Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Choreographer and ballet director, best known for his work with the Royal Ballet.
On the island
Eight records
The Student Prince: Students' ChorusFavourite
I think she has such effrontery and cheek to come in the way she does. I think it would make me laugh.
Rosanna Carteri, French National Radio Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Georges Prêtre
I've chosen this A because I've done a ballet to it. and b because it reminds me of my father, who was a soldier in the First World War. and was gassed.
I'm playing this because it would remind me on the island of my wife.
Das Lied von der Erde: Der Einsame im Herbst
Kathleen Ferrier, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Bruno Walter
it was the first ballet that I did that I was really, really satisfied with. I think it has a great unity of style, which until then had eluded me.
Peter Grimes: Four Sea Interludes
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Benjamin Britten
to me it was magical, it was wonderful. Also, it reminds me of Great Yarmouth, where I lived.
Jonathan Bond, Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, Academy of St Martin in the Fields
this record would remind me of my daughter.
she was really the very first big international star that I ever worked with.
Cello Concerto in E minor: First Movement
Jacqueline du Pré, London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
I think she has such courage. I think I would need courage on on the island. I think this might inspire me to have some courage.
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:04Did dancing come into your life very early? Did you see dancing as a child?
I saw Fredericeo in in movies and I must say I thought he was wonderful and that's what I wanted to be. And so I went to a little local dancing school, ostensibly, to learn tap dancing. And they said, How about banny? and I said, How about banny? Boys don't do bounty and they said, Yes, they do.
Presenter asks
5:27How did you get into [the professional dancing world]?
I bought a dance magazine that I saw displayed in a window, and in it there was an advertisement for boys for the then Saddlers Wells Ballet School… They were advertising for pupils… because most of the young men in the company had been called up and were in the forces. So they were insuring their future by offering scholarships to boys in the school. And I wrote in my father's name, in very schoolboy writing… saying, My son is a very good dancer. Would you please see him and maybe give him a scholarship?
Presenter asks
16:03Was [your time as director of the German Opera Ballet in West Berlin] a productive time?
I learnt a great deal. I mean, I was becoming a director of a big banner company for the first time, so I had to administer… And very few people spoke English, so I was terribly, terribly lonely.
The keepsakes
The book
A. E. Ellis
I finally plumped for AE Ellis's The Rack, because again that's a story of courage and endurance.
The luxury
I discovered Belgian chocolates called Godiver... And that's what I would like on the island.
Presenter asks
20:39How do you begin with a vast task like [creating a full evening ballet]?
It takes me a year to do a full-length ballet because the company is a repertory company and they have to keep rehearsing the works that they are performing at the current moment. So sometimes I would only get an hour's work a day and I have to create on the dances that are available. I can't start at the beginning and all go all the way through. It's rather like a film. I have to just take what is available.
Presenter asks
34:22Could you endure loneliness, do you think?
I think I would be absolutely terrible. That's why I would like to have all these records with me. And I think it'd be awful… I suffered a great deal of loneliness when I was in Berlin, and so I know what it's like to be lonely. So I I think I would be terrible on the desert island.
“I don't [read a score] at all, and I'm glad I don't,'cause I don't want to know the mathematics of the music. I want to hear the emotion.”
“I wanted to do something creative. and I had this sort of funny idea that one became a choreographer at forty. Forty seemed great age to me. And I didn't think anyone would dare attempt it before forty.”
“I don't actually work out any steps until I'm in the room with the dancers, because I feel the dancers influence me. I mean, everybody is different. I mean, the actual physical body is different. The way a body is put together inspires. And the way they can move to music. So I have to allow for that when I'm inventing steps.”