Swan song for prima ballerina
It is one of those glorious winter’s mornings in Johannesburg and I cannot believe my luck. I’m in a spacious rehearsal studio at the Joburg Theatre – its two-storey-high windows taking up a whole wall to the south give us a spectacular view of the city.
But I am here for another spectacle. The dancers of Joburg Ballet are warming up in front of us.
After a short break, they have returned to the studio ahead of the season of La Traviata — The Ballet and I have been invited to sit in for a morning class taken by Tanya Howard, who is on a visit to the city.
Howard trained at the National School of the Arts here in Johannesburg and then at Canada’s National Ballet School. She joined The National Ballet of Canada in 1998 and was promoted to first soloist in 2007. She retired from the stage last year after 25 years and is now a teaching artist at Canada’s Ballet.
There is the sunlight through the windows but also a lightness in these lithe dancers’ movements and the charismatic Howard’s teaching.
“Double front, double back, pah, pah, pah, pah!” she emulates the piano. It’s infectious — the accompanist improvises a humorous Sarie Marais to smiles of recognition.
But it is also serious — and there are squeals of delight when these superb dancers give what Howard wants. As one’s T-shirt appropriately puns about their commitment: “Life without ballet is pointe-less.”
After class there’s a short break before the esteemed choreographer Veronica Paeper takes rehearsal for La Traviata.
It is enough time for a quick interview with one of South Africa’s most celebrated ballerinas, Joburg Ballet principal Shannon Glover, who will be celebrating her 20th anniversary with the company at the weekend.
The 39-year-old Glover and fellow principal Nicole Ferreira-Dill have both announced that they will retire at the end of La Traviata.
I congratulate Glover for the two decades she has spent at the top of South African ballet.
“When I look back, I think, really, has it been that long already?” she says. “It’s a little bit surreal but it’s pretty amazing at the same time.”
She was born in Durban but grew up in Johannesburg.
“I was always dancing — if we were at dance class, if we were at someone’s house, having a party or if I was with some cousins, we would create a show for our parents.”
Glover decided ballet was her career when she took it as a subject at the National School of the Arts.
“I just knew from then that I wanted to be principal in the company and I would do whatever I could to get there.”
Ballet is a life of sacrifices, she tells me. “You look at yourself every single day trying to perfect the ballet technique, which is super difficult for all of us. And it’s a goal that we keep striving to try to achieve.”
Glover will be performing the role of Camille in La Traviata.
“It’s definitely one of my favourite roles. It’s such a mature role to play and, as a more mature woman, I’ve done the role many times.
“However, each time I go back to it, we add more layers to the character.”
When her retirement, after which she will coach and mentor young dancers, was announced a week after our interview, it was understandable. The strain on a ballet dancer’s body is immense — it comes with aches, pains and injuries.
“We try and contort our bodies into these shapes that are just so unusual for the normal body … You look at it and you think of it as grace and beauty. And that’s what’s so beautiful about ballet.
“That’s what you’re trying to achieve, although inside the body, you’re really working the muscles to extremes. It’s a wonderful contrast.”
Glover is the mother to two-and-a-half-year-old Eva Harper Rogers. She came to watch her mom for the first time in the recent performance of The Sleeping Beauty: “It was very emotional, a very special moment when she saw me on stage.”
Glover smiles as she recounts that Eva told her she also wanted to be a ballerina one day.
“I think it’s wonderful. I think every little girl should wear a tutu and do some ballet. And I think it’s great for their imagination, their discipline, their creativeness, their musicality, being able to dress up and feel beautiful. So, if she wants to do it, I’ll definitely take her.”
La Traviata — The Ballet, will be performed on Friday 2 August, Saturday 3 August and Sunday 4 August at the Teatro, Montecasino.