Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
One of Britain's most celebrated dancers, known for her ballet career.
On the island
Eight records
String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130: VI. Finale
I love the quartets so very dearly because they epitomize to me what music making is all about four people sitting down, making music together.
Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
It's the music which we've used for the most recent ballet at the Royal Opera House, choreographed by Kenneth Macmillan. And as usual, the the latest thing that one has done it becomes a sort of favourite, you know you get to know it very well.
I love the Beatles terribly, but I find that this uh this group has done a rendition of this song that's so today.
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467: II. Andante
Géza Anda and the Camerata Academica of the Salzburg Mozarteum
I love Mozart, but if I was on a desert island, I'd like to be reminded of society. And all that goes with it. And for me Mozart was essentially a sort of social composer.
I thought it would be good on my desert island to have this very descriptive song of how even if one was in the middle of London or the middle of a huge population. One could be lonely surrounded by people.
I got to know her because I did a ballet that was created largely upon a figure like herself.
when my last baby was born, Damien, it was I used to dance into sleep to this particular piece of music. He loved it, and also grew to recognise it very quickly. It was a sort of signal for sleepy time.
Das Lied von der ErdeFavourite
Also because I've danced to it. which made me know the music much better, made me look into the words and uh oh, grow to love it every detail of it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:49When you were a child did you have opportunities to see a lot of professional dancing?
No uh very little, in fact.
Presenter asks
4:57How did you get hooked [on dancing]?
It's the old story. I mean, I saw a film called The Red Shoes, I'm sure. Yes, Michael Powell's story. Yes, all that. And um then I saw some some some of your actual dancers added. Uh I think it was somebody... of... stature than Alexander Danilova... who just bowled me over, and then, of course, the royal bowe sort of whizzed through, and that was me just lost.
Presenter asks
5:43You were only fourteen, I believe, when you won a scholarship to come to England to study at the Royal Ballet School. How did that happen?
That came about by a very kindly teacher... in Vancouver who wrote to the company or to the school, I'm not sure which, and asked them if they would mind having a look and w on their way through... So they said yes, and they did.
The keepsakes
The book
Kenneth Clark
I've decided that I shouldn't take a favourite book. I should take a book that I've never read or have always intended to. ... one that would be sufficiently engrossing and also enlightening would be Kenneth Clark's civilization.
The luxury
I could just slip into a sort of terribly elegant dress and um wander down to the seashore. With perhaps a glass of champagne that had been washed up at some point. and uh enjoy nature. culture, music, everything all at once.
Presenter asks
How did your parents react [to you leaving for London at fourteen]?
I think they th they were surprised... and also dismayed at a rather premature departure from home.
Presenter asks
13:14After five years of upleading roles with the Royal Ballet, you decided to quit. Why?
I wasn't as good as I wanted to be, and I didn't know how to to achieve where I wanted to get as a dancer. I was in a bad state, so I thought it was best to give it a rest.
Presenter asks
15:47A dancer's life is cruelly gruelling... You've got the added strain of bringing up three young children. This must take a great deal of organizing.
Yes, it's it's something one can't think about too much because um... It I think w it would bog you down. It's um not nearly as difficult as it appears to the the eye or when you say it. Largely because the children are so wonderful. They're not difficult people to look after... Lovely to live with.
“I thought, well, why can't people accept me as I am at the time? But um I latched on to Seymour just as quickly as could be, and now I feel as if I was born there. Um, it didn't cause me any heartache.”
“They're still important to me. They've never been unimportant. But uh they don't let your imagination run riot. It's a a very physical, very demanding thing to do... totally necessary to become an old a sort of all rounded out type of dancer.”
“I think so. I I mean, everything adds to one's stature. I mean, just living. keeping going, uh all these things. They They can only help you somehow develop.”