© George Piper Ballet.co interview with Nunn and Trevitt Trevitt in reviews GPD Reviews GPD Website Jeffery Taylor reviews Web version held on Ballet.co by kind permission of Jeffery Taylor and the Sunday Express Express Website

Eighteen months ago ex Royal Ballet principal dancer Billy Trevitt, 33, started the George Piper Dances group with partner Michael Nunn. They are the television BalletBoyz whose fly-on-the-wall videos revealed the sweaty horrors of a ballet dancer's backstage life. They are each married to a Royal Ballet dancer.

“At the moment, with a 10-month-old baby called Elijah, I sleep when I can, but after 8 years of breeding, I'm used to it. If it's my turn I get up at 7 am, feed Elijah then get his brothers, Joseph, 8, and Zachary, 6, up, dressed and fed. Breakfast isn't my favourite meal of the day, so I tend to eat whatever the kids have left, usually 3 half bowls full of cereal. The morning after a performance, or a night of drinking, I usually try to find a fry up which I find is a good remedy for both activities. If I'm not working I take the kids to school, we walk because it's just in the next street. Then it's off to rehearsals.

“At the moment we're working on our new programme, which we will premiere at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank, on March 25, called Critics Choice, created by five choreographers, Christopher Wheeldon, Akram Khan, Matthew Bourne, Michael Clarke and Russell Maliphant. They're all good mates because we ve made a deliberate decision to work only with people we get on with which saves a colossal amount of time and money. We're working very hard to make George Piper Dances a success, and we can't cope with drudgey rehearsals as well. The company, which is me, Mike, Oxana Panchenko and Matthew Hart, do a ballet class first thing every morning. We can't afford a piano so we whistle, mumble or sing our way through as we do the exercises.

“We don't stop at midday. Because we're a small company, hiring a rehearsal studio for £700 a week takes up a huge slice of our budget, so we don't waste time on lunch. If someone we're working with wants a break, it's very short and Mike and I will share a sandwich, something gourmet like fried haloumi and rocket leaves.

Michael Nunn (left) and Billy Trevitt (right)
Photograph © George Piper Dances

“We have an office with 2 full time people and a part time fundraiser, but we like to keep our hands on everything. Everyone else can go off and get another job if we fail, but it has to be our passion and our life because we have everything invested in this enterprise. The responsibility is fantastic and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's liberating to make your own decisions, I relish every minute.

“I met Mike when we were both at ballet school and our skills do cross over. We never need to argue, because there's no time to be sensitive. If Mike's rehearsing me and tells me I'm crap, that's OK because there isn't time to be anything else but honest with each other. We spend a lot of time together as families, too, holidays and Christmas's and so on.

“We finish rehearsals about 5 and make our way to the theatre, usually utterly exhausted. Strangely, you sometimes perform better if you're tired, because in a sense you're more relaxed and your body takes over. The curtain comes down around 9.30 and if the audience is up for it, we might do a question and answer session from the stage. Every one always wants to know what we think of the Billy Elliot film and we always give the same answer, we've never seen it.

“When I get home I'm too wound up to sleep straight away, so I look in on the kids then sit on the sofa with a glass of something with Rebecca, who is incredibly wise and beautiful and gorgeous, and talk about the day.”