Claudia Dean - why I left the Royal Ballet and my journey

[DD Driver]

Claudia Dean uploaded a YouTube video today  about why she left the Royal Ballet Company.  It is important I think for young students to know that even successful dancers may have a short company career, it is not for everyone and that they can go onto an exciting new phase in their lives.

 

My dd had a private lesson with Claudia Dean and she is one of the most upbeat and supportive coaches I have ever seen in action.

 

[Sim]

I have watched 9 minutes but no closer to finding out why Claudia left, and now I have to go out so could someone kindly precis this for me?  I will say that I was surprised and sorry when she left, just when it seemed her career was taking off.  I loved her Myrthe and Chosen One.  However, as DDD says above, she seems to be very helpful and happy in her new life and long may it continue.

[DD Driver]

Yes a bit vague on the detail. She says that she had her annual meeting with the director and hoped for a promotion that year (or the next).  It was not forthcoming.  I think she is a very ambitious person - as she says - and probably the heirachy did not suit her.  Maybe some burn-out and home sickness there as she did not apply to another company but rather went home and quit ballet for a while.  WIth Claudia Dean Coaching she is her own boss and runs a business where she has more control over her own success.  She  is now doing private coaching but also running intensive workshops across Australian and Asia - so has a lot of drive to keep building her brand.

Edited April 7, 2018 by DD Driver

[penelopesimpson]

Oh my goodness, what a monologue.  She never tells us why she wasn’t promoted, just drones on about how much she deserved it, repeat x 20.  Perhaps useful to dancers who leave and wonder about the future, but the video is something of a schlep.  Best for the future, Claudia.

[FLOSS]

I am afraid that there are no revelations and no evidence of wrong doing by the powers that be in the company in the video which Claudia Dean posted. If it seems rambling and repetitive I think that her video was a very difficult one for her to make as she is still  clearly very upset by the unexpected death of her mother last November

 

She says that the six years she spent at the RBS and the company were the best years of her life and that she owes everything to those organisations and her other teachers for where she is today. She says that she had a smooth  ride  throughout her time at the school and the RB until her final annual review with the AD. She says that at the time she decide to leave the company she thought that it was for professional reasons but now she knows that she left for vey different reasons. She gives an account of how she would prepare for her annual meeting with the AD by reviewing what she had danced during the season, the repertory announced for the forthcoming season and the roles in those ballets which would be suitable for her. She had been the "go to girl" when she had been at the RBS and that had continued when she joined the company where she had taken on roles sometimes with a couple of hours notice, She  had gone to her annual review thinking that she had earned  promotion to First Artist because of her hard work, her reliability and her readiness and ability to step in at short notice to take on roles at more senior levels including those usually danced by principals. She says that she is a very optimistic individual but she had been hit hard by not being offered promotion or the prospect of promotion. She says that her gut reaction was to resign but that when she told her parents that she wanted to leave the company and return home, while they were very supportive. as they had been throughout her training, they told  her to take a few days to think about it before she made her decision. When she told the AD she wanted to leave he  had told her that the door was always open if she changed her mind. 

 

She felt that she was ready to come home. She was excited at the prospect and was ready to move on to the next thing . She had been away for six years and had missed seeing her little brother and sister growing up. She found when she gave her first class that teaching was what she needed to do. In 2014 she had thought that she had left the company  for professional reasons now she knows that it was to be with her mother. She would never have forgiven herself if, when her mother had died  in November 2017, she had been abroad.

 

Now I am not going to say much by way of comment except that it must have taken some considerable strength on Claudia Dean's  part to make the video as she is still obviously very much affected by her mother's recent death. Unless you are a professional communicator and video maker or are working to a script personal videos tend to be more than a little repetitive and rambling. It is what happens when ordinary people rather than professional communicators speak extempore or are speaking to a group of viewers who they think of as their friends and supporters. My impression was that given the roles she had danced she seemed to be set fair for promotion in the not too distant future at the point at which she resigned .Whether that decision was prompted by what appears to have been a single setback in an otherwise smooth running professional career which  she is now able to rationalise because she knows  that had she had stayed with the company she would have missed the four years she was able to spend with her mother  or whether  she is speaking with insight about the reasons for her decision to leave  seems pretty irrelevant to me .  I think that it underlines how very young some of the dancers who come from abroad to work with the RB are and how much some of them give up to do so. It must be difficult enough for the youngest company members when their parents live at the other end of the country but for those whose parents are on the other side of the world it does mean that they have to acquire a level of independence and maturity which we require of few other young workers of a comparable age. As to not telling us why she was not promoted perhaps she was simply told that she was not quite ready but maybe in another year. A year can seem like a . lifetime if you are in your early twenties and know you are ready for the next level of responsibility now .Of course it is just possible that going to the annual review is like going to the doctor where studies suggest that the patient only ever takes in a few words and that they are not always the significant ones.

Edited April 7, 2018 by FLOSS

[Fonty]

I got the impression that Monica Mason thought very highly of her.  I think if I had done the things she had, I would have expected to have been given an indication as to when I was going to receive promotion from the bottom rung of the ballet company ladder.  

[penelopesimpson]

Agreed, but as we are not told or given any indication of what was said to her, we are guessing in the dark.  Floss makes excellent points, particularly about how those not used to communicating can come across as rambling, but I think she would have been well advised to have watched the clip through a few times and made suitable adjustments rather than just put it on as it is.  In my opinion, given that she was clearly a most respected dancer and is now building an excellent reputation for coaching, it does her no favours.

 

If you are going to put it all out there (and its a brave decision), you need to do it in a way that best represents you for the future as well as making sure that you tell the full story.  I sat through the repetitive build-up and therefore felt I deserved to know the reason for her disappointment or at least an indication of what was said.  As others have pointed out, it is quite probable that good things were ahead with RB, just not on offer at that moment, something which is hard to accept when you are still so young.

 

Whatever, it seems that all turned out well in the end though, both for family reasons and her future career

[capybara]

Just in case anyone doesn't know, while only an Artist, Claudia had danced Myrtha in Giselle and The Chosen One in MacMillan's Rite of Spring, both under the tutelage of Monica Mason.

It's now nearly 4 years since she returned to Australia. How time flies.

[bridiem]

What a lovely, brave young woman. I imagine she would have been promoted if she'd stayed, and I understand why she was distraught about not being promoted at that stage. But as she says, she was able to spend those valuable years with her mother, and that is by far the best way of reflecting on these events.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure that posting something so personal online is really wise, for her or anyone else. But she clearly felt the wish and the need to do so, and hopes that it may help others in some way to hear her story. So I hope that it does, and I wish her the very best in her life.

[MAX]

We often forget that... dancers are GREAT, what a commitment they show, they give everything to their art and we, as an audience, receive that !

 

They are strong and fragile at the same time.

 

Congratulations to Claudia Dean to tell us this story, her story.

 

Many times things seem easy from an outside point of view but we can see here how difficult and competitive things can be.

 

 

 

 

 

[alison]

Do I also detect a little of that ... culture shock, I suppose you might call it ... which most really good dancers end up experiencing sooner or later in their training/career, when you have to get used to the fact that you're actually no longer head and possibly shoulders above your peers?

[bridiem]

7 hours ago, alison said:

Do I also detect a little of that ... culture shock, I suppose you might call it ... which most really good dancers end up experiencing sooner or later in their training/career, when you have to get used to the fact that you're actually no longer head and possibly shoulders above your peers?

 

Well she acknowledges that that happened when she first joined the company, and others have said this too - the realisation of no longer being the star pupil etc. But she was then getting unusually big roles for a corps member, so she had every right to hope that she was indeed being marked for future promotion.

[Rachelm]

I have to say I was extremely moved by what she said- for her to get those last four years with her mother was obviously so precious to her. Some things are more important than ballet.

[stella]

What i take away from the video is that in hindsight her decision to move back home to be with her family was the right choice for her. it's hard for all of us to lose a parent, but i think it can be particularly devastating when you are as young as Claudia is. I'm glad she got to spend the time with her mother that she did. 

 

That being said, her departure was the company's (and its fans) loss. Its quite evident that Monica Mason thought highly of her, and it seems to me that if she had stayed on she would be a few ranks up by now! 

 

wishing her the best with her coaching. I had a ballet teacher who retired from a professional ballet company in her early twenties. She was (and still is) a truly wonderful teacher who has had several students accepted into prestigious schools. Seems like Claudia is on the same path. 

[Jan McNulty]

On 08/04/2018 at 00:27, alison said:

Do I also detect a little of that ... culture shock, I suppose you might call it ... which most really good dancers end up experiencing sooner or later in their training/career, when you have to get used to the fact that you're actually no longer head and possibly shoulders above your peers?

 

Yes, I agree.  In the past I have heard dancers talk about what a culture shock it is moving from school to company life.  That can happen in any sphere of life.

 

An ex-colleauge, as a teenager, was offered a contract with a football league club (not top flight).  He lasted a month before he realised the lifestyle would not suit him.  He still played and enjoyed amateur football.

[tabitha]

Don’t forget that the AD changed during Claudia’s time at RB. Different ADs view dancers differently. Whilst there was no doubt she was a favourite of Monica Mason’s, I’m not sure the same could be said of Kevin O’Hare.