Tamara Rojo "In Conversation" with Graham Watts
17th October 2022
Spanish dancer Tamara Rojo has been Artistic Director of English National Ballet since 2012 and is about to move to the United States to take on the same role for San Francisco Ballet. She was born in Canada but grew up and trained in Madrid, coming to the UK in 1996. She danced with Scottish Ballet and English National Ballet (ENB) before joining the Royal Ballet as a Principal in 2000. This evening she was ‘in conversation’ (in person and via Zoom) with dance critic and writer Graham Watts, talking about her impressive career as both dancer and artistic director, and her plans for the important new role in San Francisco.
The Chair of the London Ballet Circle, Susan Dalgetty Ezra, welcomed Tamara and Graham and thanked them for agreeing to take part. She also welcomed members of the British Spanish Society who were joining the event. Both Susan and Graham had been present a few days previously when Tamara gave her final performance, in Akram Khan’s Giselle at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. They expressed their sorrow that she would not be seen again as a dancer, a sentiment echoed many times during the evening.
Graham commenced by wondering aloud how best to do justice to the many facets of her incredible career. As a dancer, artistic leader, choreographer? As an academic and a mother? And, he asked, was that really your final performance?
Tamara responded that it really was the final time she would dance on stage. She had been looking forward to it for some time but the pandemic had delayed it! She did not consider that she had a particularly gifted body but it had served her well. However, the effects of age and pregnancy had made it all rather too difficult to keep in shape. She would have loved her final performance to have been in the UK, but probably Paris was second-best!
Graham asked how Tamara had started to dance. Apparently she sometimes had to wait in the playground for her mother to pick her up from primary school. On one occasion a teacher had called to her to come into the gym where it was warm and there she found a ballet class in progress. Almost at once she felt she had found her place in the world and decided that she wanted to become a ballet teacher. It was only after her mother took her to a performance of the Bolshoi that she discovered that ballet was not just class and teaching. Tamara – at six – was somewhat taken aback to realise that performance on a stage was also part of the profession!
Her parents always insisted that academic study remained important. At that time there was no clear path into ballet as a profession in Spain. One should get a job and keep dancing as a hobby!
She went on to study in Madrid with Victor Ullate, who was something of a martinet. You did not question anything! Woe betide you if you did not attend his summer school! However, Tamara’s parents made her take summer schools elsewhere and in this way she learned there were other ways of doing things. To question why there is only one way to do something has always been part of her character and has served her well.
She was most happy in the studio, in class and rehearsals, preferring it to performance on stage. It was, however, only a small company and of necessity young dancers were cast in ‘big’ roles – for instance, she danced Giselle at just nineteen! In time, however, she found freedom, and tremendous enjoyment, on the stage.
Graham then asked about the 1994 Paris International Dance Competition, at which she was awarded a Gold Medal. Although she was not very aware of their importance at the time, the jury contained three significant figures in the world of dance. One of them, Galina Samsova, invited Tamara to dance with Scottish Ballet. She knew that she would have to leave Spain if she was to progress in her profession and accepted the invitation. She was very happy with the company and in Glasgow.
After just a few months in Scotland, Derek Deane, then Artistic Director of ENB, invited Tamara to join the company and dance Juliet. She went on to perform major roles with them. She was, however, also able to watch many Royal Ballet productions which at that time were being staged at the Apollo in Hammersmith, while the Opera House was being refurbished. The repertoire attracted her, in particular the works of Kenneth Macmillan, and she contacted Anthony Dowell to inquire the possibility of joining the company. In 2000 she was offered a Principal contract with the Royal Ballet, with whom she remained for the next twelve years.
Tamara told us she had so many great memories of her time with the Royal Ballet. She had undertaken many major roles and danced with amazing partners such as Carlos Acosta and Jonathan Cope. Over the years she had driven herself hard – even on occasion while injured, including a burst appendix and a severely infected bunion. This latter had led her, with her father, to invent a pointe shoe stretching device which was later to become a business venture.
Graham reminded her of the big occasions such as Romeo and Juliet performed at the O2 Arena, in which she had danced with Carlos. While these were certainly memorable Tamara felt the venue was too large and too distant for the intimacy of a ballet such as Romeo.
In 2012 Tamara left the Royal Ballet to become Artistic Director of ENB, taking over from Wayne Eagling. She told us that in some sense she still felt like an ‘outsider’ as her career path had not included any of the major ballet schools. She believed that background may have given her a different perspective on the profession. In that respect she wanted to expand the audience for the artform because she was convinced of the potential of ballet to change lives.
Tamara was full of ideas which she liked to discuss openly with others and invite them to shoot holes in them. This constant questioning, she believed, was the way to produce a solid body of work. During her time with ENB she had been ambitious and the company had many significant successes, among them Giselle, a piece which held a special place in her affections.
Tamara explained that she had admired Akram Khan’s work for a long time, and therefore contacted him to see whether he might be interested in choreographing a work for the company. At first he said no; he was too busy, but he would do a pas de deux. Then he visited the company and agreed to do a short piece (which became Dust). Finally he progressed to Giselle.
He had no real understanding of the story when he was eventually persuaded to choreograph a version for the company. Accordingly he worked closely with Tamara, filming her playing every role in the ballet so that he could see how each could be interpreted. Giselle had been a very significant story to her Cuban teachers in Madrid and reference to their analysis had been helpful. Tamara also praised Alina (Cojocaru) who, once the whole company became involved in the production, had made such an important contribution to its success.
Tamara then paid tribute to the late Justin Bickle, who had been Chair of the ENB Board at the time. She had seen the influence ballet had on his life, stimulating interests outside pure business. The success of the company had been due in no small measure to the manner in which he, the Chief Executive, and Tamara herself had all been able to work together.
“And now ENB has a terrific new headquarters!” Markova House in Kensington had served the company well since 1976 but it was cramped and the company had outgrown the premises. There were initiatives which ENB wanted to pursue but they did not have the space. Thanks largely to Justin they were able to secure a site on the Ballymore development at London City Island on which a big new headquarters could be built.
Tamara had been insistent that the new building must involve and have an impact on the local community. Thus many of the walls were of translucent glass to allow passers-by glimpses of the dancers within. The new building had six studios each the size of the Coliseum stage. There was a fully rigged performance space with some 200 seats in which shows could be previewed and perfected in front of an audience. Other disparate functions such as outreach facilities, healthcare, and the ENB School could now be housed under the one roof. Tamara believed the new building – truly a dream come true – would be able to unlock the potential of ENB. It was already attracting other users from film and theatre and she hoped the building would develop into a true centre for the arts.
Graham expressed approval that she was both a passionate and outspoken leader of the arts, although she had also been the victim of some abusive comment. Tamara responded that certain sections of the press were always going to be aggressive. She was a European immigrant – an outsider; why didn’t she keep quiet? However, she wondered whether a male artistic director might have suffered similar abuse.
Tamara has never shied away from ‘political’ involvement, accepting membership of a number of official bodies. Funding from the public purse was important because at least some such money could be risked on relatively unknown but rising stars. While private concerns might offer generous sponsorship, they tended to support better known artists, those with a solid career behind them. She cited the importance of the Arts Council, which provided public funding but at arms-length from the government of the day. However, arts funding was always peripheral, and she had never feared more for the future than she did today.
During her tenure at ENB she had tried to encourage work by female choreographers. She considered that they might use the female body in ways that were different from male choreographers, and that this could offer new perspectives on the story. She herself had choreographed Raymonda, having realised for some time that the narrative could be reshaped. She knew what she wanted, and eventually someone had asked why she didn’t do it herself…. Having heard that she was working on Raymonda, Nicolas Le Riche invited her to Stockholm to choregraph Cinderella for Royal Swedish Ballet.
Graham then mentioned motherhood and how it had affected her. “It can make life really hard” said Tamara. It took a great deal of work in the gym and Pilates studio to get back into good physical shape. Finding the motivation is a problem and she misses her son. However, his presence has provided a new, different and delightful focus for her life.
Graham also noted that along the way Tamara had impressively collected three academic degrees, culminating in a PhD. Her thesis, on the ‘Psychological profile of the elite dancer’, had mostly been written – in Spanish – while she was still dancing with the Royal Ballet.
Among a number of questions from the audience Tamara was asked whether there was any role she itched to do, but hadn’t; she replied John Neumeier’s Lady of the Camellias. Conversely, was there any role which she didn’t enjoy? The first time she danced Ondine she hadn’t understood it at all; she wondered what it was all about. Fortunately, however, it all ‘clicked’ with her when she danced it again.
Another question concerned the ‘Emerging Dancer’ competition. Being a young artist in any ballet company is difficult. The work is hard and you have to learn your place in the hierarchy. Emerging Dancer offers an opportunity to showcase those younger dancers who clearly have potential and commitment but have not yet had much chance to demonstrate it on stage. The importance of supporting a dancer from ‘cradle to grave’ was a concept which Tamara wished to take with her to the States.
In December Tamara commences her new role as Artistic Director of San Francisco Ballet. Graham asked how that new job might differ from taking over at ENB in 2012? She replied that here would be much to learn; it was a very different environment. And of course the previous Artistic Director (Helgi Tómasson) had been in post for nearly forty years.
When she took over at ENB she already knew a great deal about the company and ballet generally in the UK. San Francisco would present many challenges; she knew relatively little about the company or ballet itself in the USA. For instance the funding model was quite different. However, she still relished challenges and if there were barriers to be crossed, she would try to do so. And, she concluded, she now had the benefit of ten years’ experience as an established artistic director.
Tamara was thanked most warmly by London Ballet Circle chair, Susan Dalgetty Ezra, for giving up her evening to take part in such a fascinating conversation. She expressed her appreciation for all that Tamara had done for ballet, and said she would be greatly missed. Susan hoped that she would be seen back in the UK, hopefully with her new company, at some time in the future, and all those present wished her all the very best for the future.
Susan was also delighted to be able to announce that Tamara had agreed to become the London Ballet Circle’s first international Vice-President.
Written by Trevor Rothwell, and edited/approved by Graham Watts and Tamara Rojo.
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