Ballet dancer Bussell steps down

Star ballerina Darcey Bussell is to retire from her leading role with the Royal Ballet.

Bussell, 36, says the current season will be her last as a principal dancer with the company as she wants to spend more time with her family.

Royal Ballet's premier dancer reveals she is stepping down
by ANITA SINGH for the Scotsman

"However, I have always wanted to end my full-time career still dancing the full classical repertoire at the standard to which I aspire.

published: October 14, 2005

Bussell quits as Royal Ballet principal to spend time with family
by ARIFA AKBAR and OLIVER DUFF for the Independent

Darcey Bussell, arguably Britain's most celebrated prima ballerina, surprised the world of dance yesterday by announcing her retirement as the company principal of the Royal Ballet.

published: 14 October 2005

Darcey takes Royal Ballet final bow
the Press Association

The 36-year-old has decided to end her full-time ballet career at the end of the 2005/06 season in order to spend more time with her family.

Instead she will make appearances as a Principal Guest Artist from next season onwards.

published: October 13, 2005

Next year is my swansong, says Darcey Bussell
by NIGEL REYNOLDS for the daily Telegraph

Complaining of the demands on her body, she said recently: "Since ballet has become so physically demanding, none of us can conceive of having the long careers which older ballerinas enjoyed. Our bodies couldn't cope. Who wants two false hips as a result?"

published: Ocober 14, 2005

Darcey Bussell: A leap into the unknown
by ZOE ANDERSON for the Independent
published: November 24, 2006

She became a guest artist, she says, "to free up my life, so I have some more control. It's my 20th year with the Royal Ballet. I wonder if I should have done this earlier - because I have children, this lets me direct things better. I still, often - it's my English upbringing - say, 'Of course I'll do it.' I'd never say, 'I don't want to' or 'No, I should be doing that role'. I'm not, sadly, strong enough in that way. And I felt honoured - it was my position to help the company. But suddenly you become a guest artist, and your position is to help yourself.

Swan Song
by PETER ROSS for the Sunday Herald
published: December 31, 2006

IF YOU haven't yet seen Darcey Bussell dance, you are running out of time. On June 8, Britain's best-loved ballerina will give her farewell performance, in Song Of The Earth. "I've been building up to this," she says, "but I know it's going to be a wrench." Bussell is 37, still a young woman, and yet ballet dancers are the mayflies of high culture - their working lives are short and there is little to show for even the most celebrated careers; they are often left with nothing more than fading photographs, the faint echo of applause, and a muffled memory of heart-thumping joy once felt at the apex of a leap.