Darcey Bussell: Books and dance are similar art forms

Darcey Bussell is partial to a cup of tea. Delicately sipping one as we talk, her lithe, trim body is gracefully installed on a couch enjoying Dubai’s sunshine. “It’s such a relief from wet London,” she says, before pausing politely to speak to a fan who has approached us on the InterContinental hotel’s balcony.

When she retired in 2007, aged 38, her swansong performance of MacMillan’s Song of the Earth at the Royal Opera House in London earned her a record eight-minute-long standing ovation.

“It took me a couple of years to find what else I was about because when all you’ve done your entire life is dance and it’s your only goal, it’s not just in your mind but your body too,” Bussell explains. “I’ve always enjoyed writing. It’s something I’ve done alongside dancing and my writing has naturally always been about dance.”

The books centre around a pair of magic red ballet shoes that transport protagonists Delphie, Rosa, Jade and Holly to Enchantia – a magical world revolving around classical ballet stories.

Bussell was still dancing when the book series was confirmed and so, short on time, she got some help with the writing, but insists there’s a lot of ‘Darcey Bussell’ in the books. “There’s a lot about telling a story through dance steps and I know those well,” she says.

The biggest test came on reading the stories to her children at bedtime. “They were my sounding board,” she recalls. “If they concentrated without the illustrations then I knew we were doing it right.”

The books are so successful because Bussell is writing about her passion; dance. “It’s an easy thing for me to sell, because I’ve experienced it all first hand,” she says. “I even have film footage and photographs of me rehearsing to look back on.” She used a selection of photos to make up her visual memoir entitled Bussell Bussell: A life in Pictures published last October.

Born in 1969 in London to Australian fashion designer John Crittle and British model and dancer Andrea Williams, Bussell was raised by her mother and stepfather, Australian dentist Philip Bussell. She was five when her mother sent her to ballet classes “to straighten my knock knees,” she laughs. “My mum knew it was good exercise – it worked!”

She auditioned for the Lower Royal Ballet School at 13, two years later than her classmates. “I always wanted to perform, but it wasn’t until then, a little later than my peers, that I realised it was wanting to perform ballet,” she explains.

At the time her mother was apprehensive. But discovering an inner strength, Bussell felt determined. “It’s a little bit like the army. If you don’t work hard, there’s no point,” she says. “I practised hard to catch up with the others. It’s good if there’s a fight in you. That attitude helped me a lot with my career because I never sat back”.

She was offered a place straight away. “My teachers believed in me, so I stuck my heels in and caught up with the others who had practised daily for two years. There were a lot of tears and moments of ‘why am I doing this?’, but my love of ballet was growing by the day.”

Her break came at 19, when renowned choreographer Sir Kenneth MacMillan decided to debut her in Prince of the Pagodas at The Royal Ballet, making her the youngest ever principal ballerina. She debuted at 19 but became principal ballerina only at 20. For the next 20 years she enchanted audiences with every pirouette and grande jetes in award-winning productions the world over, including Swan Lake at The Royal Ballet Company, London, Agon with the New York City Ballet and also guest-appeared with the Kirov Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Hamburg Ballet and the Australian Ballet.

Bussell admits suddenly not dancing every day was “very weird”, but after multiple injuries including developing a bone spur in her leg, hip degradation and leg muscle spasms, her body needed a rest. So she decamped to Sydney with her daughters and husband, Angus Forbes, an Australian businessman. She enjoyed the break, running with her dogs, swimming with her girls and doing lots of Zumba, “If I stop moving, everything falls apart”.

Her love of ballet pulled her back to London where she lead a troupe of 100 ballerinas at the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. More TV work further cemented her status as a British household name, but she insists her passion for dance still rules, “never the stardom”.

Bussell now lives in London and her next book in the Magic Ballerina series will introduce a young male character to challenge pre-conceived notions of ballet being just for girls.

In the meantime she is choreographing a children’s stage performance in London based on her Magic Ballerina books, which she hopes will kick off by the end of the year. A dream come true surely? “Books and dance are such similar art,” she says. “You can drift off into the story and forget everything that happens around you yet learn new things.” She adds, “You’re telling a story all the time. It’s a feeling you’re expressing on a page or on stage.”