大象传媒

Darcey Bussell became principal dancer of the Royal Ballet at the age of only twenty; she went on to become a household name thanks to her seven years as a judge on Strictly Come Dancing, a job she unexpectedly stepped down from earlier this year.

In conversation with Michael Berkeley, she looks back at a career which started when, against the wishes of her mother, she went to ballet school at thirteen 鈥� and was desperately unhappy, thinking she鈥檇 made the worst mistake of her life. Alone, away from her family, she used to listen to Mozart鈥檚 Requiem again and again. She had little hope of becoming a star ballerina as she was 鈥渢oo tall鈥� at five foot seven, and 鈥渘ot British-looking鈥�; what this amounted to is that most British male dancers were not tall enough to partner her. But then she met choreographer Kenneth Macmillan, and he saw her potential. She reflects candidly on the 鈥渄isciplines and sacrifices鈥� of a life devoted to dance: the long hours training, dancing till your stamina runs out and you literally can鈥檛 feel your legs. Tchaikovsky鈥檚 Sleeping Beauty pushed her to the limit. She reveals how becoming a judge on Strictly gave her new confidence to speak in public for the first time and why she doesn鈥檛 mind being labelled as the judge who was 鈥渢oo nice鈥�. She talks too about creating a new post-performance life out of the glare of the public eye, her mission to bring dance to all schoolchildren, about injuries and the battle for fitness, and about the toll dancing has taken on her feet.

Her music choices range from the intensely serious 鈥� Stravinsky's 'Agon, Poulenc's Gloria, the Mozart and Faure Requiems - to Dinah Washington鈥檚 鈥淢ad about the Boy鈥� and 鈥淩oxanne鈥� by The Police.

A Loftus production for 大象传媒 Radio 3
Produced by Elizabeth Burke