Stage: Ballet boyz
Latest 7 speaks to Michael Nunn about The Talent 2013, the company, & everything they’ve achieved over the last 12 years
The award-winning, internationally renowned and hugely popular BalletBoyz® will be touring next spring with The Talent 2013. After thrilling audiences all over the globe with dance shows on stage and on screen, the ten-strong all male company head to Brighton Dome this month with brand new works by Liam Scarlett – one of the UK’s most promising dance-makers – and Russell Maliphant, a multi-award-winning choreographer and Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells.
As an award-winning and respected dancer yourself, what prompted you to create BalletBoyz with Billy Trevitt in 2000, and what is the company’s artistic mission?
“We’d been leading dancers with the Royal Ballet for a long time and we’ve performed all the roles that we’ve really wanted to – at that point things start repeating… there are only so many princes in Sleeping Beauty you can do. Obviously, I know it is a bit of a cliché, but a dancer’s career is very short and we thought ‘now what shall we do with the rest of our time?’ We decided to go off on our own and commission people to make work for us – and that’s where we are really. We create work, touring and performing as much as we can. We’ve been very lucky!”
You first came up with the idea of The Talent in 2010, and you’ve toured shows with the group every year since. What, or rather, who is The Talent and where did the idea come from to form the group in the first place?
“The idea behind The Talent was Billy and I obviously weren’t getting any younger and, rather than just bowing out very slowly and just performing bits and pieces, we decided to stop completely and employ a group of young men that we could hopefully hand on some of the skills that we’ve learnt over the years. They seem to have captured the public’s imagination and gone from strength to strength. We have ten dancers now, and they’ve come from all over the place! Rather then just getting people to send in CVs and going through their experience – seeing where they’ve trained and where they’ve danced before, we would have an open audition where anyone that wanted to come and dance for us could have a go, a bit X Factor I suppose. Sometimes people look great on paper but they’re in front of you and have no charisma or have no talent and that’s what we were looking for – talent. So it wasn’t necessarily down to training. We’ve got some dancers that are more hip-hop based than ballet based and contemporary dancers, so a real mixture.”
So you’re imparting the lessons you’ve learnt throughout your careers onto the dancers?
“As much as we can, yes. They’re young dancers and young dancers are always after information, information, information – and that’s what we’re trying to give them.”
What sort of audience do you attract?
It seems as though there is quite a young feeling to the group…
“It’s become very mixed actually. The last tour we did, there were 14 year olds up to 60 and 70 year olds. It’s becoming more of a theatre audience than a serious contemporary dance audience, which is great because more people are coming to see the show.”
You’ve had The Talent on tour for the last four years. Is each show very different?
“Yes! Each tour we put on is very different and the tour that’s coming up next – well, we’re really pushing the guys this time and it’s going to be a tough evening for them physically… but I think it’s going to be an enjoyable one. I hope it’s going to be the best show yet.”
BalletBoyz – The Talent 2013, Tuesday 29 January 2013, Concert Hall, Brighton Dome , 7.30pm, £10–£18.50, www.balletboyz.com, www.brightondome.org
