Donald MacLeary

9th October 2006
Crown Court Church of Scotland Hall, W.C.2

Our guest tonight was Mr Donald MacLeary, who is now Guest Principal Repetiteur to the Royal Ballet, following a distinguished dancing career with the Royal Ballet companies. He was interviewed by Robin Key.

The evening began with Mr MacLeary telling us what he is doing at present, which is coaching Belinda Hatley and Yohei Sasaki for "Coppélia" and then going to Toronto to supervise National Ballet of Canada's staging of MacMillan's "Song of the Earth". He reminded us that he made his Royal Opera House debut in "Coppélia" as the Crusader doll! On his return from Canada he will then be involved in coaching the principals for "The Sleeping Beauty" later this season. Donald has happy memories of the original Oliver Messel production, as it was the one he was taken to see when a student at the Royal Ballet &hool, he has danced in it in and considers the De Valois/Messel production as ideal and most associated with the Royal Ballet.

The conversation then went back to Donald's childhood in Scotland and how he began as a dancer. When a young child he danced all the time whenever he heard music, including dancing to accompany his brother's violin practising. At the age of 11 he saw the film "The Red Shoes", which was a revelation of this thing called ballet. He was determined to find out more about ballet and in "The Daily Mail Annual" discovered The Royal Ballet School and persuaded his parents to write to the School and take him to London for an audition. He had never had a dance lesson and had no idea what to expect, and although the words "RAD" were a mystery to him, he was accepted into the school at the age of 13. He was delighted to have this opportunity and arrived on the first day all the way from Inverness in his kilt. Even though he was a long way from his family and older than other boys so that he had to work really hard, he loved being at the Royal Ballet School. All his hard work was recognised, and on his 17th birthday Dame Ninette gave him a place in the Sadler’s Wells Touring Company. He gained useful experience with the company and it was a fortunate time for him, because Kenneth MacMillan was still dancing but wanted to stop in order to concentrate on choreography, and when he retired from dancing Donald was given his roles. His first major role was "Les Sylphides" at the age of 17.

In answer to a question about auditions today, as compared to the time when Donald auditioned for the School, he pointed out that children now usually come from dance schools and have had some training, unlike himself, although in his time there was a similar assessment system to today's, and growth and physical development of the children was carefully watched. Although a certain physique (or instrument) for a dancer is required, he stressed that it is possible to become a great artist without the right physical instrument. However, too much emphasis can be placed on technical achievement, whereas ballet is an art form, and not the Olympics! Winifred Edwards and all the teachers of his time were ex-dancers and made the students aware that this was a theatrical art form, and not just technical exercises. He believes that the individual personality of a dancer should come through, and in a classical narrative ballet the dancer should convey the emotional story to the audience, and not just concentrate on technical feats.

Donald then took us back to his time with the Sadler’s Wells Touring Company during their 8 month tour of Australia and New Zealand, when he danced "Swan Lake" with Lynn Seymour. They had the advantage of having time to get to know the roles and develop stamina during a long tour. He danced "Swan Lake" with Lynn on Tuesdays and Susan Alexander on Wednesday afternoons. On their return to London, Dame Ninette asked Lynn and Donald to dance "Swan Lake" with the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden which was a great honour for such young dancers. During the Australian tour Svetlana Beriosova danced as a guest and noticed Donald, and in 1959 he joined the main Company as a Principal. At Covent Garden he danced with Svetlana Beriosova and thought that the success of their partnership was due to the fact that they were both lyrical dancers who heard.the music the same way. He spoke of their American tours and the chance to meet stars like Audrey.Hepburn who visited Svetlana's dressing room after a performance.

There was some discussion about ballets suitable for revival, with particular reference to John Cranko, whose ballets used to feature in the Touring Company repertoire. It was in Cranko's ballet "The Angels" that he first danced with Lynn Seymour, and at the Opera House he created roles in "Brandenburg 2 and 4" and "Antigone". Cranko invited him to Stuttgart (where "Song of the Earth" received its première) and he danced "Onegin" with that company.

Regarding "La Fille mal gardée" he told us about learning Colas at short notice with Merle Park. One dreadful moment in performance was when the handle of the bedroom door came off in his hand and he had to prise the door open with his finger nails. Also in the first act the hay rake he was dancing with broke in two. He thinks there was a jinx on this ballet for him!

He mentioned how tough the Ashton and MacMillan ballets are to dance, and this sometimes comes as a shock to the international dancers who join the company who want to dance the wonderful RB repertoire. These dancers find that "Symphonic Variations" is the most exhausting ballet to dance, whereas Royal Ballet dancers, who were trained in the Ashton repertoire, were used to its demands as they had always done these ballets. In answer to a question about modern choreographers, Donald thinks William Tuckett is very clever and inventive; he hopes that one day Christopher Wheeldon will do a full length ballet. The audience suggested some ballets they would like to see revived, and Donald suggested "The Invitation" as it is a wonderful ballet for young dancers.

Along with his dancing career, Donald was a keen rider and became interested in dressage, which emphasises the partnership between horse and rider, where the rider must find the horse's centre of balance so they can both work together in harmony. This made him think more about ballet partnership and was helpful. Though he enjoyed riding lessons, ballet came first.

Donald reminisced about his dancing with Natalia Makarova, a possible revival of "The Burrow" with the Georgiadis decor and costumes, and LBC members would like to see "Dances at a Gathering" and "In the Night" by Robbins once again, revivals of "Job" and other De Valois ballets. Robin Key asked Donald if he would consider committing his memories to paper, whenever he has the time! We would all look forward to that. The evening ended with many thanks to Donald to spending some time with us, and the presentation of a gift from the members.