London Ballet Circle
Wayne Eagling
Artistic Director
English National Ballet
Monday 13 September 2010
Waterstone’s
Piccadilly
London
The Chairman of the London Ballet Circle, Allison Potts, welcomed Wayne Eagling – one of the charity’s Vice Presidents. As a substantial portion of the audience had attended Wayne’s talk at the Ballet Association, Wayne had kindly agreed to cover some different ground. One of the things that had emerged from the research for this interview was that there wasn’t very much information on how Wayne had first got into ballet.
WE: I was born in Montreal and my father was born in Home Hale in Norfolk. He was in the RAF. He used to fly back and forth across the Atlantic. He had met my mother in Canada. So after the war he went back and emigrated there. The climate was very cold in Montreal where he was repairing planes so he decided to try California. He thought there was gold in ‘dem ‘der hills’!
AP: And it was warmer!
WE: It was DEFINITELY warmer! So he went off to look for work and my mother, my brother, my sister and I waited in Canada. Then he summoned us originally to L.A. However, he realised he didn’t really like L.A. Then he thought that he should go and see what San Francisco was like. On the way there he passed through a little town called Carmel which later became famous when Clint Eastwood became the mayor. My father found a job there and we were whisked away from Montreal. I left Canada when I was five.
AP: And that was before you expressed any interest in dance?
WE: Totally.
AP: So what got you into dancing?
WE: My father wanted me to be a pilot or a mechanic! I was always interested in the ocean and wanted to be a Jacques Cousteau figure. My sister started doing ballet lessons at the local school, Patricia Wester’s Studio of Dance Arts on Cannery Row in Monterey. Our teacher came from New York and was very keen to encourage boys to join. So my brother and I were sent off to see if we would like it. The studio was right next to the beach. So after school we would go to the studio and do our tap class because in those days I refused to wear tights.
My father at this point had started his own automotive repair business and that was on the other end of Cannery Row which was really very dilapidated. It is now part of a super tourist industry. We would do our class and then go and play on the beach in the old deserted canneries. Afterward my father would pick us up. I found I was quite good at musicality and had flexibility. First I started to do one ballet class and then I did two and then in the summer I would go a bit more and gradually it became something I did every day after school. I just got more and more interested in the fact that I was quite good at something. Also our teacher, Miss Ramsey, had this amazing ability to make her students fall in love with her. I still have old letters saying: “I love you, Miss Ramsey.” We all became part of her family; this big family of young kids from eight to 18; though I started when I was 12.
AP: How did you get as far as the Royal Ballet School? It is a long way from California. How did you get to join … presumably White Lodge?
WE: I did go to White Lodge briefly because of Miss Ramsey. The Royal Ballet was performing in San Francisco and we were all keen to go up and see them. Miss Ramsey wrote to I think Jack Hart at the time. Fred was the Director, but I think that it was Jack who took charge of all the administration. She wrote that she had a talented student and would them to have a look. So I went up to San Francisco and before Romeo and Juliet Gerd Larsen gave me a little class. This is in fact something that the Royal Ballet does all over the world. They find talent that way. I started to do my class and Gerd went off and brought back Michael Soames.
In the meantime Rudolph was warming up over on the other side and … looking at me. I was about 14 at that time and I was very small and had white blond hair. I suppose I looked about ten. Michael and Gerd said: ‘We’d like to offer you a scholarship back at The Royal Ballet School; the Upper School’. So off I went to Miss Ramsey and she said: ‘You should go’ so I did. They gave me a scholarship but I remember I had to provide the money for my digs and things. When I arrived at the Upper School on Talgarth Road still looking like I was ten they said: ‘We can’t unleash this boy on London.’ I was about four foot eleven at the time. So they sent me to White Lodge to board and I took the bus to Baron’s Court every day over a period of six months.
AP: Do you remember who was in your year group?
WE: Let me think. I was there so briefly. In my class at White Lodge was Paul Porter, (‘Pickle Porter’ we used to call him), Anthony Molyneux; a whole group of people not dancing any more. When I went to the Upper School in the year above me was Peter O’Brien, Frank Freeman, Sally Hart and Wayne Sleep. That was kind of my era.
AP: So you do your time at Upper School and you are taken on into the Company. These days they take only one or two, a relatively small number. Was it the same in those days or were there more being taken on?
WE: When I was in the Upper School in the year before me they took Carl Myers and David Ashmole. The year before that I think it was Peter O’Brien. I can’t remember which girls. There seemed to be always three or four or five places available in The Royal Ballet.
AP: So what do you remember about when you first joined the Company? You joined in 1969. I was looking at The Royal Ballet’s on-line archive and the first occurrence I could find for you dancing was as a pirate in Daphnis and Chloe in November of that year. Would that be accurate?
WE: No, I danced with The Royal Ballet when I was a student. The first big traumatic experience for me was when Peter Wright did Sleeping Beauty and I was one of the two toads. They were big costumes. You had a huge toad head and tights with foam rubber in them. You used to dance about and land at the feet of the King. I knew Leslie Edwards before because I had done things for the Choreographic Workshop. I have to admit that I was really quite nervous. I remember falling over. Jack Hart said: ‘Go back and do that again!’ He then said: ‘You are not running like a toad.’ That was my first experience with The Royal Ballet. I remember Anne Jenner, a soloist at the time, coming up to me and saying: ‘Don’t worry. He’s like that with everybody.’ After that I held spears and I was in the Polonaise in Swan Lake. I was also a Von Rothbart attendant. I remember coming on with the crown in Robert Helpmann’s version of Swan Lake.
AP: Of course we can’t get too far into this without remembering who you were working with at the time. The cast for Daphnis and Chloe included Dame Merle Park as Chloe and Dame Monica Mason as a Shepherdess. You were rubbing shoulders with some great luminaries at that time. However, as you quickly progressed in your career from Soloist in 1972 to Principal in 1975 you found yourself working with Dame Margot. We were talking earlier about the extent to which Dame Margot was often used as a key selling point for The Royal Ballet; particularly when the company went on tour overseas.
WE: I actually danced with Margot only later in my career. When Fred was Director I really didn’t do much with her. In those days you kind of had to wait your turn. When Kenneth became Director one of the first things he did was Triad and he very much wanted to take young people and give them opportunities. Certainly it was my first time in the spotlight. Then I got to do Romeo. Margot was at the end of her dancing career then with The Royal Ballet. We did a selection of small tours where she was very much the star. I did several to Australia. She would usually dance with David Wall on those. The first thing I really danced with her was when Fred was making Hamlet and Ophelia. It was premiered by Nureyev and Fonteyn but Rudolph was busy dancing somewhere and I remember Fred coming up and saying: ‘Can you stand in while I’m making this new ballet?’ So in fact he created the ballet on Margot and myself and I taught it to Rudolph. Later we did a big tour to Japan and America and I danced with Margot when she was probably 59. Just think: As old as I am now! We did Les Sylphides and Hamlet and Ophelia. I remember my first rehearsal with her and Fred saying: ‘Now take her and throw her to the floor.’ Oh God! Margot was always very nice to me. When we used to tour through Britain she often would say: ‘We’re taking the car back to London would you like to come?’ So I would jump in the back. In Australia she’d say: ‘I’m having steak at 5 pm. Would you like steak?’ She was incredibly gracious and I was just coming up.
AP: You mentioned just now working with Kenneth on Triad. I understand from your CV that there were many new roles that came quite quickly after that; Elite Syncopations followed by Gloria and Different Drummer. What do you remember about working with Sir Kenneth? Was he an easy man to work with?
WE: I liked working with Kenneth because he was a choreographer that kind of feed on what you were personally doing. For instance, when he was choreographing Manon, Jennifer Penny and I were always in the back sort of messing about. It was always Sibley and Dowell in the front. However, Kenneth would always be saying: ‘What was that you were doing in the back there?’ We always felt very much a part of the collaboration. In fact there are still certain steps in Manon that I can identify as being Jennifer Penney’s and mine own. Kenneth was also very demanding, certainly, but I enjoyed the way he recognised your artistic input. Some don’t allow you that at all.
AP: Let’s use that as a jumping off point to talk about your own Royal Ballet choreography. Tell us about Frankenstein and Beauty and the Beast.
WE: There’s a tale. I’ll start with Frankenstein. I’d been doing things for the Workshop for quite a while. Then Norman Maurice was very keen to encourage choreographers so he gave chances to Ashley Page, Michael Corder, Jennifer Jackson and myself. We were all part of a group of young dancer/choreographers. He said: ‘You can all have a go on the main stage.’ I have to admit that I don’t even remember what was on the rest of the programme at the time.
What I wanted to do with those workshops was always shock everybody. I really wanted to do Frankenstein for my father who hates ballet. I really wanted people to come to Covent Garden and find something very different. Initially I had a budget of £15,000 I think. Even at the time it was not very generous. I thought: ‘What can I do?’ So I decided I could use all of the machinery from the Opera House itself; the lifts and the elevators. They all became part of the scenery. In fact I blew all the money on this thing where the creature comes out of this giant pin screen. If I remember correctly that cost around £12,000! I was saved because I had done a few things with the Emmanuels in the workshops just before that and Liz said to me: ‘If ever you get a chance to work at Covent Garden we will do it for free.’
AP: You mean Elizabeth Emmanuel of ‘Diana’s wedding dress’ fame?
WE: Yes. So I told her: ‘I’ve got £3,000 left,’ and she said: ‘Well, I have materials at the workshops.’ She turned to Norman Maurice and asked: ‘What kind of music are you using?’ I said: ‘I’ve got original music being written for me.’ I had met Vangelis at Joe Allens actually. Funny how things happen. So we ended up taking things out of stock. I would say: ‘I like that chandelier. Can we use that?’ In the end everything was cobbled together. Then Vangelis called me and said: ‘I’ve just got the written offer from Covent Garden and I’m afraid I can’t accept it.’ I said: ‘Well, why not?’ He said: ‘Well, if anyone finds out I will be ruined.’ So the music was done for free.
My aim with Frankenstein was to make a kind of fun, shocking ballet. I said to Vangelis: ‘Everyone has certain expectations at Covent Garden, but wouldn’t it be nice if when the lights went down the music sort of blasted them?’ I just got carried away with the idea of trying to do something spectacular. Ninette de Valois came to see it and said: ‘You should go to Las Vegas.’ She was very clever. I should have done that! They make so much money there. I must say I still think it is a good ballet but it got terrible reviews. It was quite popular though. In fact it was quite fun. Originally it was supposed to have been Alessandra Ferri in the lead. Then she said: ‘I’ve got to concentrate on doing La Bayadere’. So she pulled out and Gail Taphouse stepped in. However, Gail hurt her knee a day before the premiere so Leslie jumped in at the very last minute.
AP: What about Beauty and the Beast?
WE: Well, that was even more difficult. It was an hour long. Vangelis did the music again but he was living in Los Angeles at the time so he used to send me a cassette from The Beverley Hills Hotel. Everything arrived too late. The designs were by Jan Pienkowski who is a really fabulous Polish artist. On the opening Anthony Dowell ripped his arm and couldn’t go on so there was this whole incredible kind of stop. I remember being on the phone to Vangelis in Los Angeles. The performance had totally stopped. Diana was backstage: ‘What’s happening? What’s happening?’ So I said to Jonathan Cope: ‘You’re on’ and he said: ‘But I don’t really know it’. So I said: ‘Well, you’re the second cast.’ Anyway he did his best. I think there were a lot of really good things in it. I was quite happy with it but while I would not change Frankenstein there are certain things in Beauty and the Beast that I would alter.