being thrown at your feet but ninety nine per cent of it must be hard on glamorous slog.

Patricia Ruanne26:36

Yes, of course, because that's really only, you know, ten minutes.

Patricia Ruanne26:41

Of a day or and weeks and weeks and weeks of preparation for that specific performance.

Presenter26:43

Expand.

Presenter26:46

Class every morning without fail.

Patricia Ruanne26:48

Well, it's not exactly without fail. Um

Patricia Ruanne26:51

We do fail sometimes, but of course you start to feel it very clearly.

Patricia Ruanne26:56

Uh sometimes if you're not working till the afternoon, you may not do class in the morning and then hang around for two hours. You may come in an hour before your rehearsal and warm up yourself.

Presenter27:05

Class is ordinary an hour and a half, isn't it?

Patricia Ruanne27:07

An hour and a quarter. It would be better if it was an hour and a half, of course, but the pressure of work is such that we're just trying to cram everything into the day.

Patricia Ruanne27:16

The the advantage to class, of course, is that it's

Speaker 227:16

The middle of the

Patricia Ruanne27:19

An external discipline rather than internal. So, in that sense, sometimes it's easier.

Patricia Ruanne27:24

Forcing yourself to do an exercise that's uncomfortable today is clearly much easier if there's a teacher standing there.

Patricia Ruanne27:32

who will want to know why you're not doing it or whatever. You can't turn around and say, I don't feel like it very much. It's the most painful part of the day I find. And at least you get it over with, but it's a ghastly way to start off.

Presenter27:43

Minita is part almost of an automatic routine.

Patricia Ruanne27:46

Yes, if you can make it that way then it helps.

Presenter27:49

And then rehearsals in the afternoon.

Patricia Ruanne27:51

Yes, well in the morning and then afternoon. I mean we we get about an hour and a half, two hours rehearsal after class. We don't usually break till two.

Patricia Ruanne27:59

for lunch or whatever, and then we work again in the afternoon.

Presenter28:02

and performances on all sorts of stages in all sorts of towns at night.

Patricia Ruanne28:06

Mm-hmm.

Presenter28:06

Up early to catch trains or planes.

Patricia Ruanne28:10

Yes, it it sounds rotten, doesn't it?

Presenter28:12

Uh

Presenter28:13

And then, of course, there's the physical pain of stretched tendons, aching feet.

Patricia Ruanne28:18

Yes, that's not such a problem when you're rehearsing in a controlled situation, of course, when we're in London and you're on the same studio floor.

Speaker 428:19

Uh

Patricia Ruanne28:27

The same kind of environment. It's when you get on tour and you're on a rake stage and it's freezing cold and

Patricia Ruanne28:33

Everything seems to be batting against you.

Patricia Ruanne28:36

There's always more injuries when we're on tour. Yes. Just by the nature of things. I mean, if even if it's just slipping on the ice outside the stage door.

Patricia Ruanne28:43

and also more sickness naturally.

Presenter28:45

You have many years still to dance, we hope. Would you go through it all again, the splendours and the miseries?

Patricia Ruanne28:49

Oh, absolutely, absolutely, yes. I can think of nothing else that I would rather have been.

Patricia Ruanne28:54

Still, even on the bad days.

Presenter28:57

Record number seven.

Patricia Ruanne28:59

Is Brooks Violin Concerto No. One?

Presenter29:01

Why?

Patricia Ruanne29:01

Just because I like it.

Presenter30:02

The beginning of the third movement of Brooks's first violin concerto, the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Bolt and Yehudi Manuin as soloist.

Presenter30:13

Now, Patricia, your capacity for being a good castaway, could you fancy yourself?

Patricia Ruanne30:17

I think I would probably manage reasonably well, reasonably practical, yes, I think so.

Presenter30:20

Build reasonable.

Presenter30:23

Do you know anything useful like fishing?

Patricia Ruanne30:26

No.

Presenter30:26

Yeah.

Patricia Ruanne30:28

No, I don't know.

Presenter30:28

Are you good cook? Are are you a domesticated person?

Patricia Ruanne30:31

Um, I love cooking if I've got time. And I'm sure I'd have lots of time on a Desert Island. You know, simple as that. If I've got to rush around in five minutes, then I don't enjoy it. But I love preparing meals and all of that. And I'd have not much else to do, I don't suppose. But

Presenter30:45

Would you try to escape? Would you try to build a craft of some sort?

Patricia Ruanne30:48

I'm sure I would try to build a boat, yes. I might not go on it when I'd built it, but I think the actual thing of building it would be very useful therapy whilst one was there.

Presenter30:55

Try it out first before you go out of the lagoon.

Patricia Ruanne30:58

Yes, absolutely.

Presenter31:00

Your last record.

Patricia Ruanne31:01

is uh Procophius, Romeo and Juliet.

Presenter31:04

Or rather, predictably.

Patricia Ruanne31:04

Fairly obvious reasons, yes. I think it's the most complete ballast score that there is.

Presenter31:06

That wouldn't get

Presenter31:09

Which part of it are we going to hear?

Patricia Ruanne31:11

I think the part where Juliet finds herself alone trying to face some kind of decision after Romeo's been banished from the city.

Presenter32:16

An excerpt from the Procophy of Ballet Music, Romeo and Juliet.

Presenter32:20

The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrei Preven. If you could take only one disc out of the eight, which would it be?

Patricia Ruanne32:27

Well, not because it's associated with the ballet in my mind, but I think I would take Romeo and Juliet.

Patricia Ruanne32:32

because it has piano sections and violin sections and an organ section, so I would get a little bit of all those records out of the one score perhaps.

Presenter32:41

and one luxury to take to the island.

Patricia Ruanne32:45

Well, um it's not a luxury in the real sense of the word, but it would be a luxury to me, because I can't see anything if the sun shines. I'm absolutely blind.

Patricia Ruanne32:53

and if somebody came to rescue me I'd never see them coming.

Patricia Ruanne32:56

So I'd have to have a pair of sunglasses on a chain that I could wear round my neck the whole time.

Presenter33:01

All right, yes, splendid. And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.

Patricia Ruanne33:06

Oh well that's quite easy. I would take Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

Presenter33:09

Dalgin's Lord of the Rings.

Patricia Ruanne33:11

Right. Also, it has all the things in in books that I like. It has the fantasy and adventure and

Patricia Ruanne33:17

Lots of escapism.

Presenter33:18

And it's a nice long read.

Patricia Ruanne33:19

It is, yes, it would last a while.

Presenter33:21

Good.

Presenter33:22

And thank you, Patricia Rouan, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Patricia Ruanne33:26

Thank you.

Presenter33:26

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 233:34

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/radio4.