<BR><small>Sarah Wildor and Adam Cooper in AMP's 'Cinderella'</small><P><BR><B>Like Posh and Becks but slightly Wildor</B><BR>When Sarah Wildor left Covent Garden last year, it shocked the dancing world. Now she's heading north in search of inspiration, reports MARY BRENNAN<P><BR>When Sarah Wildor left the Royal Ballet last year, jaws dropped in stunned amazement. Why should anyone who'd reached the pinnacle of principal dancer with one of the world's most famous companies hand in her notice and plunge into the cross-currents of a freelance career?<P>At the time it was Wildor's husband, Adam Cooper, himself the astute possessor of a glittering and independent talent as both dancer and emerging choreographer, who gave a partial clue in an unrelated interview. The arrival of Ross Stretton as the Royal Ballet's new artistic director had produced a repertoire schedule that frankly didn't augur well for Wildor.<P><A HREF="http://www.theherald.co.uk/arts/archive/14-3-19102-23-12-36.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><BR>

<P><B>Adopting the Essex girl </B><P><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Sarah Wildor and Adam Cooper are to dance what Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt are to movies. They are ballet’s golden couple, blonde superstars in tights. While he’s the hippest male dancer with pecs appeal since Baryshnikov’s testosterone-fuelled talent melted the Iron Curtain, Wildor is universally recognised as one of our most enchanting and captivating ballerinas. <P>About to make her debut with Scottish Ballet in the premiere of Frederick Ashton’s The Two Pigeons, Wildor is dancing her first main stage role since she resigned from the Royal Ballet last autumn. <P>Her 30-year-old husband - he was the grown-up Billy Elliot at the end of the film - has been entirely supportive of her decision to walk away from the company he left several years ago. Cooper was nominated for a Tony award for his sultry star turn in Adventures in Motion Pictures’ (AMP) all-male Swan Lake, although at the Royal Ballet he felt undervalued and was losing confidence<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/s2.cfm?id=316572002" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><P><BR>

Click for a delicious photograph:<P><B>Dancing in a minefield </B><P>Sarah Wildor and Adam Cooper, one of ballet's most beautiful couples, fail to avoid explosive topics as they tell Ismene Brown about life since Wildor resigned from the Royal Ballet<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>'ANYONE FOR A BISCUIT?" It is that oh so English event, tea, that I am having with Sarah Wildor and Adam Cooper, two of the brightest (former) Royal Ballet stars, and they have decided that whenever a question leads into a minefield, the cry will go up: "Biscuits, anyone?"<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2002/03/29/btwild29.xml&sSheet=/arts/2002/03/29/ixartright.html" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><P><p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited March 29, 2002).]

Article in the Edinburgh Evening News from Thursday.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>SCOTTISH Ballet may have had their troubles lately, but it doesn’t seem to have done any harm to their ability to attract big names. <P>The company, which loses artistic director Robert North shortly after highly publicised rows with the board, reckon they’ve landed quite a coup for their latest production - or perhaps that should be coo, as prominent former Royal Ballet star Sarah Wildor is appearing in The Two Pigeons. <P>With her husband Adam Cooper - best known for playing the adult version of the title character in Billy Elliot - Wildor has been touted as one of Britain’s biggest ballerinas, with the pair variously described as the Posh and Becks of ballet or the new Fonteyn and Nureyev for their appeal to audiences when combined. <P><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=341642002&rware=PBRCMUEHTYJW&CQ_CUR_DOCUMENT=1" TARGET=_blank> <B> MORE </B> </A>