Hikaru Kobayashi and Federico Bonelli

Hikaru Kobayashi and Federico Bonelli

Monday, 28thFebruary 2012

Waterstone’s, Piccadilly

Allison Potts interviewed Royal Ballet dancers and married coupleHikaru Kobayashi and Federico Bonelli.

The dancers began by describing their early family life and training. Federico was born in Genoa, Italy and came from an art-loving family. Hisfather was a keen lover of opera and performed in an amateur choir. Federico started dancing at the age of 4: “I just liked to move a lot and moving to music was really nice.”

Hikaru remembers her first experience of ballet, which was watching Swan Lake on television in Japan aged 3. She was so wowed that her mother found a local dancing school for her to attend and she loved it immediately. Her family wasn’t balletic or musical but did have artistic appreciation – her mother was an actress and her father a photographer.

Hikaru described her younger self as “a very active tomboy. I couldn't sit still and play with a doll. I liked going outside to play football or rugby.” She was also a child model and starred in television advertisements, including one for MacDonald’s where she had to take a bite from a hamburger and smile. They had to do manytakes to get it right so she was supposed to spit the burger out each time, but she really wanted to eat it so she tried to chewvery quickly!

At age 14, Federico went to a private ballet school in Turin, 90 minutes away from home. He began living with a teacher but soon moved in with four other male students. He described the situation as “five young guys living together, never cleaning and eating pasta for breakfast!” The school had a number of Cuban teachers and Federico knew Carlos Acosta who also sometimes attended classes there.It was a good school but they had few male students, so any boys that applied were accepted. Boys also only paid half of the girls’ fees. Federico was one of best students in school, so took part in competitions to push himself. He won at the Prix de Lausanne in 1996 and wasthen given his first contract in Zurich.

At 12 years old, Hikaru decided she wanted to be a dancer. There were limited opportunities to train professionally in Japan, so she realized she needed to leave the country and go to a ballet school abroad. She dreamed of joining the Paris Opera Ballet School, but they had never had a Japanese student before so she didn’t think it was possible. But she sent in a 15 minute video of herself in class and was immediately offered a place by the school director. Allison asked if her parents had been concerned about her travelling so far away. She said “My parents were very happy to send me there as I was talking about the Paris Opera School everyday!”

Hikaru found her first year at the school to be very hard. She didn’t speak any French and the standard of dance was much higher than she was used to. She shared a room with the only other foreign students in her class, a Brazilian and an Italian. With no common language, they had to communicate through hand gestures!

Allison asked what language the couple speaks at home, which they said was French. “If we don't know a word, we make it up. Our French friends laugh when they come over as we are saying words that don’t exist!”

The dancers met each other at the Zurich Ballet in 1996, which was under the direction of Heinz Spoerli. They became friends and Federico flirted with Hikaru but she didn’t realize that he was interested in her. One day, Federico tried to kiss her but she pushed him away. Hikaru says that after that “he didn't speak to me for 3 months. He was upset and I was embarrassed. But after 6 months, I changed my mind. I thought, why not try being a couple?”Federico was very glad she changed her mind. “It's worked well since then – we've been together for 14 years”. They married 3½ years ago in West Sussex. They wanted to have the wedding in Italy but with their busy dancing schedules it was too difficult to organize in another country.

Federico explained that their relationship works well because they are both dancers. “We spend most of our time in the theatre. It can be difficult to understand for people who are not in ballet. When I have time off I’m resting because I am working the next day… In the Royal Ballet, being a couple isn’t frowned upon. In fact it can be used as a promotional tool – anything that sells tickets!”

At the Zurich Ballet, Federico and Hikaru felt restricted as the company mainly performed its director’s choreography. Both dancers wanted to dance classical works and took corps de ballet contracts at Dutch National Ballet, which at the time was directed by Wayne Eagling. The company had a range of repertoire from classical ballet to Balanchine and Forsythe. Federico stated: “Being a dancer, you don't want to be put in a pigeon hole. You want to have a chance to do everything.”

After four years there, both felt it was time to move on to. They asked to audition for the Royal Ballet in 2003but were refused as the company was in a transition period while Monica Mason took over as artistic director. But Hikaru was persistent; she had made guest appearances in Japan with Peter Wright and wrote to him to ask if they could audition for the Royal Ballet. They were soon invited to take company class which they did, and Monica Mason also travelled to Amsterdam to see them in performance.

Federico was given a principal contract which he couldn’t refuse. “I came in at the right time, when they needed principal male dancers – I was very lucky. It was such an opportunity!” Hikaru had a more difficult choice as she was offered a place in the corps de ballet. Although she wanted to stay close to Federico, she had just worked her way up to dancing soloist and principal roles with DNB and was reluctant to start in the lower ranks of a company again. But in the end she decided that it was the right choice to join the Royal Ballet.

For both dancers, it was hard to adapt to the English style. Hikaru found MacMillan’s dramatic choreography particularly challenging as she wasn’t used to acting. They also had to learn the entirevery repertoire quickly as the rest of the company already knew it. Federico felt under a lot of pressure: “I had looked up to the Royal Ballet since I was at school. I was so happy to join as a principal but I didn't think I was up to the standard. It was very stressful… and British audiences know what they are looking at – if you’re good or not!”

In 2006, Federico performedThe Sleeping Beauty on opening night after Johan Kobborg was injured at the last moment. Federico had been sitting in the wings to watch. “I thought, this is exciting, who will take over from Johan? Then I heard that Monica Mason was looking for me. I had white ballet shoes which were dyed with a teabag while I was putting make up on. Being thrown in like that was great because I just had to do it.”

In the corps de ballet, Hikaru was dancing almost every performance. “It was really hard work. The corps de ballet is a hard job – it's the toughest role in the company and you still have to give something to the audience.”Allison asked what a dancer had to do to get promoted. Federico said “I think when you want to progress you have to put everything into class… although maybe sometimes it’s dancing on the table!” (Monica Mason got her role in Kenneth MacMillan’s The Rite of Spring after MacMillan saw her dancing at a company party.)

Is life easier for Hikaru as a first soloist? “Yes, you don't have to dance in the corps de ballet anymore. You can concentrate on what you need to do. But it's hard in a different way – mentally it's very difficult.” Federico pointed out that Hikaru has to performfive different roles in The Sleeping Beauty whereas he only dances the prince.

The couple often watch each other perform. Federico described Hikaru as his “toughest critic and most trusted advisor”. She said she gets very nervous seeing him perform, and he feels the same when she is onstage. “It’s about not being in control. When I dance, I am nervous but I get over it. But when she dances, I can't do anything. I can't sit still.”

Federico suffered a major leg injury which kept him offstage for over a year in 2009-10. “I had a stress fracture at Dutch National Ballet but I stopped for three months and it was fine. Then, when Jonathan Cope retired, I got a lot of his shows plus I was invited to do galas. It was too much for me and the stress fracture got worse again. But I refused to stop for three months and decided one was enough. And so the injury dragged on. I wish I could have told my previous self to stop!”Now, Federico has a large piece of metal in his leg and is feeling good, but he has to ensure he doesn’t overwork and exacerbate the injury again.

Allison asked how the dancers felt about the changes afoot in the Royal Ballet, including its new director, Kevin O’Hare. Federico said “I’m not sure what Kevin is looking for artistically. The whole company really likes him and you can always talk to him if you have a problem, but we don't know him in the studio. What does he like and what does he not like? I don't know.”

There was also the recent resignation of Sergei Polunin – has that affected Federico? “Yes, Sergei was very busy and now someone has to pick up his roles. I am doing his performances of Romeo and Juliet and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It was a shock that he left. It's a pity, he's a big talent but I wish him the best of luck. He wasn't happy so I hope he will find something that makes him happy.It can be really hard to be a principal dancer. You can be on cloud nine or very low. I am lucky to make a living doing what I love but at the same time I get frustrated. But it’s hard to be freelance; a company gives you a routine, a rhythm every day. Dancersare 50% artist and 50% athlete and a routine keeps you going – you need that by the time you get to my age!”

Federico also enjoys spending time coaching other dancers. “I teach a few times a year. But knowing how to pass on knowledge is a new skill. It's something I'd like to do more.” Hikaru has taught pas de deux classes before with Federico but will be teaching on her own for the first time during the upcoming Easter holidays.

The dancers were asked about the roles they’d like to dance next. Hikaru dreams of performing Juliet or Giselle so she can express herself and act more; Federico would like to take on The Dream and Mayerling. Federico enjoys having a variety of repertoire, but finds greatest satisfaction in creating new choreography. “We love dancing the classics but we want to make new classics.”

The evening finished with Allison thanking the guests for speaking to the London Ballet Circle and reminding members to book for the dancer’s upcoming performances in Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Opera House in March.