The Nutcracker Bride
It’s such a suite story ...how the handsome prince slipped a ‘Will you marry me?’ note to the beautiful ballerina as they pirouetted in Tchaikovsky’s classic. And yesterday, she did!
THE audience sat transfixed as the beautiful ballerina and her handsome prince danced with extraordinary chemistry during the closing scenes of The Nutcracker.
What the cheering crowd didn’t know, however, was that the classic Tchaikovsky fairytale they just witnessed concealed a real-life secret – the most romantic of marriage proposals.
It came as Leanne Cope, dancing the part of Clara, was asked for directions in the Land Of Sweets by the Nutcracker Prince, her childhood sweetheart Paul Kay.
It was a duet they had performed together dozens of times and it required him to hand her a note.
Only this time – unbeknown to either Miss Cope or the audience – the note read: ‘Will you marry me?’
As she theatrically perused the words, her professionalism never faltered. Instead, she merely pointed and hurried off stage, as the storyline demanded.
Moments later, as the curtain fell and enchanted ballet fans left the theatre, soloist Paul approached her backstage in front of the entire troupe. He dropped to one knee, presented her with a ring and popped the question verbally.
Miss Cope said ‘yes’ and yesterday the proposal culminated in a spring wedding – the first of five female dancers with Britain’s Royal Ballet planning to tie the knot this year.
‘I was really surprised,’ she said. ‘Luckily, I was supposed to point the Nutcracker Prince in the right direction and run off stage. Paul had asked the stage manager for permission to switch the note. But the only people who knew were my mum and dad in the audience, as Paul had rung them to ask their permission to marry me.’
A spokesman for the Royal Ballet said: ‘As you might imagine, Leanne was somewhat taken aback on stage.
‘But as this happened right at the end of the performance, she at least
didn’t have to perform another solo while thinking about her response.’ Among the first to congratulate the couple was Tony Hall, then CEO of the Royal Opera House and now directorgeneral of the BBC. He described the proposal as ‘the most romantic performance the main stage has ever seen.’
Yesterday, the couple married at the Roman Baths in Bath where Miss Cope’s stonemason grandfather had worked on the building’s restoration in the 1970s.
Now both aged 30, they met two decades ago after finishing joint first in a children’s dancing competition. But it was not until they began training at the Royal Ballet School as teenagers that they began dating.
Their performances in The Nutcracker – which has been staged at Covent Garden every Christmas for 30 years – was described by one captivated critic as having ‘a curving, almost delirious freedom in the upper body’.
Leanne has played numerous roles in the Royal Ballet and has built a particularly strong relationship with artist in residence Liam Scarlett, who has described her as having ‘a presence on stage like no other’.
Paul has danced roles as varied as Kolia in Chopin’s A Month In The Country and Puss-in-Boots in Sleeping Beauty.
The four other ballerina brides walking down the aisle this year are Itziar Mendizabal, Nathalie Harrison, Hayley Forskitt and Sabina Westcombe. All five feature in a photoshoot for the current edition of Condé Nast Brides magazine.