Christopher Saunders
Monday 24th September 2012
Civil Service Club, SW1
For the first London Ballet Circle meeting of the season, Esme Chandler interviewed Christopher
Saunders, Principal Character Artist and Ballet Master with the Royal Ballet.
Christopher was brought up in a theatrical family and started dancing aged three with his aunt,
Joan Stevenson, as his teacher. He especially enjoyed singing and tap and appeared in Gypsy
with Angela Lansberry at the age of nine. He dreamt of “taking the West End by storm” but his
uncle (dance director Ben Stevenson) suggested he take up ballet training in order to be versatile
for the musical theatre world. His uncle then wrote to Barbara Fewster, director of the Royal Ballet
School, and Christoper was invited to spend a day at White Lodge. He loved jumping around with
the boys in the year above including Jonathan Cope and Bruce Sanson and was excited to be
offered a place starting in September.
It was hard to leave home at 11 but Christopher loved his training. “I became very independent. I
liked working hard and I loved the challenge.” He didn’t have the ideal physique for ballet, as he
was tall and stocky with knock knees so White Lodge was the only place that could have enabled
him to develop the right body for a dancing career.
Christopher’s year was a small group of only five boys and nine girls. His now wife Tracy Brown
was a classmate although the couple didn’t get together until later when they were both in the
Royal Ballet company. Christopher has a very laid back attitude and never stresses about the
future. He therefore didn’t worry about his O Level results or his education after White Lodge.
Fortunately he was given a place at the Royal Ballet Upper School, and as a tall boy he particularly
enjoyed taking extra pas de deux classes with the older girls.
In February 1983, Christopher was invited to join the Royal Ballet. In his first year, he was given an
exciting role in the Raymonda pas de quatre as other dancers were injured. Esme asked whether
the company had changed since then? Christopher described a different atmosphere; when he
joined, corps de ballet dancers didn’t talk to principals but the company is much friendlier now. He
has worked under four directors at the Royal Ballet and now Kevin O’Hare is a fifth: “I'm excited to
see how he progresses as a director and especially to see him in the studio”. In that time, the
company’s style hasn't changed and Christopher believes the style will remain as long as English
ballets are regularly programmed. “The Royal Ballet has one of the widest repertoires in the world.
And there's loads of other works we could do as well – so it’s a tough choice for a director to
decide what we perform.” He does worry about the impact of the internet and Youtube in modern
dancers’ interpretations. There can be a tendency to perform showy technique above musicality
and style. Christopher insists he loves “circus tricks” but only in the right place – they should be
saved for gala performances.
Romeo and Juliet has been a particularly significant ballet for Christopher. He took on acting roles
in it while at the Upper School and has performed as a townsperson, Paris, Tybalt and Lord
Capulet since joining the company. He now rehearses the ballet and has even taught some of the
family scenes in stagecraft lessons at the Royal Ballet School. In one session, he gave the young
Marianela Nuñez the role of the Nurse and says he doesn’t think she’s forgiven him yet!
Christopher has also performed many Swan Lakes as von Rothbart, though he hopes his
interpretation is not repetitive. It was particularly interesting to perform with Sylvie Guillem in
Manon as she would always “make you react on spur of the moment”. She once sat on his knee to
distract him during the card dealing scene. Such spontaneity is what makes ballet “alive and
fresh… but you have to be aware what you can and cannot change.”
Christopher had never thought about becoming ballet master, but had been doing some teaching
outside the company and had also been involved in coaching the Paris pas de deux from Romeo
and Juliet at a Royal Opera House event. Ross Stretton called Christopher into his office and
asked him to take on the role, starting to help out immediately with rehearsals for Don Quixote. He
now has a mixture of responsibilities from coaching and staging works to performing and is
therefore very busy. He spends a lot of time at the Opera House, but tries not to take work home.
He joins class in the morning whenever possible to stay toned but often he has to prepare for his
coaching sessions later in the day instead. This involves reading notation, checking his notes and
watching video recordings to refresh his memory of choreography.
What does the role of ballet master entail? For Christopher, there are many different aspects. His
main concern is corps de ballet and maintaining the Royal Ballet style, but he also sometimes
coaches solos. He feels like a father figure to young members of the company and guides them
through any problems. It is also important to inspire senior members of the corps so that they don't
get stale repeating the same roles. Christopher loves working on complicated ballets like Les
Noces and Rite of Spring; his job is to get everyone moving together and it’s very rewarding when
it works. Gloria is also a favourite to coach as Christopher was asked by Kenneth MacMillan
himself to learn the role and he also loves the music. Another of his favourite projects is rehearsing
the fight scenes in Romeo, ensuring they are powerful and realistic. One audience member at the
meeting commented that the fight scenes had improved markedly in the last few years, no doubt
due to Christopher’s efforts!
Christopher finished by talking briefly about his home life. He has three teenage children who are
all musical and enjoy going to the theatre. One of his sons took ballet classes but quickly got bored
with the repetitiveness of exercises, so there are no young dancers following in his footsteps.
Esme completed the evening by thanking Christopher for his time in talking to the London Ballet
Circle.
© Laura Dodge for the London Ballet Circle, 2012