To paraphrase one of Tamara Rojo’s favourite English-language authors, for a ballet dancer to lose more than one artistic director in less than four years might be regarded as a misfortune; to lose three looks like carelessness. Having left Derek Deane’s English National Ballet in the summer of 2000, then watched the departures of Anthony Dowell and Ross Stretton from the Royal Ballet, Rojo could be forgiven for feeling unsettled in what she describes as her “new home” at Covent Garden.

On the eve of an Australian tour, the principal dancer Tamara Rojo, 29, faced the end of a brilliant career. She recalls how, instead of starring in Swan Lake, she ended up under the surgeon's knife

Last May, the man who made my ballet shoes retired. The timing was bad for me. I was preparing for a big show, and it's always best to change over slowly to a new shoemaker. I need two or three pairs of shoes a night when I'm performing.