Dominic Antonucci

(part two)

One challenge he is relishing is the forthcoming tour of Swan Lake, a set of performances which will fill the only noticeable - and surprising - gap in his repertory. 'I've never danced Swan Lake; I've trained for it before but I was injured,' he explains. 'I think too that mentally I wasn't quite ready to do it – David obviously thought I was, because he cast me, but whereas now when I think about doing Swan Lake I think 'okay, what rehearsals I have to do and how do I have to get myself in shape', back then I just thought 'Aargh!', and there was that fear!'

Although time has given Dominic experience and confidence, other concerns have led to some hard decisions this season. 'I'm very, very hard on myself with the classical roles,' he admits, 'and as I get older, I find them much harder to get right - even sometimes when it goes well I don't leave the theatre with a good positive feeling.

'I've been here a long time and we do a lot of shows and there's a lot of wear and tear on the body. I've had four knee operations, two on each knee, but the main thing is my shins. I have six stress fractures on my right shin, and eight on my left. It's really hard to do the classical steps. The repetition that's involved in preparing for Swan Lake or Nutcracker really takes its toll, so I struggle through those times an awful lot.

'There's always ghosts of what you used to be able to do, and that's a really difficult thing. So what David and I have discussed is that this Swan Lake will be my last role of this kind. I'm kind of leaving the classics behind because it's really a small portion of what I do as a principal.'

This does not of course signal the end for Dominic as a dancer, as he is quick to point out that the full-length classical ballet is only one part of the work of Birmingham Royal Ballet.

'I'm still doing the Balanchine, and I'm still doing David's own stuff,' he explains. 'I enjoy the roles that I'm doing now, and I get a lot of satisfaction from them. I've always felt more comfortable in David's work. He might disagree, but I feel that I've become a David Bintley dancer. I've been involved in almost every major production that he's done for this company. I really love to do Mortimer in Edward II, or Luther in Arthur, or Oak in Far From The Madding Crowd, The Beast... all those roles are things I enjoy. Earlier on in my career I really wanted to be the prince and the virtuoso lead male and everything but I much prefer to do the villain now, the more character based roles.'

This is not to say that he is not looking forward to the challenge of Swan Lake.

'I'm looking forward to it,' he says with a smile. 'My family's coming over to watch in Birmingham, and it's a nice positive thing. It's also nice to approach Swan Lake and have a fresh view of it as my last one, and promising myself not to get frustrated or negative.'

'I have to say it was weird to do Nutcracker and approach it as the last show, because I've been with the company a long time. And David said to me, 'you're not going to be sorry to see this one go, are you?' and I said, well, oddly enough, although we all sometimes get tired of doing Nutcracker Prince year after year, it's always been a really good barometer or gauge of where you are in your career. The first couple of times you're just completely terrified and then you go through a whole journey with this role, and it's marked in terms of how it's gone and who you've danced with, it's almost like a yearly marker of who you are and where you are in your career. So when I put the costume on for the last it was strange. And when I came out in Act I, the first music for the Prince is really emotional and I really though 'oh no, I hope I don't get too soppy!' But it's too difficult – after about the first 16 counts you're just so focussed you don't have time to be emotional, and afterwards I was just in so much pain I was thinking, 'yes, I'm ready let that one go!'

ENDS