Martin harvey dancer biography examples

DB : You joined the Royal Ballet in At the age of about 13 I went to see something at the Opera House which changed my mind about what a male dancer was. It came at a point when I was turning a corner and I realised that I should either leave and not do it at all or I should take the whole thing seriously because it was worth doing.

Martin harvey dancer biography examples: Dancer / Actor /

I decided it was worth doing. DB : What did you see at the Opera House? God knows why the School took a 13 year old boy to see Mayerling! There were only about four or five of us who were taken to see that performance. They were right to do that and they got a result out of me. DB : Then the School cast you as a wolf, then a rake! MH : I do animals and messed-up characters.

The wolf was the work of Matthew Hart. Matthew Hart had a huge hand in my early life as a dancer. My generation of dancers at the Royal Ballet School were not hugely confident people — although this has developed in some of us. The dancers that came through the Royal Ballet School were given an incredible grounding but also a sense of reality and a sense of the underdog which helped us fight from a backward position.

If from Day One you think you are everything, where are you going to go? You are never going to develop if you believe you are already one step ahead. Also unless someone picks up on you early on — a choreographer or another dancer, a mentor or someone like that — you get lost pretty quickly, especially within a huge institution like this one.

I think I was very lucky at school because a lot of choreographers worked with me. I had a huge mentor when I came into the Company. Matthew Hart started me off. He made a piece for White Lodge when I was years old and he was choreographing for the Company too at that point. It was a big success and it was videoed. Anthony Dowell was a part of it, he was the director of the Company at the time, and I think he pretty much offered me my job in the Company at the end of the first show of Peter and the Wolf.

So that was a huge boost for me — quite apart from having a creative work on me so young. So I have a lot to thank him for. When we were about to graduate from the School Merle Park, the Director at the time, selected a repertoire for the School Show to suit the people she had there. I wish I had done it later — I was so young at that time.

You last talked to us five and half years ago when you had done your first really big role of Onegin, just before Ross Stretton left. The pack of cards that is the Royal Ballet had been thrown in the air — and probably rightly so because it needed to happen.

Martin harvey dancer biography examples: The characters of Macbeth and

It always needs to happen otherwise everyone treads water. MH : That year was a massive change for everybody. It was a very difficult time but out of difficult times come good times. Ross was very much of the mind that everybody, no matter how young, could be put into something. It worked for some people but not for others. It would have been fantastic if we had been disappearing on tour to lots of different places when suddenly someone was put on in a matinee or given a one-act ballet somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

It works that way. For a lot of us we did cut our teeth but we did it very publicly. What that year did for me was it gave me the confidence to believe in myself. Every seat in the House was sold and nobody lost any money or went home crying. But you learn from it and the next time I came to do it, I could do it differently. So, for me, it was wonderful.

DB : Reid Anderson auditioned you? MH : He auditioned the whole company. We came out of the Royal Ballet system and we were open to auditions from visiting people like Reid Anderson and Dieter [Graefe] who owned the repertoire.

Martin harvey dancer biography examples: “For me, ballet is

We were auditioning for Mats Ek and Jiri Kylian and for Mark Morris and basically everything was like it is in the outside world. That year was a whirlwind and you all know how it ended. It was a massive change. Not just a slow change. Not just shuffling the pack. We had to do everything just like they do out in the real world. DB : For you it was good because they all cast you.

If you are a fool you have no shame. Nadia Coote and Martin Harvey Date:. Come Fly Away. Oedipus Rex. The Children of Kings. The Only Way. The plot?? Nancy is delighted to have as director of her new show the multi-talented Bill Cosgriff, an award winning playwright, actor, and director. Martin talked of other roles that he would like to do or repeat.

Generally he prefers the great dramatic roles and being in character. Martin also spoke of the importance of new choreography and the personal satisfaction of having a new role created on you. Asked about embarrassing moments, Martin remembered falling flat on his face as a skater in Les Patineursbut very appropriate for the role! Meetings Reports Events Search 0 Cart.

Search our website. What are you looking for? On a typical day, I get up and spend time with my wife and our Yorkshire Terrier. I then meditate for about 45 minutes to an hour. I do it as part of my warm up as an actor; meditation spills into actor training but I also do general meditation. I then go and take a class at Steps in New York, normally an hour and a half of ballet or something physical.

I will then go for an audition or do some voiceover work or a commercial. I then teach a ballet class for students and in the evening, I go to The Pit in New York and either do a three hour drop-in class or an hour and a half comedy improve. So clearly I wanted to do something like that!