| Dancer in the Spotlight - Crystal Costa |
|
Crystal Costa joined English National Ballet in 2007. New to the Company and to our repertoire, Crystal learnt numerous roles in three full-length ballets in a very short time before making her debut with the Company. Through the course of the 2007 Autumn Tour and London Christmas Season she was on stage almost every night: she appeared in the featured role of Gerda and as a White Fox in The Snow Queen; in Swan Lake she danced the Pas de Quatre, Cygnets and the Neapolitan Dance, and in The Nutcracker she appeared as Clara and Sugar Plum Fairy. She delighted audiences in Spring 2008 as Swanilda in Coppélia and danced the Songbird Fairy, the Fairy of the Enchanted Garden and Princess Florine (with The Bluebird) in The Sleeping Beauty.
Crystal Costa joined English National Ballet in 2007. New to the Company and to our repertoire, Crystal learnt numerous roles in three full-length ballets in a very short time before making her debut with the Company. Through the course of the 2007 Autumn Tour and London Christmas Season she was on stage almost every night: she appeared in the featured role of Gerda and as a White Fox in The Snow Queen; in Swan Lake she danced the Pas de Quatre, Cygnets and the Neapolitan Dance, and in The Nutcracker she appeared as Clara and Sugar Plum Fairy. She delighted audiences in Spring 2008 as Swanilda in Coppélia and danced the Songbird Fairy, the Fairy of the Enchanted Garden and Princess Florine (with The Bluebird) in The Sleeping Beauty. The house I grew up in… holds many good memories for me. I grew up in Vancouver, Canada with an older brother and younger sister. I left home at the age of 15 to study at the National Ballet School in Toronto, which I found very hard, since I missed my family so much. I sometimes think my parents gave us too good a childhood because I suffered tremendous amounts of homesickness and found it very hard to leave my family. I still suffer homesickness now. When I was a child I wanted to be… a famous singer. I remember making a pretend microphone out of an empty toilet paper roll and a rolled up sock stuck in one end and singing at the top of my lungs on top of our coffee table. I think I loved attention. I would also recite actors’ lines from entire movies to anyone who would listen. I knew I wanted to dance… when I was nine. I was completely obsessed with ballet, watching videos from the library, reading books and looking at all the beautiful ballerinas. I was mesmerised by pointe shoes and how ballerinas’ feet were always pointed, and how even when they sat on a chair, their feet were en pointe. My greatest inspiration… came from many things. My first two ballet teachers, who not only taught me how to dance, but introduced me to the whole history and world of ballet. I also idolised many ballerinas, one in particular, Evelyn Hart. I remember going to see a performance of Romeo & Juliet when her company was in town on tour and although I loved the ballet, I was disappointed she wasn’t dancing that particular evening. The next day, my dad surprised me with tickets to go see the ballet AGAIN that very day with Evelyn Hart dancing Juliet. After her show I snuck backstage to her dressing room and she graciously signed my poster and took time to talk to me. I will never forget that day and how I knew with all my heart how much I wanted to be a ballerina because she showed me how ballet can be the most beautiful experience someone could ever have. My favourite aspect of working for English National Ballet… is being able to perform so much. It is everything I thought being a dancer should be about, always performing. The fact that we tour gives us the chance to do many shows. I also love having so many talented dancers around to constantly inspire me and that the atmosphere is very supportive. If I could change one thing about myself… I would give myself a new pair of feet so I would be able to wear any high heel shoes and any design of sandal I wanted. I always pass shoe stores with a forlorn look as I could probably not wear half of the shoes on display either because it would be too painful, or I’d be embarrassed to show my bruised ballerina feet. You know me as a dancer but in another life I’d have been… a drummer. I was in a band in Hong Kong with a few other dancers and we played a few gigs at the Hardrock Café. Drums always intrigued me, so I decided to take a few lessons a couple years after I joined Hong Kong Ballet. Perhaps in another life I would be able to really get into it and practise more; for this life however, it just remains a hobby. You wouldn’t know it but I’m very good at… domestic things. I like to sew, knit and cook. You wouldn’t know it but I’m very bad at… swimming. I was scared of the water for most of my childhood so I took lessons to try to overcome my fear, and now I can swim, however still not very well. The most surprising thing that happened to me was… moving to Hong Kong when I was 17 to join the Hong Kong Ballet. I never even knew a ballet company existed in Hong Kong, so it was a big surprise to learn, from one of my teachers who had sent my audition video unbeknownst to me, that I had a contract with the company there. I flew to Hong Kong the day after my graduation from the National Ballet School, knowing only that I was going to be living there for at least one year. I ended up staying for six. I quickly made the transition from being a student living in a residence with a strict curfew in Canada, to a professional working dancer living by myself in a Chinese speaking country on the other side of the world. Given the huge changes that were happening around me, I settled in quite fast and comfortably in Hong Kong. I think I was so elated to be working in an actual ballet company as a dancer that I adjusted very quickly to my new life. It just felt so right, living as a ballet dancer; all the new changes were positive and very exciting to me. I loved the freedom of being an adult, and grew up very quickly in my first few years in the company. I learned so much from other dancers, the ballet staff and especially my director Stephen Jefferies. Since Hong Kong Ballet was a relatively small company of only 45 dancers, I was able to be nurtured and feel I got a strong base there. I worked my way to Principal Dancer and danced a lot of beautiful roles. Over my six years there, I found out a lot about myself as a dancer and a person. Part of the reason I was excited to move to Hong Kong was to explore my Chinese origins. My mother’s parents were born in China, and I suspect that also helped in my easy adjustment. I adapted well to the Chinese culture and learned a lot about the customs. I learned to understand Cantonese and can speak some as well. I really miss a lot about Hong Kong and can’t wait until we tour there with Alice in Wonderland in the Spring. If I have time to myself… I like to bake bread or lie with my feet up and read a really good book. In ten years’ time, I hope to be… 10 years wiser and have 20 more years’ worth of life’s experiences. |
SpotlightKerry Birkett
Recently choreographed a piece inspired by The Secret Garden at the Wycombe Swan
Join The Nutcracker Appeal and help us bring our new production of The Nutcracker to the stage
The Nutcracker is a huge financial and creative undertaking costing hundreds of thousands of pounds, so we are appealing to your generosity to help us bring this production to life.
The Nutcracker Appeal has eight levels of giving from Mice at £25 up through the ranks of different characters to The Nutcracker at £5,000. All donors will be acknowledged on our website and you can receive all sorts of other exciting benefits as you go up the levels including exclusive invitations to behind the scenes events and opportunities to meet the artistic team behind The Nutcracker.
For more information call the Development Department on 0207 581 1245 or email support@ballet.org.uk.
