Interview with The Royal Ballet’s Lauren Cuthbertson – so much passion（３）
冬物語の役作りでは例えば、最初にシェイクスピア劇を見に行ったの、それともスタジオで振り付けることから始めたの？
When approaching The Winter’s Tale, for example, did you go to the Shakespeare play first or did it come together while choreographing it in the rehearsal studio?
クリストファー・ウィールドンは私がどうやるか知っているから、新作をするときはこれは私の役だと言うの。だけど、見つけた脚本は読めないの。もちろん、演劇だから小説ではないのだけど、脚本を読むための初心者向けのガイドを読んでもよくわからないの。当時ナショナルシアターの監督だったニック・ヒンターが俳優に指導するときに、私が演じる役の俳優の隣にいさせてもらったのがとても助けになったわ、脚本を読み通したの
Chris [Wheeldon] knows what I’m like and so when he has his new ballet, he says this will be your role. But I found the play impossible to read. Of course, it’s a play, not a novel, but even reading the ‘dummy’s guide to figuring out a plot’ I found it quite disjointed. The thing that helped was when Nick Hytner, who was then the director at the National Theatre, brought up a load of actors and we sat next to the actor whose part we would be playing, and they did a read-through.
オペラハウスで演じるときは物語の中にはまりこんだわ。私の役だけでなく他の全ての役についても。チームでバレエを作り上げていくには大事なことでみんなが物語の同じ場所にいる。クリスは何が十分で何が十分でないか、何を読み解いて何を読み解かないかを判断する素晴らしい基準で、完全に天才だわ。そしてお芝居がダンスになる。ある意味、バレエの方がお芝居より理解しやすく、感情移入しやすくなる。
Having them at the Opera House let me feel completely locked into the story and not just my character, but all the other characters as well. It’s the greatest thing when you’re creating a ballet as a team and you’re all on the same page. Chris is an incredible gauge of what’s enough and what isn’t, and what reads and what doesn’t. He’s a complete genius, and it was incredible to see that play turn into dance. In some ways I think that the ballet is actually easier to understand and to feel emotionally attached to than the play.
舞台では自分の殻にこもっているのを見たことがないけれど、みんなと関わるようにしているのね
When you’re on stage, I’ve never seen you dance in your own bubble, but you continually engage with everyone around you.
私にとって重大なことよ。私たちの動きがそのまま美しさにつながるから。生の舞台で、大勢のダンサーたちが周りにいて刺激しあっている。いつも子どもたちに言うの、誰かと比べてはいけない、みんな違うのだから、と。みんな違って、それぞれのやり方で刺激しあう。次は私がみんなを刺激する。こういうものを分かち合うのは舞台に一緒に立っているからできることだわ。あちこちで共有しているから説明するのは難しいけれど。相手のことを知らなくても信頼しているからそうなるわ。何度も練習していてもそういう状態になる余地が残っていて互いに受け取って与えている。とても素晴らしいことだわ。
For me, it’s critical. That’s the beauty of what we do. It’s a live show and the number of artists I have around me make it just so inspiring. I always say to young kids, don’t compare yourselves because everyone’s completely individual. Everyone’s different and they inspire you in different ways, and you, in turn, inspire them. The way of sharing those qualities is something that you can only really do when you’re on stage together in the eye of the storm. It’s quite hard to describe because it’s completely shared there and then. It’s about having complete trust in the slight unknown. Even though you’ve rehearsed the piece over and over, there’s that space to really express something in the moment and be generous to receive as well as give. It is really special.
ロイヤルバレエ団ではたくさんの素晴らしいダンサーたちがいるけれど、誰があなたを刺激する？
The Royal Ballet certainly has had, and indeed has, a generous supply of inspiring artists. Who inspires you?
とても難しい質問だわ、私は楽観的だから、人のいいところを見ている。輝くことのできる場所を与えられたら、与えられた地位や役よりもよくできるわ。アレッサンドラ・フェリにはすっかり心を奪われたし、ヴィヴィアナ・デュランテも素晴らしい。ゼナイダ・ヤノースキも私の中に強い印象を残している。様々な理由でたくさんの素晴らしいダンサーたちがいて、彼ら彼女たちを信じている。私の心を動かして、涙を浮かべさせるに違いない。そうでなければ、技術に圧倒されたのね
It’s a really hard question because I’m definitely a glass-half-full kind of girl. I look at someone’s best attributes. If you give a dancer a platform where they can shine, they are capable of so much more than the rank or role they are given. I find Alessandra Ferri completely captivating, Viviana Durante I found incredible, and Zenaida Yanowsky could completely draw me in. There are so many good dancers and for all sorts of different reasons, but I have to believe them. They have to get to my heart and get the tears to flow. If they don’t, then I’m sure to be really impressed by their technique!
子どもの頃にそんなに映像を見てはこなかったけれど、マカロワの白鳥の湖は見たの。とんでもなかったわ、そしてアンソニー・ダウエルにも魅了された。女性だけを見ていたのではないのよ
I didn’t grow up watching many videos, but I did have one of Makarova in Swan Lake, which was amazing, and I was absolutely bowled over by Anthony Dowell as well. I wasn’t just looking at the females.
成長するなかで多くのダンサーに刺激を受けてきて、上達してきたと思う。若いころにロイヤルバレエ団のコールドのメンバーだったときにはリハーサルでプリンシパルを見ることができて、今の私を作り上げる助けになったし、次の世代へ同じことができればと思う
I think so many dancers inspire you as you’re growing up, and they all help form how you develop. I felt so lucky when I was a young corps de ballet member at The Royal Ballet and I could sit around and watch the all the full calls and see every principal… they helped make me the dancer I am, and you only hope that you do the same for the next generation.
役作りのために映像を見ますか
When you are preparing for a repertory work, do you watch videos of ballerinas in your role?
最近はあまりしない。全然しないというわけではなく、そこから学ぶことが必要であれば参照するしステップを追うけれど、自分の感覚をつかみたいので役に対する自分の考えを持つようにしている。そうして、閃くためのヒントを得ている
I’ve done less of that recently. It’s not that I don’t do it at all because I’d reference it if I needed to learn something and get ahead with the steps, but I like to get a sense of it myself so that I have my own identity attached to the role. Then I definitely have a forage for inspiration which is also very exciting to do.
I like to think that if you’ve been given a role, it’s probably because people think that you can do something with it and that you would suit the role, not because people want you to watch someone else on a DVD and be similar to them.
When I was younger, I felt that I should watch and watch and watch and then I felt daunted by the prospect of trying myself. Whereas if I just do it and gain confidence and trust my coach to push me in the right direction, then when I feel like going to watch something to be maybe inspired by, I’ve already got an almost completed canvas.
Are there any dream roles that you would like to do?
I don’t know any ballerina who doesn’t want to dance John Neumeier’s The Lady of the Camellias because it’s such a beautiful story. But there aren’t that many others. I think I’ve been so blessed that I’ve created a lot of roles and that possibly appeals to me more than doing the ones that have already been created and done lots of times.
ON SCENT
Your use of perfume to help round off your characters on stage is well documented, but it is so unusual that I must ask you about it. Does Juliet, for example, have a different scent for each act?
I have a suede box beautifully lined with silk and lace, which references Juliet’s costumes. I think Juliet has five or six scents: I have one for the shawl, and there’s one for the crypt which the stage manager sweetly sprays on the set for me during the quick change. That for me is the most powerful because you wake up and feel a sense of tragedy – I can literally smell damp and death and a feeling of the stone that would have been in the crypt. It’s very mothy and smells like your worst nightmares. That one is really powerful! And then there’s a peaceful balcony pas de deux scent, the nursery scent, the ballroom scent and the bedroom scent… she has quite a lot. Anastasia Brozler and I have collaborated on making these scents for over ten years. I now have a ‘library’ of scents.
Romeo and Juliet. Matthew Ball and Lauren Cuthbertson © 2019 ROH. Photograph by Helen Maybanks Romeo and Juliet. Matthew Ball and Lauren Cuthbertson © 2019 ROH. Photograph by Helen Maybanks
Are you very aware of smells in everyday life?
Maybe I’ve got a heightened sense of smell and certainly a lot of my memories are attached to them, though I think that’s the same for most people. If you let the smell of a familiar place take you back to it, it gives you a memory… maybe of churches, hospitals, schools, those sorts of places.
It’s always been something that’s interested me, like a side topic to the ballet, and it’s something I’m very passionate about. There have been a couple of ballets when I haven’t used scents because I didn’t have the time to prepare them, and so it doesn’t affect my show, but it definitely gives me a heightened appreciation of the character when I have them. I’ve found it a really amazing tool to help shape the character and learn more about them.
What are you wearing now, for example?
Right now I’m wearing Hermès, which is probably the only branded scent that I wear because it feels natural and fresh to me. I certainly don’t wake up thinking, oh, today I’m going to be Odette or Odile! Though there have been a couple of scents that have been useful on dates, but I won’t say any more… [she whispers] though the Black Swan scent is very seductive!
I think one of my all-time favourites was for Balanchine’s Diamonds, which I started to wear more and more in real life, so I had to beg for a new supply.
ON GUESTING
The Sleeping Beauty. Lauren Cuthbertson as Princess Aurora © ROH, Tristram Kenton, 2014 cropped
You recently danced with the Mariinsky. Is guesting with other companies of use to you as a dancer?
It’s amazing because it keeps you really fresh, having to adapt and learn new things. You need to work hard because you’ll often learning these things while you’ve already got a full schedule on at the Opera House and you don’t want anything to have a knock-on effect because you’re concentrating on too many things at once. So often you have to learn things and take on corrections very quickly. You sometimes turn up and find it’s a raked stage or the floor is slipperier than you’re used to – there are so many variables that you have to attend to. But it’s the most inspiring thing when you go in and you meet new dancers and see new faces on stage.
The dreaded rake. You danced Wheeldon’s Swan Lake with Federico Bonelli in Rome, where there’s a very steep rake.
I get used to it when I can do a series of shows, so it was a shame that those were spread out so I’d be working in London during the week and then I’d fly to Italy to do a show, and then I’d work in London again for a week – if it had been scheduled a bit differently I would have got used to the rake a bit quicker. I haven’t done fouettés enough on a raked stage to be able to do what I consider my normal sequence, so the Black Swan was a bit of an anticlimax for me because I can’t achieve the same on a rake as I can on a flat stage.
You have to adapt a lot – for example, for the first arabesque in Act Two, I had to imagine that my right arm was going uphill otherwise I’d literally have fallen down because your body weight is tumbling forward. You have to keep your back more open and lean further back and have your right arm upstage just to feel like you’re hitting neutral.
But then it’s lovely to do the big jumps coming downstage, that’s heaven… there are some moments where you feel so free!
How does this fit into scheduling at The Royal Ballet?
Kevin [O’Hare, director of The Royal Ballet] has allowed me to go and guest at other companies when I’ve had the chance to. This year I haven’t, for example, because Cathy Marston was here creating The Cellist for a lot of the season, so I couldn’t go anywhere until after The Cellist was done. That’s the first time that I’ve stayed put in London in about five years. I think that it’s a beautiful thing to travel, but I don’t think I could do only that. It is amazing to come back to the Opera House and perform in what we call home.
ON HER CAREER
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lauren Cuthbertson as Alice. © ROH, Johan Persson, 2011 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Lauren Cuthbertson as Alice. © ROH, Johan Persson, 2011
You’re a principal with The Royal Ballet, dancing the repertoire and creating new works, with the occasional guesting job too… I guess you’re happy.
I do feel really, really lucky, but you have to do the best with everything you’re given in order to create more luck.
Is there anything that you would have liked to have been different? Anything you still want to achieve?
I’ve never had one partner, and so I’ve always had to adapt to having someone different, though that can be a positive thing too. But it’s quite hard to stop every time you do a classical ballet to start working with someone that you may not have worked with before, despite how talented these partners are, and start from the beginning. They have to learn your balance, and you have to learn their coordination. Continuity has a big pay off.
I still feel driven to create more and be better, but I’d be quite happy to step aside when it’s not quite the right time for me to do things anymore and allow talented and inspired dancers who are younger to step up. I think that’s quite a nice place to be really: accepting where I am and being confident and happy with that, and yet still striving for the things I do think are suitable.
Excellence breeds excellence. Every time I watch a dancer, I want to be moved and motivated. There is an abundance of that where I am at the Royal Opera House. It’s so international. I’m very grateful that it’s international because it has the best of the best in the world. Kevin is an amazing director. He can determine which of the younger dancers will come up quickly, which keeps it a really fresh place for inspiration.
You must be longing to get back.
We completely miss being all together; we’re isolated, we’re not performing, we’re not rehearsing, we’re not taking class, we’re not hearing live music… there are so many things that we took for granted before.
There’ll be so much passion and excitement when we all get back.