| Dancer in the Spotlight - Elena Glurdjidze |
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Dancer in the Spotlight gives a fascinating insight into the person behind the performance. Elena Glurdjidze was voted best female dancer in the Ballet.co.uk 2007 and 2008 annual poll so who better to feature as our first Dancer in the Spotlight...
Elena has danced with English National Ballet since 2002 and was promoted to Senior Principal in 2007. She dances all the leading classical roles with the Company and created the principal role of Virginia in Will Tuckett’s The Canterville Ghost. Elena has also lead the Ballet Buddies, the under 16s section of the Friends. We caught Elena between rehearsals on a busy day at Markova House and asked her to tell us more about herself. The house I grew up in… was a house full of love. My mother gave up work to look after me and my sister and always did everything she could to ensure our happiness: I remember music, and we spent time drawing, sewing and doing handicrafts. People ask me why I always smile, but my mother told me you should always put love into everything you do, whatever it is. When I was a child I wanted to be… a performer of any kind! From when I was very young I was making little shows, putting on my mother’s make-up and copying characters on television, especially a very popular clown which entertained my father and made him laugh! I knew I wanted to dance… when I was ten years old. My mother took me to arts school when I was seven, which I loved. My parents thought music would be my best subject but the examiners thought I should focus on dance so my path was set. When I was ten I had to decide if I should move to the professional ballet school in Georgia, which I wanted to do as there were so many exciting things happening there at that time. Then, at the age of 12, my teacher said I should leave Georgia and go to St Petersburg to study at the Vaganova Academy as this was the very best training I could have. It was very difficult to leave home and hard for my parents to keep in touch as the Academy had just one telephone that students could use. My mother would spend hours trying to call me – I was very homesick and cried many tears in my first months there. My greatest inspiration… were first my parents, who let me go to St Petersburg and encouraged me to stay and work. My uncle was a great sportsman and he said that if I did not do it, or they did not let me go, I might regret if for the rest of my life – and he gave me this chance even though he did not think I would be a great dancer. Secondly, in 1992, after the Vaganova Academy, I met Lubov Kunakova, a principal dancer in the Mariinsky and at that time very famous in Russia. She started coaching me while she was still dancing (she coaches at the Mariinsky now) and I owe everything in my professional life to her. I remember every single thing she has said to me over the years and I value her opinion most of all. I had been working in different companies, dancing all the classical roles, for seven years and it was only when she saw me dance Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty in 1999 that she called me a ballerina. My favourite aspect of working for English National Ballet... It is such an international company with many people from different countries and different schools and this creates a very special atmosphere. I feel I am very fortunate to be given the chance to dance so many roles in so many different theatres and I think I am very lucky too with the very many wonderful friends I have made since I arrived here speaking no English whatsoever – I have not found the stereotype of the reserved and buttoned-up British to be true at all! I must also mention Maina Gielgud who is such a marvellous coach to me now, so detailed and thoughtful in her approach, and Wayne Eagling who is continually trying to improve the repertoire and give us the most challenging ballets to dance. f I could change one thing about myself… I could have left St Petersburg a couple of years earlier, but it was a big decision to take. I was helped in the decision by my father who had been sending information about me to companies all around the world – he sent a video to English National Ballet which the then Artistic Director Matz Skoog saw and he offered me a contract as a Principal dancer. You know me as a dancer but in another life I’d have been… working in science. If I had not pursued a career in ballet, my father would probably have wanted me to follow him and be a scientist or physicist. I was very good at mathematics, but I was also very good at music and loved playing the piano so perhaps I would have been a concert pianist! I miss playing the piano and very much regret not keeping it up. You wouldn’t know it but I’m very good at… cooking. I love to eat good food and I have a healthy appetite. I cook whenever I can and love the whole process. I remember always being hungry at the Vaganova Academy and what was offered in the canteen was not at all appetising so I think this is where my love of good food comes from! You wouldn’t know it but I’m very bad at… written English. I did one short course soon after I arrived and I have promised myself that I will do another course when I have more time. I can express myself well in spoken English far more easily than I can when I write. The most surprising thing that happened to me… and to my husband Kakhaber Abashidze was finding I was pregnant! It wasn’t planned, but we are so happy with this lovely little person, Alexander (Sandro), who arrived in our lives. As a ballerina it is the most difficult thing to do, to plan a pregnancy and take time out at the point when it will affect your career the least – it takes quite a while to get back and there is always a tempting role you don’t want to miss. But I was lucky; I didn’t have to take that decision as it just happened! If I have time to myself… I have no time to myself, my husband neither – all our time is given to doing things with Sandro who loves visiting museums or walking in the park. Our son is such a delight to us that there is nothing we would rather do than spend time with him. In ten years’ time, I hope to be… a ballet teacher, and, who knows, I may have fulfilled my dream of having a ballet school of my own. I have been so fortunate with the teachers I have had that I would like to pass on the gifts my teachers gave me. I realise now how important my early training was so I would love to work with children. And if I don’t get my ballet school, a flower shop would be a great alternative as I adore flowers and can spend ages choosing different combinations of colour and texture for an arrangement or bouquet! |
