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Quotes on Darcey Bussell
Sir Kenneth Macmillan (Choreographer) : "Darcey is an extraordinary dancer, quite different from what the Royal Ballet has been used to for many years." The Sunday Times 14th October 1990
Bamber Gascoigne (Broadcaster) : "I joined the board of the Royal Opera House in September 1988, when Kenneth MacMillan was just starting to notice Darcey Bussell, in the Chorus with Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet. It's been fascinating watching her develop and grow within the company. I don't think it's a requirement for a ballerina to be lovely, but I do find her immensely beautiful. Her beauty is of such a serene kind. It's crazy to say this about someone whose craft is movement, but she has this amazing quality of stillness; even on a crowded stage, your eye is always drawn to her. When she does move, it always seems so incredibly sure. It's a calm based on incredible physical confidence and control, particularly in the Rose Adagio in Sleeping Beauty, that agonising thing that happens almost as soon as the ballerina comes on. It's such a worrying moment, but it's part of the appeal of ballet - that hire-wire fear. Whenever I've seen her, she's done it with unbelievable ease. She's never disappointed me, but then I'm a bit of a push-over". The Independant 26th October 1996
Glen Tetley (Choreographer) : "One of the most extraordinary dancers I have ever worked with" "There's a deep passion inside Darcey. You are going to see a very intense, deeply felt, physical tour de force for her in this ballet (Amores)." Telegraph 3rd May 1997
Twyla Tharp (Choreographer) : "Leon (Wieseltier) got totally hypnotised by celadon. He saw a few pieces at the Freer Gallery and all of a sudden everything was about celadon, about the spirituality of this colour and this glaze. And I got hooked into it, and the second movement of "Mr. Worldly Wise," for the Royal Ballet in London, is dressed in celadon, because Darcey Bussell -- have you seen Darcey dance? She is beautiful in every conceivable way. Physically beautiful, but also genuinely, spiritually beautiful. And she's a phenomenal dancer. Darcey got this role called Mistress Truth-on-Toe, because she's simple, pure, direct. She's so beautiful, you just give her the simplest thing and say, fine, get back, don't get in her way, let her move. That's the beauty of her."
Igor Stupnikov (Ballet Writer) : "She is beautifully schooled and has great sincerity, she has lovely light jumps, and we like very much her soft landings. You don't find such quietness at the Kirov. Her drama was most convincing and natural, not overdone as it is often here." Telegraph 21st February 1998
Igor Zelensky (Ballet Partner) : "You are dancing with different people and you are thinking it would be better with Darcey." The Times Magazine 22nd July 2000
Roberto Bolle (Ballet Partner) : "I have a great feeling for her, she is not just a good dancer but a great person, sweet and nice with me. She helped me a lot when I was first here." "We don't have any ballerinas like Darcey in Italy." The Evening Standard 19th October 2000
Clement Crisp (Dance Critic) : "She appeared, with the bold stretch of her limbs signalling wonderful things to us, and our hearts went out to her." Financial Times 5th February 1990
Allen Robertson (Dance Critic) : "It's as if Madonna had donned a tutu." The Daily Mail 7th February 1990
Judith Mackrell (Dance Critic) : "She has arrived at an understanding of the role so personal and so true that she defines the whole atmosphere of the ballet within it. As Odile, Bussell casts an implacable commanding spell. Yet her greatest moments may be in Act IV where her Odette becomes fully human" Guardian 7th January 1995
Martin Bernheimer (Dance Critic) : "Darcey Bussell is a lovely dancer - lyrical, long--limbed and intrinsically glamorous" Los Angeles Times 8th July 1995
Ismene Brown (Dance Critic) : "She is out on her own for physical sumptuousness on stage, with a more naturally sublime gift than ballet has seen for many decades." Telegraph 9th November 1996
Debra Craine (Dance Critic) : "Bussell's Nikiya is demure and very pretty indeed herdancing was lovely. No-one describes wider arcs of dance than Bussell does, and the sensuousness of her musical phrasing - and the way she played with time, outlining familiar movements in unfamiliar ways - made the interpretation uniquely her own." "She came alive with the sheer physical excitement of letting go into the choreography" The Times 3rd April 1997
Lewis Segal (Dance Critic) : "The sight of Darcey Bussell lavishing perfect balances on one, two, three, four suitors in the Rose Adagio can still bring you to your knees."nbsp"More than ever, Bussell's remarkable stillness - her ability to seem always in repose while flowing through the most challenging step combinations in classical dance - projects a central idea of British classicism as majestic scale" Los Angeles Times 22nd May 1997
Ismene Brown (Dance Critic) : "Luckily there was Darcey Bussell, triumphant in Aurora's Rose Adage, showing a depth of character I have underestimated in the past. To command the stage, to know that rescue of a lacklustre evening depended on her, and to rise to the challenge - that was to honour de Valois's challenge to Britain. And very moving it was." Telegraph 5th July 1997
Jenny Gilbert (Dance Critic) : "It was left to Darcey Bussell to fulfill the ballet's eastern promise with her arch little stampings and handclaps, and a sensuous, almost languid drag in the body." Independant on Sunday 8th November 1998
Debra Craine (Dance Critic) : "He (Adam Cooper) did a beautiful job in Christopher Wheeldon's Pavane pour une infante defunte, which unfolds the ballerina like a precious flower, limbs opening into voluptuous extensions -and Bussell's are the best in the business. It's a tricky duet, everything in it working against expectation, and it came off like a dream." The Times June 1999
Rupert Christiansen (Dance Critic) : "In the anonymous leading role of a woman who seems to love and then lose, Darcey Bussell evokes a whole world of joy and melancholy, hope and despair." on Serenade, The Mail on Sunday 16th April 2000
Ismene Brown (Dance Critic) : "But I doubt there's a ballerina alive or dead who could match the majestic Darcey Bussell in Monotones II." Telegraph 7th December 2000
Concorde's celebrity passengers Daily Mail Femail 24th October 2003
My London: Darcey Bussell Evening Standard 21st March 2003
Ballerinas and Bond boys open motor show Telegraph 22nd October 2002
The daring Miss Darcey Daily Mail Femail 22nd October 2002
Darcey sports M&S Daily Mail Femail 5th June 2002
Darcey Bussell : Ballet Superstar BBC News 7th January 2001
The Premier and the Prima Ballerina The Times 2nd October 1999
Read an interview with Darcey Bussell at the Ballet.Co Website!
Darcey Bussell Facts
You can write to Darcey Bussell at....
The Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House
Covent Garden
London
WC2E 9DD
....but please do not ask for signed pointe shoes. They are in such demand that Darcey usually gives them to charity to be auctioned (a pair recently raised £560).....Oh! and it helps enormously if you include a stamped self-addressed envelope with your letter if you want to receive a reply.
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