BB: Are there things that are being lost?
Ms. Ruanne: Yes, to a certain degree things will be lost. For example, you have a scenario now that is astonishing. There are male ballet dancers who say quite openly they have no interest in partnering. Interestingly, however, you probably can have a fairly good career without ever having to have to pick up a girl and have a strain on your shoulder. In the past, it was a question of pride, on both accounts. A guy wanted to be known and recognized as an excellent partner, not just as an excellent dancer, and one of the things that every girl dreaded hearing was that she is difficult to partner. Because you are part of a team one of the nicest parts of being a dancer is to find a kind of chemistry with someone. With good partnering it’s almost like your heartbeat stops as you pick up each other’s rhythm. It’s the most perfect feeling that exists when it happens, which is not every time, even with a partner with whom you dance together regularly. I rather regret these guys that don’t know how lovely it can be to work together with somebody, but it’s their choice and it’s not anything that you can alter. And, in a sense, I can sympathize. It’s probably right that their knees will last much longer if they are not carrying a ballerina around every day. All I know is that one witnesses lots of change. At this period of time the slightly gymnastic, slightly cool, uncommitted element is what the public requires and that’s what’s most deserved. I think the Royal Ballet, partly because of the heritage repertory that they retain, remains the most satisfying company in Europe. There is still a great importance attached to the credibility of the story that their ballets are telling and the personality of the work when the dancers are on stage. That’s rather more difficult to get in other companies because it’s not part of their tradition, nor part of their approach to maintaining company identity.
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Ruanne partnered by Ben Van Cauwenberg in the 1983 London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet), production of John Cranko’s Onegin.
Photo: Frederic Jahn
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BB: I’m wondering if you can describe, even generally, the differences between the generation of dancers that you were a part of when you were performing, and dancers today. What does a career look like today that is different than, say, in the 1960s, 1970s, or even the 1980s?
Ms. Ruanne: This is a difficult one. I see their lives as being much easier in terms of what surrounds them, in terms of their working conditions. I don’t know that there is the same hunger, but then every generation says that. Everybody says, “Well, it wasn’t like this in my day.” What I do notice most is there is very little, or there is a very modest, interest in the theater. Dancers don’t seem to care about the people who are around them. They seem very isolated in what they do.
You hear dancers screaming at people from wardrobe about dresses. But a dancer can’t get on stage without the person that’s being screamed at. To me it’s a lack of respect for the work of all the people who prepare for your performance. They’re completely unseen, yet they’re magicians sometimes. The rehearsals on stage aren’t just for the dancers. They are also for the technical crew. They’re also for the lighting people. They’re also for your dressers to learn just how long there is for that quick change and if it doesn’t work the first time that is how they will learn what to do for second time. This lack of community within the theater setting among dancers is something I’ve noticed very much in Europe. It doesn’t happen in other companies perhaps where the organization isn’t as big. You know you go to the Finland National Ballet, which is a small company, and the people who dye your shoes are in the same building: to get by them you have to go through the hall where wardrobe is making your costume. Inevitably, you build up an entirely differently rapport because the people you see and you work with are much more part of the same world. Our advantage within the touring company was after the performance there’d be one pub that was still open, which was next door to the stage door and probably the choice was between a Greek or Chinese restaurant. In the course of things you’d find yourself with the tech crew or with musicians from the orchestra. There was an entirely different comprehension of each other’s work because it’s not possible to sit opposite a lighting man and not begin to discuss—at some point—the problems of lighting dance. And whether you intend to learn or not, you do by contact and knowing this other participant in your dance is just another human being with a job.
We’re in an extremely fragile profession, dance and cultural work doesn’t keep people alive. It doesn’t serve a function except from an artistic and esthetic point of view. The only way for the company to survive, in my mind, is to hire and fire. That sounds awfully brutal, but it’s the truth. If somebody isn’t pulling their weight or if somebody has lost the force and the desire to dance or participate fully in the life of the theater no matter what their job, then do something else. It’s not a profession for the faint-hearted. This applies to any big funded European house where the people have a permanent contract, as opposed to having a contract that is renewed each year by the artistic administration.
I would imagine it’s getting harder and harder to get a job. It has become far more competitive than it was hundreds of years ago when I started to dance. There is less help and less funding. I probably would have never been able to be a dancer today. When I started training the local county council paid my dance fees. My parents couldn’t afford to send me to finish in the Royal Ballet School. I was given a tremendous grant, which paid all my fees. Today, that’s no longer possible unless you can get a scholarship and, even then, scholarships are not usually comprehensive so obviously dancers have much more of a problem getting into a company.
You know, the image of what’s required to be a dancer in a professional classical company has somehow fallen apart. I imagine it’s different in America because there are so many companies in the States compared with Europe. I don’t know if they have difficulties in surviving or not, but if you think about the number of companies that exist in Europe you don’t stand half the chance of landing a job over here compared with the States. You have big companies with big reputations in Europe, and therefore they are very hard to get into—you know, they’re the “national guardians” of classical ballet and all the rest of it. And though the doors are more open and it should be easier with the European Community, I don’t think it is. I think there are more dancers but not necessarily any more jobs.
