Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Outstanding British dancer, best known for his career with the Royal Ballet.
On the island
Eight records
Actually it takes me back to a Japanese tour, although it's set in the songs are set in France. I first heard the recording when I was in in Tokyo and um it was a nice tour and a tour I'd like to remember.
Chi il bel sogno di Doretta (from La rondine)
In fact, David Blair, a very eminent dancer with the company, introduced me to the recording. And um it reminds me of those times of my early career.
This was a record I first heard during that year and uh it just used to get me out of my blues when uh when I was feeling down.
Von der Schönheit (from Das Lied von der Erde)
Indeed, it's one of my very favourite ballets, but also the Mahler work itself is very deep and meaningful.
KullervoFavourite
Helsinki University Male Voice Choir, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paavo Berglund
I just love it as a piece of music. And actually, on my desert island, I feel that I could work to make it into a ballet.
Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani in G minor
Maurice Duruflé, Orchestre National de la RTF conducted by Georges Prêtre
It's a piece of music for a long time I've loved and recently Glen Tettley, after the death of John Cranco, created a ballet to it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:13How did you start dancing?
It started at my primary school where in fact I had to do compulsory ballroom classes, the memories of which aren't terribly pleasant. … the teacher who taught this class also taught ballet on a Saturday morning and um saw some talent there for something and asked my mother if she'd like to take me along to the ballet class.
Presenter asks
3:52Did you have an urge to dance yourself?
I certainly didn't have any urge to to dance. It filled out a Saturday morning, probably which I'd have spent at the cinema had I not been doing it. It was the encouragement that my teacher gave me and that my parents gave me that kept me on the lines of ballet, rather than an inborn urge to dance.
Presenter asks
9:27How did you fill your time during the year you had to take off [due to a stress fracture]?
Well the first few weeks of course were terribly frustrating but um I've always been the sort of person that has had a lot of very dear close friends and these people helped me enormously. I went to Scotland where I learnt to shoot and to fish which is something I would never have had time to do in normal circumstances and a lot of the time I spent on the continent visiting the cities I'd already visited as a dancer but had been unable to sort of see them as a tourist.
The keepsakes
Presenter asks
12:03How do you and your wife [Alfreda Thorogood] manage both being principal dancers with children?
Well, in fact, I think it's a much easier existence than in fact had I been working in an office and Frida been a ballerina, or vice versa. We're fortunate enough in living our lives together and our careers together, and she knows the problems that I have career-wise. She knows what those problems are. And the same with me and her career and we can talk about it and relate to it. And in fact, well for us it's certainly been a very good working pattern.
Presenter asks
16:54How did you find dancing as a guest with the Japanese company?
I was dancing The Prince in Swan Lake. I found that what was more rewarding actually than dancing The Prince in Swan Lake was helping them to understand Swan Lake and hence I almost directed the production, which was very rewarding. They had some rather odd ideas about it. … odd ideas, but ideas that were only there through enthusiasm.
“It was the encouragement that my teacher gave me and that my parents gave me that kept me on the lines of ballet, rather than an inborn urge to dance.”
“I think on the whole I enjoyed most of all dancing roles that do portray real characters and have real personalities attached to them.”
“It's a combined effort. Of course Kenneth has the form totally in his mind, but it's rather like an artist with a palette of paint and he's mixing to get the required shade. The dances are his paints.”