What is the most interesting thing about your character, Aurora?
She's an iconic role to dance if you're a ballerina, a dream role. She’s a fun character: she’s young and not scared of anything! It’s fun to see her growing up too, as a character throughout the ballet.
What is the most difficult aspect of dancing this role?
It's a long ballet!
Almost three hours, there's a lot of dancing, long pas de deux and it's very technical and the dancing style needs to be elegant so that part can be quite challenging! It’s a bit of a marathon, you need a lot of stamina.
Is this your first time dancing this iconic role?
It is! It's exciting but I’m also a bit nervous about it. It's weird for me to think that I'll be dancing this role. I could tell from watching videos of star dancers performing it that it was a hard role but now that I’m in the middle of it, I’m like ‘oh wow this is really hard!’
Is this your first time working with Marcia Haydée?
Yes, it’s quite an honour! She’s a living legend, you know. I really appreciate the opportunity to get to work with her, it’s really special, I feel so lucky.
Beside your physical preparation as a dancer, how do you push through onstage when you've been dancing for hours?
The character helps me to keep going. If it was just me, doing three hours of technical ballet stuff, I would never last! But having the character living through you, with her own goals and story, it helps to keep pushing when the stamina runs a bit low.
Do you have a pre-show ritual before going onstage?
Not really, I do what I can to get my mind off of the stress and just chill. Whether I'm dancing the smallest part in a show or the main role, I get just as nervous!
