© John Ross 'Bussell Farewell' reviews 'Winter Dreams' reviews 'Tryst' reviews Bussell in reviews Cope in reviews Darcey Bussell company reviews more Margaret Willis reviews Gallery of Photographs

Since her earliest dancing days, the Principal ballerina of the Royal Ballet has sent adoring audiences applauding, clever choreographers creating, critics’ fingers clicking, and paparrazi prowling in the hopes of catching a glimpse of her.

Now, like Tony Blair, Ms Bussell has started to slide gently into retirement from her top ranking job, making sure that the occasion does not go unnoticed. And why shouldn’t she? On a film strip during this, the first of her many farewell galas, she admits candidly, ‘I thrive on attention”, so she must have been pleased with her reception at the Wells. Her doting audience responded loudly to her natural wit as well as her on-top-form dancing.

The programme sailed merrily along thanks to the expertise of her former class-mates, the Ballet Boyz, aka as William Trevitt and Michael Nunn, who staged the Farewell gala. Proven whiz-kids of dance video diaries, they ‘cut and pasted’ warm and wonderful filmed sequences of Darcey’s life on and off stage which entertained us as she changed costume and partner during the first half. The clips showed her first dancing shots at the Putney Fair with Trevitt, and her appearance at the Prix de Lausanne, both in 1985; rehearsing the first ballet created on her—by classmate Michael Rolnick and later rehearsals for new ballets with Kenneth MacMillan and Christopher Wheeldon; and there were several shots of her many glamorous modeling assignments for fashion and cars. In frank chats in her dressing room as she put on her stage make-up, she related that when she was 13, she wanted to leave the Royal Ballet School after she failed her first exam – though she got Honours for the 2nd one, and then thought, ‘I must be improving!” and decided to stay. She stated that she ‘likes to impress’, and her ambition when she joined Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet was ‘to have a poster’ (which she has achieved many times over), and laughing, said that her mum has them all hanging on her walls. At 25, she was tempted to leave the Royal and go to the USA to join New York City Ballet but wisdom bade her stay: ‘I was comfortable here and recognised the vast repertoire we have with two new works a year. And of course there were family scenes with her charming daughters Phoebe and Chloe who mugged for the camera, sticking out tongues as they danced ‘like mum’.

But it was the real Darcey that people wanted to see and, after what must have been a mind boggling task of choosing which of her many roles she should dance here, she performed in the first half, ‘On Classicism’ (choreography with partner, Trevitt), ‘In the middle, somewhat elevated’ (ch.Forsythe, with Roberto Bolle), Cinderella Act II variation (ch. Ashton), Tryst (ch.Wheeldon with Jonathon Cope), Sylvia Act III pas de deux (Ashton with Bolle), demonstrating that she is still on top form with slicing and swooping legs, a malleable body, and strength, balance, poise and musicality.
 

The second half saw MacMillan’s ‘Winter Dreams’ which he created for her, first as a passion-filled pas de deux with the ex-Bolshoi superstar, Irek Mukhamedov in 1990, and later expanding it into a full one-act ballet. With her cast of friends — Bolle, Cope, Sandra Conly, Belinda Hatley, Katherine Kingston, Nunn, Tamara Rojo, Christopher Saunders, Nicola Tranah, Trevitt and Edward Watson supporting her and all giving superb performances, it bodes very true that, in her own words, Darcey ‘will miss the buzz of the theatre.”