A day in the life of a Junior Associate performing in The Winter’s Tale
The Royal Ballet’s production of Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale has been captivating audiences at The Royal Opera House this Spring, featuring some of the biggest names in ballet. Among these stars, our Junior Associate students are also making their mark. We caught up with Junior Associate students Dylan, Mikail, and Rafferty to learn what a day in their lives looks like when they’re performing.
Can you talk about what your day looks like when you have a performance?
Dylan: I wake up thinking it’s a normal day; then I check my calendar and realise I have a show today because I’m home-schooled. I do all my work and then get ready. For some reason, I always put my left ballet shoe on before my right because a Principal dancer once said it helps, and it works. I always have a good show when I do that.
Mikail: We get dinner all together at the Royal Opera House canteen, and we always rehearse before or after we eat, which really helps.
What is your post-show ritual?
Rafferty: I like to take photos in my costume before I get changed quickly to go home. We take the train home, and my mum always tells me to try and fall asleep, but I never can. I feel excited about the performance the whole way, and when I finally get to my bed, I doze off.
Mikail: I just have this phenomenal feeling inside me after I perform, which makes me feel so free.
Dylan: You feel like you just had a dream that everyone has: to perform at the Royal Opera House. You just experienced that, and you felt like, how lucky am I to be able to do that?
What did your rehearsals look like leading up to your first performance?
Dylan: We started rehearsing without the main Company, which was a bit easier. When the whole Company joined, it got intense, but we managed.
Mikail: It was shocking to see all the people I’d admired. It was overwhelming but thrilling. Learning our parts separately at first helped ease us into the full rehearsals.
Do you have any grounding techniques to keep you calm?
Dylan: I trace my hand and count slowly. It calms me down before I step on stage. The backstage is the most stressful part. But once I’m on stage, it all clicks.
Rafferty: I run through my part in my head while waiting. Hearing the music calms my nerves and gets me ready. I like looking underneath the silk and seeing the audience, just thinking, ‘Wow, I’m really here.’
Discover more about our Junior Associate programme here.
