Dancer Billy to grace stage at Covent Garden
A young dancer from Bath will have butterflies in his stomach this Christmas and very pointed toes as he prepares to float out on stage in Covent Garden.
This season, from November to January, is set to be the first act in the performing career of 12-yearold Billy Tucker.
Soon after November 22, Billy will take to the stage of the Royal Opera House and the curtain will rise on his first performance as Fritz in Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker.
“Fritz is the brother of Clara, the main character,” said Candy Sorrentino, an Italian dancer who has played Clara many times on stage in Naples. “So it’s true that it’s an important role. Sometimes a dancer from the company will take this role, other times a dancer from the ballet school.”
Fritz dances some steps with the principles, and particularly with his sister during “The Marches” (Marche) in the first act, and has a moving scene where the brother and sister attend a party.
“They will always choose the very best student dancer for this role,” stressed Candy. “The one with the most personality. Without a doubt he was particularly selected for it,” she said.
Billy is in year 8 at the Royal Ballet School in Richmond Park but he started dancing four years ago and attended the Dorothy Coleborn School of Dance in Bath under the principle Annette Hind.
“Annette Hind is just amazing and spotted his natural talent very quickly,” said Billy’s mum Sian. The young dancer was next asked to audition for The Royal Ballet associates (training on weekends with ex-principal dancer Karen Paisey. But Paisley suggested that he audition for the actual Royal Ballet School.
“We never thought he would actually get in against the hundreds of applicants from around the world,” said Sian “But he made it as one of the 15 boys in his year group.”
This year, Billy has been selected as one of three students to play the high-profile role of Fritz with the ‘corpo di ballo’ itself in the Nutcracker. It had been touch and go as to whether any pupils would be involved in the main company’s Nutcracker this year because of Covid, but they have chosen 11 children to perform with the main company at Covent Garden, and Billy is one of the three who have been given the main role.
“Billy trains so hard six days per week, four hours a day. Plus, he continues to work really hard in his academic studies,” said Sian. “His younger brothers Louie and Niall miss him like crazy when he is away at school and as a family we feel like we live on the M4 as we are constantly up and down on weekends to bring him home,” she said.
“We know that this Christmas is about to be manic as Billy will be performing in up to 30 shows starting from Monday 22nd November all the way until Jan 8th!”
■ The Nutcracker: Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, November 23, 2021 – January 8, 2022. Tickets: £1 - £135 from www.roh.org.uk Note: There are 31 performances over Christmas but many are sold out already.