Darcey Bussell

Biography

Dame Darcey Andrea Bussell (born Marnie Mercedes Darcey Pemberton Crittle; 27 April 1969) is a retired English ballerina and a former judge on the BBC television dance contest Strictly Come Dancing. Trained at the Arts Educational School and the Royal Ballet School, Bussell began her professional career at Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet. In 1989, at the age of 20, she moved to The Royal Ballet, where she became the youngest-ever principal dancer. Bussell remained with The Royal Ballet for her entire career, more than two decades. She however performed as a guest artist with many companies including the New York City Ballet, La Scala Theatre Ballet, the Kirov Ballet, Hamburg Ballet and the Australian Ballet. She retired from ballet in 2007.

== Early life == Bussell was born Marnie Crittle in London to Andrea Williams, an English model and actress, and John Crittle an Australian businessman. Her parents divorced when she was three years old, and her mother remarried Australian dentist Philip Bussell, who became her adoptive father. The family spent some time in Australia, where Bussell attended school before they returned to London for Bussell to be educated at Fox Primary School in Kensington. Her very first dance classes were at the Mercury Theatre, home of the Rambert dance company. She was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of nine. At school she excelled at physical activity, and this influenced her career path.

== Career == Bussell studied "all forms of stagecraft" at the Arts Educational School. In 1982, at the age of 13, she joined the Royal Ballet Lower School, based at White Lodge, Richmond Park. At 16, she progressed to the Royal Ballet Upper School in Baron's Court. While there, she competed in and won the prestigious Prix de Lausanne, before later joining the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet in 1987. While studying at the Royal Ballet School, she appeared in a number of school productions, including performances at Covent Garden. In 1988, while still at school, Bussell was given a leading role by choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, in his ballet The Prince of the Pagodas, which led to her moving to the Royal Ballet. A year later in 1989, on the opening night of the show, she was promoted to principal dancer, and at just 20 years old, was the youngest ever in the history of the company. Bussell performed all the major classical roles numerous times throughout her career, including Masha in Winter Dreams and Princess Rose in The Prince of the Pagodas, both choreographed by MacMillan, as well as Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Nikiya and Gamzatti in La Bayadère, the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Manon in L'histoire de Manon, and Giselle in Giselle.

In total, she performed more than 80 different roles and 17 roles were created for her. In Sleeping Beauty alone, she performed Aurora in four different productions, one of which was Sir Anthony Dowell's production which she opened at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in front of President Clinton. She made several guest appearances with the New York City Ballet, starting in June 1993, with a performance of the pas de deux from Agon.

She retired from ballet on 8 June 2007 with a performance of MacMillan's Song of the Earth (music Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde). It was performed at the Royal Opera House in London, and broadcast live on BBC Two. Bussell is widely regarded as one of the finest British ballerinas. In 2012 Bussell was a member of the jury at the Prix de Lausanne ballet competition. Same year she participated in the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony, leading a troupe of 200 ballerinas and 4 male dancers from the Royal Ballet. The performance was known as "the Spirit of the Flame" and preceded the official dousing of the Olympic flame. Bussell performed the role of the mayor in the 2021 ballet film, Coppelia, a modern adaptation of the E.T.A. Hoffmann story combining live dance with animation. Bussell was announced as the first female chair of the Board of Trustees of Plymouth Theatre Royal in March 2023. She served as a president of the jury at the Prix de Lausanne ballet competition in 2024.

== Other ventures ==

=== Writing ===

In October 2008 HarperCollins Children's Books released six short books in a new children's series called Magic Ballerina. Bussell had initiated the idea and storyline, and the books were written using a series of ghost writers. They feature a girl named Delphie who joins a ballet school and discovers her shoes are magical. Within three years at least 23 Magic Ballerina stories were published, all featuring girls who own magic sparkly red ballet shoes. At least the first two were illustrated by Katie May. She co-wrote The Young Dancer with the Royal Ballet School and wrote an introduction to the book The Illustrated Book of Ballet by Barbara Newman, which showcases five of the ballets in which she starred. An autobiographical picture book of her ballet career, titled Darcey Bussell, was released in 2012. followed by Darcey Bussell: Evolved in 2018.