04 February 2008

David Bintley has confirmed a number of debuts to be made during Birmingham Royal Ballet's forthcoming season of Swan Lake.

'We are seeing a lot of debuts this time round', he confirmed recently. 'Gaylene [Cummerfield, new arrival to the Company] has danced it in New Zealand, but we only have dancers taking on the Odette/Odile role that have done so before [Ambra Vallo and Nao Sakuma]. So this time round we have another two female debuts: Natasha Oughtred and Jenna Roberts.

'Anybody that makes a debut in that role is climbing a mountain. The requirements to dance it are particularly great as it's one of the great peaks of classical ballet, but I think that they’re ready for it.'

David has paired the women up with the more experienced males. 'With the new girls coming on, I think you need some strong partnering' he explained, 'so a lot of them will be dancing with people with experience - Iain Mackay, Chi Cao, Matthew Lawrence. But also we have a couple of male debuts: Jamie Bond will be dancing Siegfried, and Tyrone Singleton. Siegfried is a big partnering role and it's not a boy's role, you need a bit of gravitas and it'll be good for those guys.'

One of the most surprising debuts as Siegfried, however, will stand out as for the dancer in question it will also be his last classical role.

Dominic Antonucci, who has previously trained for the role but never danced it due to injury, has declared that he will no longer be performing the classical cannon. 'I've been dancing for 17 years,' he explains, 'and as I get older, I find that things like that are much harder to get right. So what David and I have discussed is that this Swan Lake will be my last, and I'm kind of leaving the classics behind. I'm not leaving or anything though, because it's really a small portion of what I do as a principal. I do a lot of David's own work, and a lot of the Balanchine stuff, so I have a huge workload aside from the shows like Nutcracker and so forth.'

Dominic is confident that his decision is a positive one both for himself and for the Company. 'A few years ago we didn't have all these young guys who were ready to do these principal roles, but now there's lots of talent there. And they need to get on and do their Nutcracker Princes – I don't need to be doing that any more! Of course it's always up to David, and we'll have to see how it goes with injuries, but I would like this to be my last time. My family's coming over to Birmingham to watch, and I'm looking forward to it, it's a positive thing.'

Casting for Swan Lake as it becomes available can be found through the What's On section of the website by clicking here.

ENDS