Meet the people behind The Fonteyn 2023

Darcey Bussell is a former Principal with The Royal Ballet and the most famous British ballerina of her generation. During her nearly 20 years as a Principal, she won worldwide renown for her unique combination of having a tall and athletic physique whilst dancing with soft lyricism.

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Darcey trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined the Company in 1988. She was promoted to Principal in 1989, aged just 20, after the premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s The Prince of the Pagodas, in which she had created the lead role. Darcey retired from the Company in June 2007 with a performance of MacMillan’s Song of the Earth, broadcast live on BBC2. She came out of retirement to dance the ‘Spirit of the Flame’ at the 2012 London Olympics closing ceremony.

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Darcey’s extensive broadcast work includes being a judge on Strictly Come Dancing, many documentaries for the BBC and she has presented The Royal Ballet’s worldwide cinema relays since 2014. She remains a Guest principal coach at The Royal Ballet and is Artist Laureate of the Royal Ballet School. 

 

Her books include Darcey Bussell: Evolved, Darcey Bussell: A Life in Pictures, the ‘Magic Ballerina’ children’s series and her autobiography. In 2015 she founded DDMIX (diverse dance mix), a dance fitness charity, aimed at getting dance fitness to be part of PE in state schools.

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Darcey became the President of the Royal Academy of Dance in 2012.

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(photo: Franks)

Born in Canada, Aaron graduated from the National Ballet School of Canada in 1988 and went on to enjoy a full career in dance, beginning with leading classical companies including National Ballet of Canada, English National Ballet and Dutch National Ballet, where he worked his way up from Corps de Ballet to the rank of Soloist.

 

He was invited by world-renowned choreographer William Forsythe to become a Principal Dancer with Ballett Frankfurt; following this, Watkin went on to join Nacho Duato’s National Dance Company of Spain.

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In 2002 Aaron was appointed Associate Artistic Director to Víctor Ullate Ballet in Madrid, Spain. He was a Choreographic Assistant in charge of staging his ballets on dance companies throughout the world, including Kirov Ballet, Paris Opera and Dutch National Ballet, among others. Watkin was Artistic Associate Director of the annual Dance For Life AIDS Benefit Galas at the Cirque Royal Theatre in Brussels, Belgium.

 

In 2006, Aaron was appointed Artistic Director of the Semperoper Ballett. During his 17-year tenure with the company, he created numerous classical full-length productions including The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadère, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker (together with Prof. Jason Beechey) and his own creation of Don Quixote.

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In August 2022, Aaron was appointed Artistic Director Designate of English National Ballet and will assume the position of Artistic Director as of August 2023.

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(photo: Jubal Battisti).

Amanda Britton has over 35 years of experience as a dancer, teacher, rehearsal director, mentor and course leader. Having trained at the Rambert Academy, she joined Ballet Rambert in 1984 and she went on to become a leading dancer.

 

On leaving Rambert she created and performed a number of works with Siobhan Davies Dance Company. After retiring from performance Amanda joined the faculty at London Contemporary Dance School, where alongside a full-time teaching role she completed an MA in Dance Education and Training.

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In 2005 Amanda returned to Rambert School as Head of Undergraduate Studies. She was appointed Principal and Artistic Director in July 2015. Since then she has initiated a period of rapid change at the School, including the launch of two new postgraduate programmes, the MA Professional Dance Performance / Rambert2, and MA Dance Research for Professional Practitioners.

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Amanda is passionate about widening participation and access to dance for all, and the School’s Learning, Participation and Outreach work has developed rapidly since its outset in 2016. In 2020, Rambert School and Rambert (Company) together launched Rambert Grades, a new contemporary dance syllabus for young people, which aims to develop creativity, expression, and wellbeing through a holistic and inclusive programme of technique, performance practice and creative exploration. The Rambert Grades syllabus is now being rolled out globally.

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(photo: Teresa Walton)