I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving, says ballet star, 70
BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET STALWART MARION TAIT CBE REFLECTS ON HER 50 YEARS WITH THE COMPANY, IN CONVERSATION WITH DIANE PARKES
MARION Tait was less than three years old when she attended her first ballet class – little knowing those first steps were the beginning of a lifetime of dance. In December 2020 Marion stood down from her role as assistant director with Birmingham Royal Ballet after more than 50 years with the company.
Over that time, she performed countless leading roles, from Romeo and Juliet’s eponymous heroine through to Sleeping Beauty’s Aurora, and has taken to the stage with world-renowned choreographers and dancers.
But woe betide anyone who whispers the word retirement to 70-yearold Marion. She isn’t leaving her favourite dance company; she has taken on a new role as rehearsal director and coach.
Marion can still remember that first class.
“It was just before my third birthday and, even in those days, I was small for my age, and the teacher asked my mum if I was really three – I looked like a toddler. My mum took me because she thought it would be nice for a little girl to have dancing lessons and I just enjoyed it, no more than that. We did everything – tap, musical, ballet – but there was something about ballet for me, I think it was because it was more of a challenge.”
Dance remained a hobby for London-born Marion until she was ten when she gained a Royal Academy of Dance scholarship to attend classes twice a week. But even then, she hadn’t really set her sights on a career on the stage.
“I never thought I would be a ballet dancer. My mum wasn’t a pushy theatre mum, it was just because I was enjoying it that she took me. But I guess my teacher must have seen I had some sort of talent at that point.” That talent was also spotted by the prestigious Royal Ballet School, which offered Marion a place at the age of 15 and just two years later in 1968 she joined the Royal Ballet’s touring company.
“I really wanted to be in the touring company because there were so many more performances and so many opportunities. They had 15-week tours, Monday to Saturday, double shows three times a week, so you worked really hard but there were so many opportunities for dancers in that company.
“In those days you didn’t drive back after each week, you just kept going. On Crewe Station on Sundays all the touring companies would meet on the platform, changing trains to where they were going next.” In 1971 the Covent Garden company and the touring company merged and ‘The New Group’ was born.
“We had the most incredible repertoire with those tours. Glen Tetley came and did Field Figures, Christopher Bruce did Unfamiliar Playground, Joe Layton came over from Broadway and did Grand Tour and Overture, wow, I was in my element, what an opportunity.
“And then it gradually grew so we could do slightly bigger triple bill ballets. I remember we were rehearsing Pineapple Poll at the Donmar
Studios and John Cranko, who created Pineapple Poll, came to watch. He sat in a rehearsal and I was just doing the Red Sailor Girl and he said ‘that girl should be put down to learn Pineapple Poll’ – so it was down to him that I got to dance Pineapple Poll.”
Marion had just become a principal with the company at the age of 24 when she was asked to dance with the world’s most famous male dancer – Rudolph Nureyev.
“We were doing The Dream at the Edinburgh Festival and I was Titania and Rudolph was Oberon. I said, ‘I won’t act any differently from normal, he’s only another person’ – and then in the first rehearsal he trod on my foot and I apologised!
“Dancing also gave me the opportunity to see the world although of course you mostly see the hotel and the theatre. But we went to so many places. I remember going to India with Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and everyone had Delhi Belly except for me so I ended up doing five Giselles one week because everyone else was sitting on the loo!”
And her first tour was special for another reason.
“In my first year with the company we went to Cairo and that was where
I got together with my husband David Morse, who was also a dancer. He was going up to the Pyramids to see the sunrise the night before the tour finished and so I invited myself along!”
The couple have been together more than 50 years. Both remained with Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet throughout their careers with David becoming the company’s video archivist and a character dancer before retiring ten years ago.
It was under the artistic directorship of Peter Wright that Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet made the decision to create a new base in Birmingham. Marion was totally in the dark about the move until the last minute.
“We were performing La Fille mal gardée in Oxford and I was warming up on stage before curtain up. Peter came up to me and said ‘Have youheard the rumours?’. I said, ‘What rumours?’ and he said, ‘About us moving to Birmingham’. I hadn’t and he replied, ‘Well, we are and it’s going to be announced tomorrow. Will you come?’ I said, ‘Yes, of course’.”
Renamed Birmingham Royal Ballet, the company moved in 1990 to the city’s Hippodrome Theatre, where Peter staged his worldfamous productions of Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake as well as his
ever-popular The Nutcracker, which has been performed in Birmingham nearly every Christmas for 30 years.
Marion continued to take lead roles as the company settled into the city. In 1995
David
Bintley took over the helm. “There were ample opportunities to try so many things with Peter and with David,” says Marion. “David had been choreographing with SWRB and I was frequently in his pieces, it was brilliant. But I was getting to the point where
I was thinking to retire as a principal. The audiences couldn’t believe I was retiring as a principal – which was good because it means they weren’t saying ‘it’s time’!
“But there was a part I still wanted to dance. I said to Peter ‘I’ve never asked to do anything in my life but I’d love to have a go at Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty and he said he was thinking Carabosse in that ballet and I ended up doing both. For Carabosse,
I had to wear these huge platform shoes because in those days those costumes were £5,000 a piece and making a small version for me wasn’t possible. It was agony walking around like that.”
Marion continued dancing character roles with Birmingham Royal Ballet including the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet and Clara’s Mother in The Nutcracker, and she created the Stepmother in David Bintley’s Cinderella. She has remained a firm favourite with audiences. “I was lucky with the repertoire and the character roles that were available,” says Marion. “When people ask if I have a favourite ballet the answer is really that it’s whatever you are doing at that particular time because whichever role you are dancing takes over. But until I did Juliet at the age of 42, I didn’t realise what a fantastic role it was because of the emotion and the dancing.”
Marion also took on the role of ballet mistress.
“Our former ballet mistress, the wonderful Anita Landa, was ready to retire and for one year I shadowed her. Then the role came up at the time when Peter was announcing the handover to David and I would be retiring as a dancer.
“I thought being ballet mistress would be all about keeping everyone in line and making sure they all looked the same but that’s only 20 per cent of it. The job is about being someone’s confidante and really knowing the dancers and listening to their problems, their good times and their bad times. They knew they could trust me to listen.” Ten years ago, Marion became assistant director and she stood in as acting artistic director between David Bintley’s retirement in July 2019 and Carlos Acosta taking over directorship in January 2020. But no sooner had Carlos joined, than 2020 brought dramatic change with Covid-19.
“It’s been devastating for everyone in the arts,” says Marion. “Carlos has done a fantastic job and has just kept pushing. The amount of plans he’s had and then had to shelve during this year is incredible. “I’d like to see the company thought of as the top classical ballet company and I think Carlos will drive towards that. He’s also keen to make ballet accessible to everybody, which is what we’ve always wanted to do, right back to when I was first dancing.”
During lockdown Marion became an internet sensation but surprisingly not for her dancing. “Lockdown had just started and some of the musicians were putting out films of them playing their instruments and I wanted to do something. The thing I really enjoy is my garden and the weather was lovely so I thought I would do a calendar of my garden.” A three-minute film of Marion pruning her magnolia tree may not sound action-packed but when it involved the then 69-year-old climbing onto the roof of her shed, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s social media feeds were swamped with people concerned she might fall off!
“I just prefer to do things myself,” she says gamely. “I’ll be doing it again in a few weeks’ time. The roof ’s a bit rickety but I will be careful.” It was also during lockdown that Marion made the decision to step away from a full-time role with Birmingham Royal Ballet, not only because of Covid-19 but also due to her husband’s ill health. Her new position as rehearsal director and coach means she will support the company when it is performing works that she knows well, particularly those created by the former directors Sir Peter and Sir David. Marion has won numerous dance awards and received an OBE in 1992 and a CBE in 2003. After more than 50 years on the team, she can’t imagine life away from the company. “Birmingham Royal Ballet is a family – if it hadn’t been, I don’t think I would have wanted to stay with them for my entire career,” she says. “You didn’t get jealousies because everyone had a chance, we all had a go. It’s in our DNA to bring someone into the corps de ballet and see them rise through the ranks, we encourage talent.”
And she is keen to continue nurturing that talent.
“I’m looking forward to getting back into the studio again. I’ve not retired, I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving and I’m very lucky they still want me.”
I never thought I’d be a ballet dancer. My mum wasn’t a pushy theatre mum