Forget about the real world for one night and join us at our ball
Two Birmingham Royal Ballet soloists can’t wait to feed off the buzz of an audience again. DIANE PARKES talks to the leads in Cinderella
IT has been more than a year since Birmingham Royal Ballet staged a full-length production for a live audience – but this month the company returns with Cinderella.
Created in 2010 by the then Birmingham Royal Ballet director David Bintley, the fairy tale ballet was an instant success and has become a much-loved piece of the company repertoire.
Dancing lead roles of Cinderella and the Prince for the first time are soloists Karla Doorbar and Lachlan Monaghan – both of whom cannot wait to be back performing before a live audience.
“I’m really excited; it’s going to be really nice to be back on stage again,” says Karla, who takes the part of Cinderella at the Saturday matinee on June 19 alongside Lachlan’s Prince. “Everyone is so eager to be back.
“Lockdown and this past year have been really hard for everybody and I hope the audience enjoy Cinderella. The show is a kind of escape – you get to forget about the real world for a while and come and join us at the ball.”
Both Karla and Lachlan have taken lead roles in condensed versions of the ballet in the past.
“Last time the company did Cinderella, Lachlan and I were both doing the First Steps shows for children, a shortened version with somebody telling the story, which is more interactive. And we danced Cinderella Dreams which was also with children.”
Staged at Birmingham Repertory Theatre between June 18-26, the production has undergone some adaptations to fit the theatre space and to ensure Covid safety for the dancers.
“There are a few cuts but when we did the rehearsal, it felt like pretty much everything is still in there,” says Karla. “It’s minor changes such as fewer dancers in the corps de ballet and scenery changes but the role of Cinderella is pretty much what it was.”
And Karla is keen for her Cinderella to be a fully rounded character.
“In the studio I’m working on trying to get across that she’s in the kitchen being bullied by her sisters and then dreaming of going to the ball and, when she gets there, the wonder and amazement of being at the ball – and there’s also the Prince.
There’s a lot of story-telling going on. She’s not just a girl who needs to be saved.”
For 29-year-old Karla, who joined the company in 2011 straight out of the Royal Ballet School and became a soloist in 2018, creating characters within stories is her passion.
“The pieces that I really love to dance are the ones that tell a story, where I have a character I can really perform as. So I loved Vera in A Month In the Country or Lise in La Fille mal gardée, Clara in The Nutcracker, Belle in Beauty and the
Beast and now Cinderella.
“In Cinderella I’m also dancing one of the sisters, and that’s so much fun. It’s completely different from the kind of characters I’ve danced before and I love it.”
Karla was last on stage at The Rep at Christmas playing the part of Clara in The Nutcracker – but the performance was during lockdown so was filmed and streamed online.
“It was a very different experience dancing without an audience and just having the camera in front of you. When there’s an audience there’s a different energy and you get feedback from what you are doing.
“We are all looking forward to being back in front of a live audience.”
The dancers have been rehearsing in bubbles as part of the company’s Covid-safety measures.
“It’s quite strange because we are back in
studio but still not a complete company,” Karla says. “We have two studios with separate start times, the bubbles are doing the same piece but separately, and the ballet masters are having to teach everything all over again.”
For dancers who are used to constantly performing, the past year has been a strange time. In the first lockdown, the company members were at home, joining classes online and doing their best to maintain
their fitness and technique. But it was not easy.
“My boyfriend, Haoliang Feng, is also with the company so it was both of us trying to
train at home,” Karla recalls. “We transformed our living room into some kind of studio. The company gave us a strip of special dance flooring known as Harlequin so we could move and practise.
“With that and Zoom classes every day we were doing what we could but there’s only so much you can do in your living room – it’s not like you can jump at home.”
After the first lockdown the company resumed classes but, without the intense touring schedule the dancers usually face, the past few months have been anything but back to normal.
“It’s been such a strange time having nothing to work towards,” Karla explains. “That’s the motivation, we need the assurance that we are working towards something, that we have a show to aim towards.”
Karla’s Prince Charming, 28-year-old Lachlan Monaghan, is also looking forward to being back on stage.
“We want to be entertaining and making people feel something. I’ve really missed that over the last year so I’m excited to be back before the audience, it will be so special.
“It’s beautiful to be performing at The Rep because it is a more intimate theatre and we will feel that connection from an audience who are just buzzing to be back doing something normal again.”
Lachlan, who joined Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2012 from the Royal Ballet School and became a soloist in 2018, is also looking forward to taking on the part of the Prince.
“Coming into any new role is exciting, but a Prince role is something you aspire to. For any male dancer, one of the epitomes of the career is a prince.
“There are some challenges with the Prince in Cinderella. You need to look lovely and regal and like everything you do is as easy as pie. That’s the difficulty - making it look so charming and easy. The pas-de-deux when I dance with Karla are quite tricky, they are unique because they use really different lifts. You have to work a lot on them.’’
Born and brought up in Australia, Lachlan spent five months of the first lockdown with his family in Sydney – the first time he had been able to be with them for so long for more than ten years. And he worked hard to ensure he stayed as fit as possible.
“I was quite lucky because Australia recovered quite quickly and the gyms opened again after a couple of months. I was doing a bit of ballet at home but was mainly replacing it with gym workouts, swimming and running.”
There’s only so much you can do in your living room – it’s not like you can jump
Birmingham Royal Ballet perform Cinderella at Birmingham Rep from June 18- 26. See www.brb.
org.uk for details and tickets.