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Campbell McKenzie
Principal, Scottish Ballet by Jennifer Delaney | |||||||
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When we meet on the afternoon of the premiere of Tales of Hoffman, Scottish Ballet's new production, he comments that today is slightly weird for him. It's the first time since he joined Scottish Ballet that he hasn't been on in an opening night - instead guest artist Adam Cooper has taken the lead in the first cast. Instead of sounding annoyed, he waxes philosophical - he also escaped the frantic two days of dress rehearsal and first night. He trained in Australia, effectively leaving school at 14 to join Australian Ballet School (whose training seems to be entirely academic), from where he graduated into the company, where his rise through the ranks was rapid. Within two years, he was a soloist at AB. Much of this he attributes to Marina Gielguld, AB's artistic director, who now heads up Danish Ballet. Gielguld emphasised new talent within the company, pushing junior members along which meant that at 19, McKenzie was dancing principal roles in the company. Now 26, he feels this was valuable experience - "you may be more mature if you dance [a role for the first time] at 26, but if you haven't done it before, you're still starting from scratch". His roles while at AB included the leads in Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Taming of the Shrew and Don Quixote and supporting roles in Cranko's Romeo and Juliet. The latter is the same version as Scottish Ballet perform, but he only got his first crack at Romeo with Scottish Ballet. Leaving AB seems to have been provoked by an early-twenties crisis - "I felt constrained by Australian Ballet, although I wasn't really," McKenzie explains, adding that "I wanted to be left alone to do things the way I wanted to do." However, financial circumstances meant that he couldn't afford to just up and leave, so, helped by a former Australian Ballet principal who was also in the cast, he joined a production of West Side Story in Melbourne and Adelaide. This was a major change - not least because dancers are silent and musicals are anything but. Hired as a dancer, he found himself having to sing in some scenes, and covered a couple of parts. In the meantime, he "fired off resumes everywhere" and got a response from Galina Samsova at Scottish Ballet. He was taken on as a second principal, and was made a full principal within a year. Samsova is obviously someone he regards highly- "Galina's just a legend". She's a legend who is "intent on classics", and McKenzie danced his share of the lead roles - in the space of three years he was the lead in Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Samsova's Swan Lake, Coppelia, Peter Pan, A Midsummer Night's Dream, La Sylphide, Baldwin's Ae Fond Kiss, and finally, Romeo in Cranko's version. Understandably the news about Scottish Ballet's threatened withdrawal of funding came as a shock. The company were on the last day of a tour in the Highlands when they were told that they might not have jobs to come back to. Feelings in the company seem to have been mixed about this. McKenzie is discreet, but comments that "There's always going to people who aren't happy with their lot. People want change, but it may not prove to be what they want." He points out that change won't suit everyone, but that right now is "the tough time for everyone". The future of Scottish Ballet also worries him - "If they [the Scottish public] lose it, they won't get it back". For himself, although he describes himself as "bubbling with ambition" he's ambivalent about what he wants to do. He does say that there is a lot he wants to do with his future, but "if this is everything I do [in dance], then I won't be disappointed". He lacks the "choreographic bug", but when pressed, mentions that possibly coaching might be a future choice for him. Neither has he worked in a major way with any choerographer, nor is it a prospect that seems to interest him. "You need to be with a company with a choreographer/director like Kylian or Christopher Bruce at Rambert." Nor, despite his musicals experience, does he want to act "I'll leave that to the professionals". So, for the time being, McKenzie seems more than content at Scottish Ballet, not least as he recently got engaged to another company member, who he describes as "the best thing to happen to me since coming to Scotland". | ||||||||
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