Why did Darcey Bussell become so famous?

[aileen]

After a performance of ENB's Sleeping Beauty last week a couple of women were wondering when Tamara Rojo had danced in the performance. I explained that she had not danced, and had not been scheduled to dance, that day (and told them when she would be performing) but they seemed surprised. I got the impression that they did not realise that she would not be dancing at every performance. I suppose that in the West End the headline performers perform most of the time (with different people once or twice a week), and perhaps occasional balletgoers just assume that it will always be the same dancers for a particular ballet. I think that today Carlos Acosta has a similar profile to the one which Darcey Bussell had in that he is widely known to the general public (obviously not to everyone).

[Sim]

To illustrate some of the comments above, everyone should read the critics' musings on the opening night of Onegin (see the links thread). There were six of them, all had been at the same performance, and all said completely different things about all aspects of the evening, from the dancers to the score to the conducting. That is why I never, ever listen to critics when deciding what to see, and also shows that we are all the same in that we have our own perceptions and opinions; there is absolutely no right or wrong, even for professional critics!

[Swan66]

Darcey was a great dancer ( I loved her pas de deux of Tchaikovsky that she danced in a gala ) so perfect¡¡¡ Sylvia in 2005, was perfect. 

Prince of Pagodas in 1990, was perfect. no wonder that Mcmillan chose her for that DIFFICULT role. I mean, she was really a good dancer, whatever she danced.

even Deborah Bull said in an interview: I could see when a dancer was really beyond good, extraordinary, and Darcey was a megastar.

Deborah said that, and I agree with her, Darcey was something really unique. when she said in 2007 that was leaving ballet, I was shocked¡¡¡ I had just seen her in Sylvia in 2005 and I loved her, and I would have loved to see her more years ¡¡¡

Of course, she had also, a tremendous beauty and that helps too. :-) I mean, Darcey was the ideal ballerina. but I repeat, she became so famous not only for all the media, famous, shows, photos, beauty, etc. all that helps, of course, BUT, the important is that she danced really well and that it was a pleasure to see her on stage.

[Odyssey]

A couple of observations I would add to the excellent points already made concerning Darcey are her height and more athletic physique which was frequently drawn attention to as untypical of the traditional Royal Ballet /English trained dancer. These qualities made her look wonderful in Balanchine roles, and guesting with New York City Ballet, she gained a wider audience for her work. I think a lot of balletomanes were quite proud that here was an English dancer who could shine in this repertoire. ( whereas Fonteyn had not). I also recall that when Darcey was given the lead role in Prince of the Pagodas & was created a Principal at such a young age, she was frequently on children's TV - (Blue Peter & the Saturday Morning Live programmes). Children's ballet books & merchandise appeared bearing her name. So, a whole generation grew up aware of Darcey and her meteoric rise which in many ways resembled a fairy tale.

[Rachelm]

I think Darcey always came across in interviews so well. I loved how she would talk so candidly and with much humour. I think I remember from a documentary her mocking her own reaction to a new company member taking her place at the barre, thinking to herself "well, I'm there!!" It's such a wonderfully human thing to think! She helped me to see ballerinas as 'real' people, not unapproachable divas. She would talk about herself in such a refreshing way, so openly sharing how she used to cry in class at the RBS every morning. 

 

Of course her dancing was sublime too! 

[Fonty]

I wouldn't want to detract from her achievements in any way but, unlike most dancers, Darcey had a very active agent from an early age and was therefore to be seen and heard from more widely than the ballet world.

 

I've always thought that Darcey must have had a magnificent agent working on her behalf.  However wonderful a ballet dancer she was, that talent alone is not enough to make you well known in the wider world.  Someone was organising the tv appearances, the photo shoots, publicising the books, and so on on her behalf. Brand Bussell was very well marketed, and the "nice girl" image exploited to its fullest extent.  Hence the fact that people who have never seen a ballet in their lives would know her name.  

 

Of course it helps that she is very photogenic, and it is impossible to take a bad photo of her.  The same with Fonteyn - she was one of the most photogenic people.  And both of them look equally good dressed in ballet costume or fabulous designer wear.

 

At least Bussell was supremely talented in her chosen field.  There are people in the public eye at the moment who, by having an excellent agent, are always appearing everywhere, without having done anything much apart from appearing on a reality tv or dating someone else who is constantly in the media.       

[alison]

Brand Bussell was very well marketed,

 

Cue Terpsichore ...

 

Also, a lot of her peers seemed to prefer not to raise their public profiles outside their work, and to keep their off-duty lives to themselves, while Darcey seemed quite happy to go out there and be seen if necessary.  I have a feeling that some principal may even have indicated that he/she was quite glad that Darcey took the limelight because it took the pressure off everyone else.

[Two Pigeons]

I think this is a really interesting question and I think the answer is timing, as it is in most things in life.  I saw Darcey at her graduation performance in Concerto and the moment she came on you could see she was something special.  My mother (who was never a big fan of hers afterwards) turned to me and said 'at last, some personality'.

 

As I said on another thread, I have reservations about the idea that Darcey was a ballerina but there is no question that on stage (and off) she was an utter star.  She blossomed at the right time, she caught the end of MacMillan's career, she had an aggressive agent as has been said above and there was something egalitarian her.  I got to interview her in 1990 for the Friends of BRB and she was extremely approachable, which was not a quality I felt about some of her colleagues.  I think when you are a ballet fan it can be hard to chat to your idols but Darcey's celebrity in other spheres somehow removed that reservation.

 

I agree that the fact that she was British did have something to do with it.  So many dancers who came along were trumpeted in the press as 'The New Fonteyn' (Marguerite Porter was an example) but there was very little opportunity for the readers to actually see them perform.  Darcey appeared in all sorts of things which kept her in the public eye much more.  Equally she was a big hit in America and that counts over here outside the world of ballet. 

 

You can be the biggest star at the Royal Opera House but that will not count for a huge amount in the wider world.  Darcey (or her agent) understood that and put her in activities where the wider public could see her and it unquestionably worked.

[Melody]

I must admit that she was the reason my interest in ballet waned for several years. I got so fed up of hearing about Darcey Bussell, the great ballerina who was sooooo good that she could have been American, that here was someone who at last was going to jolt the Royal Ballet out of its old-fashioned rut and bring it up to date like an American company, that now we were finally going to ditch that dreadful Ashton because now we were able to do Balanchine and other lovely American stuff. This seemed to be the Tony Blair era where everything traditionally British was fusty and old-fashioned while everything American was sparkly new and exciting and wonderful, and Darcey Bussell happened to fit the spirit of the age. She always struck me as the Princess Diana of ballet and she always struck me as rather overrated (plus I've never been that thrilled with self-promotion and celebrity). There's a lot more to ballet than being exciting and glitzy, and I think we're still seeing the effects of this fixation on flashy technique rather than artistry.

Edited April 2, 2014 by Melody

[aileen]

She could probably be described as 'The People's Ballerina'!

[Shirley]

I've always thought that Darcey must have had a magnificent agent working on her behalf.  However wonderful a ballet dancer she was, that talent alone is not enough to make you well known in the wider world.  Someone was organising the tv appearances, the photo shoots, publicising the books, and so on on her behalf. Brand Bussell was very well marketed, and the "nice girl" image exploited to its fullest extent.  Hence the fact that people who have never seen a ballet in their lives would know her name.  

 

 

I would have thought that the Royal Ballet Press Office would have arranged quite a bit of the promotional work that Darcey undertook. I'm pretty sure I remember reading about a press officer being with her at most photo shoots and TV appearances although I'm sure she also had an agent for other work, especially towards the end of her career. 

 

I also think Alison hit the nail on the head that she was willing to give up her time when so many others wouldn't.

[LinMM]

Know idea why she became so famous! She is a lovely dancer in certain ballets for sure but would not pick to see her in Manon etc. Did she ever dance this role in fact? I'm sure being spotted by Macmillan so early in her career had something to do with it. I know nothing about agents etc and what role this could have played. Did other dancers of her time have agents too?

She comes across as very likeable......and having the interest in clothes as Fonteyn did......always looking fantastic etc also creates a certain image.

 

Now nothing to do with Darcey but wonder if the Moderators could come up with something that warns people when a thread has not been live for over a year and is then revived ........as this one in fact.

I didn't check the date at the beginning of thread and thought this had been started today!! Especially as Darcey had recently been presenting the tv progs etc. So started to "like" comments people had written in January 2013 before I even joined the Forum.......and then got the wrong end of the stick about Cuthbertson......thinking she had been injured......again.....but this was referring to a year ago!!

 

Perhaps if as much as a year has passed it could be starred in some way or the start date of the thread highlighted somehow to draw attention to the fact that it's not a new thread.

Thanks Linda.

[alison]

Lin, yes, Darcey certainly danced Manon on several occasions: I think I may even have seen one of them.

 

As for the datestamp, I'm not sure what we can do about that. All I can suggest is that you look at the datestamp beneath the thread header on the forum page: that's what I did today when I saw it, because I thought we'd already discussed the matter somewhere.

[John Mallinson]

Perhaps if as much as a year has passed it could be starred in some way or the start date of the thread highlighted somehow to draw attention to the fact that it's not a new thread.

 

Afraid not. There's no facility for doing that.

[Beryl H]

Darcey Bussell became famous because she was a beautiful dancer, she always had a youthful, fresh, expansive style of dancing, always gave 100 percent, and was catapulted into fame when Kenneth MacMillan chose her to dance the opening night of Prince of the Pagoda's at a very young age, she never looked back.  It probably would have been better for her to have kept herself aloof from the media like the other dancers did, but her name became known by the general public and still is, I don't think it should be held against her.

[LinMM]

No I don't either Beryl. I thought her style was full of ease and grace in the things I saw her do though sensed acting was probably not her forte. Perhaps I should have gone for her Manon now!!

 

 

Regards the thread thing thanks Alison and John I will definitely just be more vigilant when checking the date etc. It was because this was started before I joined the Forum that I didn't recognise the title of the thread as being an old one and Darcey having been so topical recently just assumed was new.

[Fonty]

 I don't think it should be held against her.

 

I don't think anyone was holding against her, were they? 

[loveclassics]

Know idea why she became so famous! She is a lovely dancer in certain ballets for sure but would not pick to see her in Manon etc. Did she ever dance this role in fact? 

 

Yes, many times with guest stars like Zelensky & Bolle.  However, I do remember Clement Crisp saying she was too much of a 'good girl' to be entirely convincing in that role.  Have to say I think that she was at her best in roles like Aurora or in more abstract pieces like Balanchine.

 

Linda

[LinMM]

I often picture her in Aurora and in a couple of Balanchine pieces.....especially the work with the Tchaikovsky music so think I agree!

[Terpsichore]

Bussell would not have got where she is had she not been an outstanding dancer and by all accounts a very likable young woman.

 

However, she has also done something more than most dancers by engaging with the public at large in the way that sports personalities and artists in other performing arts have done.  Examples of such engagement are her television work and her business interests in dance and sportswear and publishing ventures. Carlos Acosta has also done that.  So too has Ernst Meisner in the Netherlands with his Bounden dance game app. Roslyn Sulcas and Michael Cooper wrote a very interesting article on that phenomenon entitled "Ballet Dancers as Brands" 20 Nov 2013.   It is a topic that interests me professionally as well as personally as I advise a lot of footballers and musicians on trade marks and licensing.

 

As there is a limit to how much the long suffering British public will contribute to the arts whether as theatre goers, taxpayers or patrons through schemes like the Friends of Covent Garden and Friends of Northern Ballet the only way companies and theatres can be properly funded and dancers properly remunerated may be by harnessing the enormous goodwill that dancers have not just with folk like ourselves but also the general public through advertising, endorsing and merchandising. After all, as the Baileys ad showed just before Christmas, ballet sells,  I appreciate that some may regard such funding as distasteful but it may be necessary..

Edited April 4, 2014 by terpsichore