Dame Darcey Bussell
Darcey Bussell is a former Prima Ballerina with The Royal Ballet and the most famous British ballerina of her generation. During her nearly twenty years as a Principal Dancer, she won worldwide renown for her unique combination of having a tall and athletic physique whilst dancing with soft lyricism.
Darcey trained at the Arts Educational School and then the Royal Ballet School and began her professional career at Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet. She then moved to The Royal Ballet, and rose to become Principal Dancer in 1989, aged just 20, While remaining with The Royal Ballet for her whole career, she also performed as a guest artist with many leading companies including NYCB, Baleto della Scala, the Kirov, Hamburg Ballet and the Australian Ballet, and retired from the Company in June 2007 with a performance of MacMillan’s Song of the Earth at the Royal Opera House broadcast live on BBC TV.
Her passion and support for dance of all forms has continued since retiring, and Darcey’s extensive television work includes being a judge on Strictly Come Dancing, many documentaries for the BBC, and she has presented The Royal Ballet’s worldwide cinema relays since 2014.
Darcey became the President of the Royal Academy of Dance in 2012. She is a Guest principal coach at The Royal Ballet and in 2019 was awarded the honorary title of Artist Laureate of The Royal Ballet School, created to recognise and honour her continuous contribution to the School and to ballet.
She is involved with numerous charities and organisations including the Sydney Dance Company, Du Boisson Foundation, International Dance Teachers Association, London's Children's Ballet, Cecchetti UK, Cecchetti Australia, the Dance Proms, the New English Ballet Theatre, the New Zealand School of Dance, the Margot Fonteyn Scholarship Fund, and among many awards received the gold medal from the John F. Kennedy Center and the Carl Alan Award for contributions to dance.
Her books include Darcey Bussell: Evolved, Darcey Bussell: A Life in Pictures, her autobiography Life in Dance, and the Magic Ballerina children’s series. In 2015 she founded DDMIX (diverse dance mix), a dance fitness charity, aimed at getting dance fitness to be part of PE in state schools.
Awarded an OBE in 1995 and a CBE in 2006, Darcey was made a Dame Commander (DBE) in the 2018 New Year honours list for services to dance.