William Trevitt speaks BalletBoyz, Ballet and being a Dancer


WHEN six-year-old William Trevitt decided to step on stage in a ballet performance as a fireman he would have had no inkling about where the discipline would take him.

It was just supposed to be a favour for a friend of his mother whose son was also appearing in the show that needed more boys as extra firefighters.

He was hooked and after training at The Royal Ballet School joined The Royal Ballet in 1987 where he was promoted to principal in 1994 and also returned as guest principal for the 2004 season.

During Trevitt's and co-artistic director Michael Nunn's 12 years at The Royal Ballet, between them they danced all the principal roles including Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), Prince Siegfried (Swan Lake), Lescault and Des Grieux (Manon) and Prince Charming (Cinderella).

They also created roles for choreographers Kenneth MacMillan, Glen Tetley, Twyla Tharp, William Forsythe, David Bintley and Christopher Wheeldon.

In 2000, they co-founded BalletBoyz and it is the company's the Talent2015 spring tour which sees them coming to Hereford's The Courtyard for a double bill of The Murmuring and Mesmerics.

Trevitt remembers of that very first performance: "I really had a great time and I enjoyed myself so much so I have never stopped dancing except for a few years ago when we realised we were knocking on a bit."

Ten years later, the pair launched Balletboyz theTalent selecting male dancers from a variety of backgrounds, working with them closely and mentoring and coaching them to create a company of first-rate performers.

"We decided to stop dancing in an instant rather than just phase ourselves out.

"With theTalent, we are not looking for dance experience or fantastic physiques but it is about fitting into the group and, with this particular group, you have to be very versatile.

"For example, with this show you have two very different styles so it is quite challenging.

"One of the advantages of the group is we have a very, very strong core of dancers who have been with us for a while and now there is a shorthand, they know what we are looking for."

Trevitt explains the two pieces the company will be performing at The Courtyard are vastly different.

"The Murmuring is created by a guy called Alexander Whitley.

"We met as ballet dancers then he moved into more contemporary dance.

"We asked him to come in and spend a day with our dancers just to see what might happen.

"It's a powerful piece and is inspired by the massive flocks of starlings and their wheeling and flocking and interacting patterns.

"It's very beautiful to look at and very powerful.

"The second performance is totally different.

"It's called Mesmerics and it was originally made for two male and one female dancer.

"We asked the choreographer to come back to it ten or 12 years later and re-imagine it for ten men.

"It has a completely modern feel to it - it's hypnotic, beautiful, graceful."

Though you may imagine that working with an all-male group would be completely different from a mixed company, Trevitt said it was actually difficult to think of any major differences.

"It is hard to say what the significant differences are between an all male and male and female dancers except the obvious - you only need one changing room.

"They get on really well and are very co-operative.

"When they are dancing, they are lifting and working with each other and there is a real sense of equality between the partnerships.

"The tendency when you have a mixed partnerships is the woman looks wonderful and the man stands behind her holding her up."

The same old stereotypes still surround boys and ballet, Trevitt believes, but it is beginning to make a breakthrough.

"I think there is definitely still stereotypes around boys and dancing, particularly ballet.

"Times have changed though and we are much further forward than when I started to dance.

"I think that is down to seeing much more dance on television.

"It seems more ordinary and acceptable.

"It's more common place to see male dancers on shows like the X Factor so it is changing.

!Dancing as an artform is completely international.

"It doesn't involve a language so dance can travel everywhere.

"It's also an artform people are used to seeing in commercials and music videos.

"I think you'd be missing out on a vital art form if you think dance isn't for you.

"In fact, if you do think dance isn't for you then this is the show to come and see - well that's my sales pitch anyway," he laughs.

 

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