A big step and a real stretch
Dancing a role created for Nureyev is a daunting prospect, but for Edward Watson it should be a career-defining moment, says Clifford Bishop for The Sunday Times.


Nothing stands out quite like a redhead on a ballet stage. Lighting that is designed to make dark eyes flash, dusty old props gleam and wilting tutus glitter seems to carve the pale flesh as if from marble, to ignite the hair. “And that’s great,” says Edward Watson, a very pale, very ginger first soloist with the Royal Ballet, “unless you’re having a real shocker. Even when you don’t do much, if you do it badly people will come out afterwards saying: ‘The redhead at the back was awful, wasn’t he?’”

Not that you could miss Watson, even with a buzzcut. He dances with a rapt concentration that seems to command a similar response from his audience, and even by the freakish standards of classical ballet, he is freakishly supple.

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