Zamora in Reviews Zamora in InterViews/News Our BRB page

I feel such a mutt. Totally dazzled, rather confused, and content just to listen to a wonderful dancer tell stories, I failed to ask Monica Zamora many obvious questions. So goodness knows what her favourite roles are or who she likes dancing with. Shocking I know but Monica's answers to many questions were marvellously illuminating and I make no apologies for including a number of lengthy quotes in what follows.

What is more difficult to convey is the fun and laughter of the interview - Zamora is natural, upbeat and has a burning passion for ballet. While she works incredibly hard she is not at all starry or precious. And she has the most intoxicating eyes - on with the interview before I embarrass myself further.

Monica Zamora arrives straight from a rehearsal, but totally fresh, unfazed and smiling broadly - it must have gone well I think. And there are only two more weeks of the season to go and then five lovely weeks of well earned rest and relaxation. Not quite I'm afraid.

Holidays

The first 3 weeks of the holiday will be spent touring Europe with Frankfurt Ballet. No she is not guesting but off to be with her boyfriend (Ander Zabala - also from Spain) who is now dancing with Forsythe again having spent 2½ years at BRB. Unfortunately they can't each find fulfilment in the one company it seems - it's not exactly an ideal position but that can be the consequence of a career as a dancer for you. "And if things are not fine, then we will sit again and talk about it and make another decision." What clarity.

It's scarce recompense but Monica will get to visit and shop in Prague and Montpellier. Shopping appeals it seems.

Then on to New York for the final 2 weeks of the holiday. There will be more shopping of course but she will mainly be trying to get back into shape for the gala in which she will be dancing Sugar Rum Cherry. Prepare New York - grown men weep, dibble and generally buckle at the knees on seeing her Rita Heyworth dance. It's taken from David Bintley's fun Nutcracker Sweeties and danced to a Duke Ellington score: if you haven't seen it you haven't really lived.

Monica Zamora and Robert Parker in Ashton's Scenes de Ballet
Photograph by Bill Cooper and courtesy of BRB

Guesting

A change is as good as a rest and getting away and doing other dance things definitely helps recharge her batteries, though given the BRB schedule it is not always so easy. But last Christmas she danced with Teddy Kumakawa's K Ballet in Japan, "they really spoiled me and I enjoyed it very much. To have the opportunity of dancing with these great partners. Great guys! ... I think it's good to take sometimes a step, dance somewhere else, be refreshed and come back with a new mind. It's all so nice to recycle yourself a little bit "

Life at BRB

None of this talk should imply Zamora is anything less than happy at BRB:

"Yes I am happy - I have a very good working relationship with David (David Bintley the BRB Director), and I get all the roles I want to do. I also have a very great variety of roles where I can do Giselle or Nutcracker or Swan Lake, Two Pigeons and on the other hand Slaughter on 10th Avenue, Isabella in Edward. I also like that we do things like Upper Room, or Hans Van Manon's Tangos. You know they are giving me a huge range of possibilities to develop myself and that excites me. I would really hate to just be thought of as 'one way' and not given the opportunity to fulfil myself. So in that sense I'm lucky and I'm very happy."

But there must be some roles she wants yet. Ah yes... La Bayadere and Manon if possible! I suppose those and relocating the company to Frankfurt would represent some form of seventh heaven for Zamora!

Starting Ballet

It was TV that first hooked Zamora on ballet and a life of such different consequence:

"I was around 8 years old. I hadn't done any dance until then - I did some gymnastics and things like that. But I used to always fall asleep watching TV. I loved just watching TV until I fell asleep in my mum's lap.

"And one day there was ballet on TV, very late at night, and I was completely taken by this form of art and I liked everything - like an awakening. And I didn't fall asleep and my mum was completely shocked!

"I was so excited I couldn't sleep. And so the day after I told my mum - 'I want to dance', so they took me to a school. It was just very funny how I imagined that I was going to be a dancer. I was going to be a ballerina.

“ ‘Well if you want to dance I'll make you dance’! And that was the beginning really of the reality. ” Zamora on her teachers total commitment

"Then later on, when I was 12, I changed school ... and my new teacher took me so seriously. Until then I was quite embarrassed to even say to my friends that I will be a ballet dancer. It was more like a dream - something you don't share with many people: but very strong inside. And this man took me very seriously, understood perfectly and said 'Well if you want to dance I'll make you dance'! And that was the beginning really of the reality.

"The fact that he believed. The fact that YOU could be a dancer - that for me was a breakthrough.

"And then of course my parents were very supportive. You know when you come from a smaller school - you have to sacrifice your studies a little bit. My parents were great and my school too - they let me leave some lessons so that I could fit in more ballet classes in the week. The only thing was that if I failed one subject, that would be the end of it. So that was the only pressure: I guess to set an example to the other kids - it would have been unfair to just let me do whatever I wanted. There had to be some kind of balance. So my poor father was always teaching me maths at like midnight you know - to catch up!"

Prix de Lausanne

All this effort and her natural talent led to the Prix de Lausanne which she entered at 15, the minimum age, and won.

"It was very strange, because I never went to the Prix de Lausanne thinking what is going to happen if I win. I just went to dance! So all this was like a gift on top of everything else. So I wasn't really much in the real world at that point. ... After the final they called everybody on stage and they were giving the prizes. I didn't know what was going on - I really didn't - who they were calling and what for.

"So I was just being left last with Teddy Kumakawa and I was just really, honestly, thinking how wonderful I made it - also it was in Tokyo - the finals. So I was thrilled. I was just happy, Oh my goodness I have made it! And then they called my name and I went out and they gave me this piece of paper. ... The curtain went down and suddenly all these people with cameras, asking me 'So Monica what is your decision, where are you going?' So I said 'Royal Ballet School'. And then my teacher came and I was just worried to check that I said the right thing!

Mr Marriott: “Why did you choose the Royal Ballet School?”
Miss Zamora: “Well it was, umm , a very last minute decision to tell you the truth...”
Mr Marriott: (talking to the tape recorder) “Aren't we so lucky!”
Miss Zamora: “So am I!!”

"And I *never* regretted it. No I think it was very good for me and to tell you the truth I always felt that the place I wanted to dance was with the Royal Ballet companies (she still sees the two Royal companies as joined). As most of the people from my age, I guess they saw those programmes of Anthony Dowell and Makarova and all those principals from the Royal, from that era, and I was completely taken over by the beauty and the technique and the way of dancing and the repertoire."

The decision to go to the Royal Ballet School (RBS) was clearly right for her if more difficult perhaps at the time - the big alternative, and much admired prize indeed - was the possibility of going to the Paris Opera Ballet school. Thank goodness she made the right decision for us!

Royal Ballet School

At the Covent Garden RBS performance she danced in MacMillan's Concerto though she was not graduating that year. Her abundant promise meant that she got a scholarship to continue to the final year but promptly broke her foot and was off for many months. Luckily she made it back for the final performance - dancing Bintley and MacMillan pieces this time. I remember being at the performance - she was so breathtaking and full of jore de vive. Peter Wright had just taken Sadler's Wells to Birmingham and he offered her a job.

First Juliet

Zamora joined BRB in 1991 and in 1992 she was given her first Juliet. More than a few of us went up to see it at a Saturday matinee. Trouble was that she was still having foot problems:

"I had a bad foot for some time, but I wanted to dance Juliet and Kenneth adjusted some things for me so that I could actually go on. Because I couldn't jump - that was my main problem - and so in the solo in the ballroom room he changed the jetes and some other things that I could not do. So I did the first show - I did fully. It was on a Thursday. And then after the show my foot was like a balloon... and my parents were coming to watch the show on Saturday. So I just closed my mind 'of course I can do it!' I got ready, but luckily they (BRB) knew that I wasn't very well so Sandra was ready to go on." I remember thinking that Monica did not look so well and then suddenly Sandra Madgwick popped out for the Balcony pas de deux!

“It was worth buggering my foot for” on working with Kenneth MacMillan on Juliet

"I was upset because my parents were here and I really wanted to dance for them and so it was a difficult time, but you know I had the opportunity to dance for Kenneth and to rehearse and so I can't regret it. It was worth buggering my foot for!".

We eventually saw her Juliet - a dramatic and beautifully natural affair.

Preparing a role

There is a tendency to think that dramatic ability is just natural but performing is never so simple and I wondered how she actually prepared for a new role.

"Well it depends what role - some take more than others. They take longer because of (may be) technical difficulties or stamina or just because of the character - perhaps I don't feel at home with it.

“Actually I really enjoy the rehearsing time, I enjoy very much that working environment”

"I like to work hard in the studios: I'm that kind of person, I like playing, I like working I like discussing things, one to one with whoever is taking the rehearsal and my partner, to sort things out, to work on them. Actually I really enjoy the rehearsing time, I enjoy very much that working environment. So I like to experiment in the studio to play with it, to grow into the role.

"And then obviously there are some roles which I have to do reading - Guinevere - I felt I needed to read so that I wasn't thinking about the wrong thing - just making it up myself. And of course a lot of thinking and I am starting to do visualising where you imagine yourself in the role, then you have to choose a little bit what you want to show on stage, not just give anything.

"On the day of the show if things go well I like it when it feels natural, when I am already that person, when I don't have to worry about my technique ... where I only have to focus on who I am and be it. And when I can get there, I'm not saying that I do always, whenever I get to that level, personally I love that performance, I enjoy it and I feel I am giving my 100% to the audience."

All the talk of rehearsals brings us full circle because Zamora needs to go back to the studio - visualising things only takes you so far it seems! She stays long enough to do a Sugar Rum Cherry pose and then is off leaving me to contemplate the best way of asking for another interview without appearing totally daft. In the meantime we will all have to *just* enjoy her dancing. "Just"! - we should be so lucky that the whole of the UK can enjoy her, as opposed to just Paris.