In Conversation with LAURA MORERA … (In-person & Zoom)

Photo credits:

Above: Laura in Viscera, courtesy of ROH

Left: Laura in Dances at a Gathering, by Bill Cooper

Thursday 20 April 2023 … 7.30pm 🇬🇧
In-person & Zoom

Event interviewer will be GERALD DOWLER

The words below are from the ROH announcement of Laura’s retirement at the end of the current season

https://www.roh.org.uk/news/laura-morera-to-retire

Royal Ballet Principal dancer Laura Morera will retire at the end of the Season after a career spanning over 27 years. 

By Ashley Woodfield (Head of Ballet Press)
Thursday 9 February 2023, 10.19am

Morera's final performance on the Royal Opera House stage will be on Saturday 17th June in Kenneth MacMillan’s Anastasia Act III. She will also perform on The Royal Ballet’s tour to Japan in Frederick Ashton’s A Month in the Country with final performances at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan on Sunday 25th June and at the City Cultural and Convention Centre in Himeji on Saturday 8th July.

Morera will return to stage and coach repertory for the Company, including overseeing the ballets of Kenneth MacMillan for the MacMillan Estate.

Laura Morera is regarded as one of the leading female dancers of her generation and during her career has distinguished herself across the full range of the Company’s repertory, particularly excelling as a dance-actor. She is a celebrated exponent of Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan ballets and has created numerous works with some of the world’s leading choreographers including Liam Scarlett, Christopher Wheeldon and Ashley Page.

Director of The Royal Ballet, Kevin O’Hare, comments, 

‘Laura has enjoyed a remarkable career with The Royal Ballet for almost three decades and it is hard to think of any part of our repertory that she hasn’t enriched. Her fantastic facility across different styles has made her a wonderful fit for both classical and modern repertory, and the vivid theatrical qualities that infuse her every performance have been an inspiration for choreographers. Among her many striking roles, we shall remember the lyricism of pure dance in Asphodel Meadows and Viscera; her wit and technical mastery as Lise in La Fille mal gardée; her speed and attack in Chroma; and her dramatic presence, by turns outrageously funny as the Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and in The Concert and powerfully moving as Giselle, Manon, Mary Vetsera in Mayerling and Elizabeth Lavenza in Frankenstein. Beyond her final performances at the end of the Season, I am thrilled that Laura will return to the Company across the coaching and staging of various productions, bringing her artistry to the next generation of performers. Having valued working with Laura in this capacity, I know this augurs well for the future of The Royal Ballet.’

Lady MacMillan says, ‘I am absolutely delighted that Laura has agreed to take on the responsibility of the MacMillan ballets in the repertory of The Royal Ballet. She is a consummate MacMillan dancer, is prodigiously musical, and has performed almost all the female roles. She knows that every role, however small, is a vital and integral part of the whole. She completely understands the “ensemble” heart of Kenneth’s work. I have watched her performances with pleasure and her generosity in helping younger dancers understand the work.’

Morera comments, ‘From the moment I first performed with The Royal Ballet in Swan Lake aged 12, I saw how great and deeply moving this art form could be and fell in love with the Company and the British style. I knew then that this was where I wanted to develop as an artist. I feel grateful to have worked with so many incredible individuals throughout my career who are not only great at their craft but who have shown me such kindness, love and support during the more challenging times. I have loved every moment of the journey. This next move will provide more freedom to pursue other passions of mine, from completing artistic projects close to my heart to working closely with dancers on the MacMillan, Ashton and Scarlett repertoire. I am also excited about creating a system of support with the unique approach I used throughout my career with the hope to create positive change for the lives of dancers and for the industry itself. I will miss everything about performing at the Royal Opera House but am excited about the next stage in my life. Thank you everyone on both sides of the curtain for the love and support you have shown me throughout the years, and thank you Kevin O‘Hare for so much, for allowing me to retire with such dignity and welcoming me back to continue my work as a coach in this company that I love so much.’

Morera was born in Madrid and trained locally before joining The Royal Ballet School aged 11. She joined The Royal Ballet in 1995 and was promoted to Principal dancer in 2007. During her long career with the Company she performed numerous roles across a multitude of ballets, including 19th-century classics and works by Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Kim Brandstrup, Mikhail Fokine, William Forsythe, Kenneth MacMillan, Cathy Marston, Wayne McGregor, Ashley Page, Jerome Robbins, Liam Scarlett, Twyla Tharp, Will Tuckett and Christopher Wheeldon. 

Her classical repertory includes the title role in Giselle, Swanilda in Coppélia, Effie in La Sylphide, the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Gamzatti in La Bayadère and Kitri in Don Quixote. She performed lead roles in many Frederick Ashton ballets, including Rhapsody, Symphonic Variations, Titania in The Dream, the Gypsy Girl in The Two Pigeons, Natalia Petrovna in A Month in the Country and Lise in La Fille mal gardée for which she won the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award in 2015. Her dramatic prowess came to the fore as Tatiana in Cranko’s Onegin and in MacMillan ballets including Manon, Mayerling, Las Hermanas, Winter Dreams and Anastasia.

She created many roles in ballets including Room of Cooks for Ashley Page, Puirt-a-beul for Will Tuckett, Rushes – Fragments of a Lost Story for Kim Brandstrup, Qualia for Wayne McGregor, Asphodel Meadows, Hansel and Gretel, Sweet Violets, The Age of Anxiety and Frankenstein for Liam Scarlett, Tryst and, most recently, Mama Elena in Like Water for Chocolate for Christopher Wheeldon.

This event is a ‘hybrid’ LBC event.  Hybrid events offer both an in-person interview experience, as well as offering Zoom access for those further afield.  Both members and non-members are required to book in advance, for all options.  The Zoom option has now been confirmed by RBS for this event. 

VENUE:  Royal Ballet Upper School, 46 Floral St, London WC2E 9DA

*** DEADLINE for in-person bookings is Wednesday 19 April 2023 ***