#royalballet

Jun 29, 2022

The Royal Ballet 21/22 Season Part II

A Temporada do Royal Ballet 21/22 Parte II - para portugues clique no menu de opções A new production of Swan Lake was created at the end of our 17/18 season. Although many elements of it still felt familiar, such as Tchaikovsky's music and Petipa's influences, it was the company's first new take on the classic for 30 years, and a huge responsibility for choreographer Liam Scarlett. This new version certainly didn’t make our jobs any easier, especially for the women. The danc

Jun 19, 2022

The Royal Ballet 21/22 Season - part I

A temporada 21/22 do Royal Ballet (para português clique no menu de opções) With the end of our season fast approaching, I look back and realise just how busy we have been here at the Royal Opera House and how much has been accomplished amidst a pandemic, war, and everything in between. It feels like we got a bit of normality back, if you can call this life ‘normal’. Having paused for nearly a year and a half, the scale of work that we do in a full season has been a shock to

Jun 28, 2021

'Motherhood in dance'

I grew up thinking that ballerinas had to wait until retirement to have babies, since dedicating their body and soul to the profession allow

Jun 4, 2021

Echoes of love

Oh, how amazing it feels to open our house to the public! To have an audience in front of us and hear the sound of their applause. Even if

Apr 19, 2021

Ballet shoes

I have a vague memory of trying on mom’s oversized ballet slippers when I was very little and attempting to go on my tippy toes, but officia

Mar 29, 2021

The language of the soul

For those who don’t know much about ballet, the word ‘ballerina’ perhaps prompts an imagine of someone rising on the tip of their toes, spin

Jan 2, 2021

The journey

I woke up Saturday morning feeling very optimistic. With my purse, mask, and alcohol gel in hands, I dashed into Covent Garden for one last

Dec 15, 2020

The Nutcracker magic

So begins the story of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, written by E.T.A. Hoffmann in 1816, which would inspire one of the most beloved re

Nov 8, 2020

Daily rituals

There is such mystery surrounding a ballerina’s life and what lies behind-the-scenes of making the magic happen on stage. How many hours a

Sep 24, 2020

'Jeitinho brasileiro': Brazilian dancers around the world

I was spending a day like any other at grandma’s house in Sao Paulo when mom arrives with a magazine to show me. Right in the corner of a

Sep 17, 2020

Dancing through a pandemic

At the end of March 2020, the dancers of The Royal Ballet were working at full speed. It was a busy start of a new year. Having finished sho

Sep 11, 2020

'Survival mode'

Survival mode is how I learned to describe that feeling of trying to get through my days in utter exhaustion, completely burned out. It all

Sep 3, 2020

Part time student, full time dancer

What will I do when my dancing career is over? It would be natural for anyone who knows me to think that I would follow my mother’s footstep

Aug 27, 2020

Preparing for a role

The last-minute arrival of a casting sheet causes a cluster of dancers to gather around the notice board in all eagerness. I try to squeeze

Jul 1, 2020

It's show time!

And so, it begins. That familiar voice on the tannoy is the dancers' wake up call, a reminder that the performance is approaching. All backs

Jun 17, 2020

In Times of Uncertainty

In a recent interview, as I was retelling the story of how I quit my job at Northern Ballet without a clue as to how my career would unfold

Jun 10, 2020

Introducing our Repertoire

When dancers choose their favourite companies, a place where they see themselves thriving, one thing they highly take into account is the

May 21, 2020

What does dance mean to you?

Dance is a form of expression that has been around since the start of civilization. Our ancestors danced to the gods in religious, celebrato

Apr 29, 2020

'Welcome to the Royal Ballet!'

When I first joined the company, what most impressed me was the amount of rehearsals taking place in one day

Apr 14, 2020

Trust the road less travelled: my journey to the Royal Ballet

I began my ballet training at Ballet Marcia Lago, my mom’s school in Sao Paulo. When I was about eleven years old, I started to realise that

Isabella Gasparini

bel.gasparini@hotmail.com

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