It’s tutu good to be true declares Dame Darcey
STRICTLY judge Darcey Bussell said she was ‘truly humbled’ at receiving a damehood in the New Year honours.
The former principal ballerina with the Royal Ballet will become Dame Darcey after swapping her pointe shoes for ballroom heels and sequins on BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing.
The award follows a glittering 20-year ballet career and was given for her services to dance. She said: ‘I am truly humbled to receive this honour.
‘I gratefully accept it on behalf of all the dance organisations that I am so fortunate to be part of.
‘Dance is such a beautiful art form, it is inspiring and provides joy, social cohesion and wellbeing.’
Miss Bussell, 48, has become known to a broader audience since her Strictly role, amid rumours of fierce rivalry with her fellow judge Shirley Ballas, a former ballroom champion.
Her career began at the Royal Ballet School, where she studied from the age of 13, and she became the company’s youngest ever principal in 1989, when she was just 20.
She went on to dance on stages around the world and has taken roles including the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, the title role in Giselle and Swan Lake’s Odette, and performed at the Queen Mother’s 90th birthday tribute in 1990.
In 2006 she announced she was retiring as the company principal and she performed for the last time in June 2007. Appearing as a guest on BBC Radio Four’s Desert Island Discs a few months after her announcement, she told the show’s former host, Sue Lawley, that she knew it was the ‘right decision’.
The mother of two, who is married to banker Angus Forbes, said: ‘I think just because of trying to cope with the pressures, and I have two gorgeous children, and I feel like sometimes, I love my work and I love every bit about it, but I can’t always do both.’
She added: ‘My body just doesn’t recover as quickly as it used to.’
Miss Bussell, who was also awarded the OBE in 1995 and the CBE in 2006, is president of the Royal Academy of Dance and holds key positions with several companies, including Birmingham Royal Ballet, London Children’s Ballet and the New English Ballet Theatre.
She joined Strictly in 2012 after making guest appearances, and performed at the London Olympics closing ceremony, leading a troupe of 200 ballerinas and four male dancers from the Royal Ballet. The performance was known as ‘The Spirit of the Flame’ and preceded the dousing of the Olympic flame.
In December 1990 she was voted Dancer of the Year by the readers of Dance and Dancers magazine.