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In praise of … Tamara Rojo In praise of … Tamara Rojo
(7 months later)
Knowing when to quit is this week's topical subject. Unlike the pope, Tamara Rojo is not disappearing into seclusion. Far from it, since she is now director of English National ballet. But her three performances, this week and next, at Covent Garden, mark her curtain call with the Royal Ballet, where she has spent the last decade making the retirement of Darcey Bussell and the departure of Sylvie Guillem surprisingly bearable. Judging by the evidence of her dancing with Sergei Polunin in the Marguerite and Armand first night, Ms Rojo is leaving at the top of her game, not with diminished powers. Everything about her performance as the lady of the camelias is impassioned, not just the big sweeping moments but, perhaps above all, the little gestures of hand, head and shoulders that mark her out as such a serious artist. Our critic Judith Mackrell called it simply the performance of Ms Rojo's career. Quite a way to bow out.Knowing when to quit is this week's topical subject. Unlike the pope, Tamara Rojo is not disappearing into seclusion. Far from it, since she is now director of English National ballet. But her three performances, this week and next, at Covent Garden, mark her curtain call with the Royal Ballet, where she has spent the last decade making the retirement of Darcey Bussell and the departure of Sylvie Guillem surprisingly bearable. Judging by the evidence of her dancing with Sergei Polunin in the Marguerite and Armand first night, Ms Rojo is leaving at the top of her game, not with diminished powers. Everything about her performance as the lady of the camelias is impassioned, not just the big sweeping moments but, perhaps above all, the little gestures of hand, head and shoulders that mark her out as such a serious artist. Our critic Judith Mackrell called it simply the performance of Ms Rojo's career. Quite a way to bow out.
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