02 December 2009

Marion Tait, the Company's Ballet Mistress, discusses the final four dancers performing the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker this season.

Lei Zhao

'The very first time I ever saw a photograph of Lei Zhao was in her graduation performance from Northern Ballet School, dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy. And this has stood her in very good stead, because you always remember very well anything that you've rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed for a school performance!

'So Lei has an ease with it, an ease of familiarity, but she never looks over familiar with the piece. She has a wonderfully delicate quality, and brings a real charm to it.

'I've told Lei in other roles that she needs to work on selling herself to the audience more – it’s like she's holding just a quiet intimate gathering with them - but of course that's just right for Sugar Plum! So she's got an awful lot in her favour this season.

'Lei's also helping guide a new Prince through this experience: Aaron Robison. That's always nice, when a new dancer to a role has someone more experienced as a partner. Likewise Delia has Tom which will be a huge reassurance to her.

'I think it can be more of an issue with a new Prince, because the Sugar Plum always has the worry of whether or not she's going to be caught when she leaps, or held up in a certain position. But Aaron and Lei are doing well together.'

Delia Mathews

'It's Delia's debut in this role, and she's thinking very much about adding quality to everything that she does. She'll be there in the spotlight, maybe doing quite simple moves, but she’s got to make them look special. This is an art that Principal dancers have because they really know how to draw the audience in with the most simple of steps.

'But Delia's not shown any timidity with the process, it's been great. I have loved working with her because every single correction you give, you can see in the next rehearsal that she’s remembered it. There's nothing that she doesn't retain, she's very astute.

'Peter [Wright] was telling her to ensure that her port de bras doesn’t get stuck in any positions. As well as accenting the final positions, we've got to have complete beauty and control as each limb moves from A to B.

'That’s the brilliant thing about Peter, he always hits on the absolute essence of what's necessary. By the week that he comes in to watch the rehearsals you would hope that the dancers know all the steps, and then he can add the finishing touches and put the icing on the cake!'

Gaylene Cummerfield

'Gaylene did the Snow Fairy with Australian Ballet, and danced Sugar Plum last year, but this will be the first time that she's doing it as a principal dancer. She knows herself that she's a very physically, and facially strong woman, so she has to really work at the child-like, innocent, softer qualities of the role, which she is doing already.

'She's got a very easy pirouette, and very high easy extensions, but in this, she's got to make herself more compact for the pirouettes so that she can turn faster.

'But Gaylene’s highly intelligent and a very, very thoughtful person and she works very hard and very well.

'A lot of people in Birmingham will recognise her from her performance as the Black Swan at Artsfest on the main outdoor stage. There was a clap-o-meter for the audience to vote for their favourite pas de deux (excerpts from Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker were also performed). Gaylene won because she created that character within the five minutes of the pas de deux and the audience was bowled over! Plus her partner Matt was geeing up the crowd a lot too! But she really engendered everything in a short space of time which is also the challenge with the Sugar Plum Fairy.'

Natasha Oughtred

'Natasha is a beautiful British ballerina, and she has those classic qualities of neatness and musicality and charm. I remember from her performances last year that she really captures that feeling of a transformation from Clara to sugar plum.

'She's with Alexander Campbell with whom she danced last year. What will be lovely for them will be that both of them have had a year where they've been pushed a lot, and promoted, and Alex has done a lot more partnering following his first steps into classical danseur noble. So while nothing went wrong last year, I think that this time around they’ll probably feel a lot more on top of things and it’ll be a much more enjoyable experience.

'Most of the Principals have got two or three shows each and Natasha’s on later in the run. What David’s done with the Principal casting this year has been excellent because each partnership has only got one or two days between each performance. I know from previous experience that if you've got one show at the start of the run, one at the end, and one in the middle, it is so hard to keep that stamina going, so thankfully this year they’ve all got enough time for recovery, but not enough to make them panic that they've got to rehearse and rehearse in between performances!'

Click here to read about the other four dancers performing the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy this season!