Sylvie Guillem on tonight's Front Row
John Wilson: "You recently said you would not return to the Royal Ballet, even as a guest artist. Is that the end of classical ballet as far as you're concerned?"
Guillem: "No no. I didn't say that I didn't want to dance classical anymore. I just said I didn't want to go to the Royal Ballet as long as the directorship will be this one. That's the only thing I said....I already decided for a long time not to dance a lot of roles from the repertoire. I started classical very young and had time to do all of the repertoire and many times. I was bored on stage I was asking myself 'What I am I doing here?'. There was a lack of weight in what I was doing. It was only physical - I was not interested by that anymore."
2 comments:
A fairly intriguing remark for Miss Guillem to have dropped into the conversation - and I imagine that guessing about the reason for it is to go where angels fear to tread, even with the knowledge that Monica Mason had offered her a Farewell performance. In truth, I think we have reached a stage at which neither Guillem nor the RB need each other any longer.
Ian Macmillan
Monica danced around this very carefully at the press conference announcing the new season, implying that work had been offered, as well as a farewell performance. There are murkier questions here about the company's creative energies, and whether the present path is really preparing the company for its future. In a flight of fancy, I wondered if SG might be an exciting artistic director.......
There are complicated issues to unpack here. It's arguable that the RB, burdened, as it is, with heritage rep and a very conservative audience, is now in a post-creative phase. There's the wider question about whether we are dealing with a period art form which has run its course. And there's the issue of dancers' effectiveness at giving creative direction. Non-dancers are frozen out of creative leadership now. Yet, without Ivan Vsevolozhsky, the director of the Imperial Theatre in St Petersburg, Diaghilev and Stravinsky, we would not have the tradition we know today. I would love to see one of the great dance companies led by someone from a broader musical/theatrical background...
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