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C&V Ladies

Ballet C&V Ladies Interviews

Interview – Jeanette Kakareka

Posted on June 29, 2015

Partway through my interview with English National Ballet’s Jeanette Kakareka, we got sidetracked with a conversation about the latest season Survivor (verdict: not so great, but addictive nonetheless) and the difficulties of foam rollers (#foamrollerproblems). If anything, that should tell you something about her personality: friendly, down-to-earth and easy to talk to. She also has a great sense of humour, occasionally documenting the lighter side of life with the ENB with series of instagram snaps entitled Dead Jem, which feature her friend and fellow…

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Ballet C&V Ladies Interviews Mental Health

Interview – Ballet & Anorexia: A Conversation with Carling Talcott, Part 1

Posted on May 22, 2015

Carling Talcott and I come from very different worlds. She’s an American living in Denmark, and I’m a Singaporean living in, well, Singapore. She’s a professional ballet dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet, while I’m an adult ballet beginner who totters off to class once a week. But there are a couple of things we have in common, like a love of pizza and burgers, and being able to find humour in the mundane and the things we love, such…

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Ballet C&V Ladies Interviews

Interview – Juliet Doherty

Posted on January 24, 2015

Juliet Doherty is one of the new rising stars of ballet. As many have observed, she seems to have been built for classical dance, with her endless extensions and beautifully arched feet. But in the world of ballet, being biologically blessed means very little without the requisite hard work to learn how to use your gifts to your advantage. And despite a rocky relationship with the art when she was younger, Juliet’s commitment to the art has seen her star…

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Ballet C&V Ladies Interviews

Interview – Mary Puart, Vaganova Ballet Academy

Posted on December 12, 2014

Masha is a student training at the famed Vaganova Ballet Academy in St Petersburg, a place many an aspiring dancer speaks of with undertones of reverence. To a lot of people, the Vaganova Academy may seem like a faraway place buried in the vastness of Russia, one that people know of only through photos or online videos of their prodigious students with their impossible technique and impeccably turned-out feet. But Masha is assuredly as much a 17-year-old as any other.…

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Ballet C&V Ladies

Interview: Demelza Parish

Posted on September 24, 2014

We’d put money on Demelza Parish being made from bottled sunshine. Delightfully ebullient, she’s a package of charm backed by substance – and she dances too. From childhood Swan Queen dreams, she worked her way into the famous halls of White Lodge, the Royal Ballet’s Lower School and at 17, was awarded a contract to dance at the Royal Ballet. Since then, she’s become a stalwart of the Royal’s corps de ballet, dancing countless Swan Lakes, Manons and Giselles, a Flower…

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Ballet C&V Ladies Interviews

Interview: Isabella Boylston

Posted on May 30, 2014
isabella boylston - swan lake - odette

Google ‘Isabella Boylston’, and chances are that you’ll be presented with a list of Black Swan references. But really, it’s her white swan that’s had everyone talking. The dual role in Swan Lake was one Isabella had long dreamed of performing, and when the time came, her Odette was firmly in the limelight.…

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Ballet C&V Ladies Interviews

Interview: Emma Dumont

Posted on April 24, 2014

The word triple-threat doesn’t seem adequate enough to describe Emma Dumont.  From musical theatre productions as a young girl (she sings! She acts!),  she eventually found her way to the silver screen. Her most prolific role to date has been that of the lanky, loyal Melanie Segel in ABC’s Bunheads, a  delectable Amy Sherman-Palladino confection about ballet dancers in the small town of Paradise (she dances too!). Emma’s dancing sufficiently impressed the renowned Bolshoi Ballet Academy and she was offered…

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