Monica Mason leaves her post as Director of The Royal Ballet in July having lived by her own observation that ‘Ballet should be about visiting the unknown, not just trotting out the relics stored in our cupboards. For me, it’s all about balance.’ Described by Kenneth MacMillan as a dancer with ‘tremendous power, rare in English dancers who tend to be more elegant and refined…’ Ms Mason has transformed the Company into a modern organisation that is unafraid to innovate, yet continues to nurture its past. This is one of the more fascinating strands highlighted in the exhibition Monica Mason, A Life with The Royal Ballet, which tells her story through costumes, photographs and drawings at the Royal Opera House.
Our knowledgeable guide David Alder shared his own admiration for Monica’s gift, offering priceless insights into the life of the Company but also telling the human story of her 54 years within it. The 20 costumes on display throughout the public areas of the Royal Opera House worn by Monica include the exquisite Firebird costume ‘Fonteyn taught the role to Monica,’ David reveals, ‘from the dancers in the Ballet Russes. That’s how it used to be done – the choreography was passed from dancer to dancer…’ We also realise this is a working company where costumes are cut up, re-used, torn, made up and mended. In the 1950s there was still rationing and it is a wonder that the delightful dress from her first performance as one of the fiancées in Le Lac des Cygnes survives.
Monica has donated personal artefacts to the exhibition including photographs she took during a tour, so we have her pictured with Rudolph Nureyev among others, posturing for the camera, and her mother Sue Fabian’s preserved newspaper cutting collection chart her rise, one of which includes the headline ‘The Girl Who Outdanced Nureyev’.
What is striking about the collection of photographs is the luminous beauty of the art form that masks the physical rigour that stretches the body to darker limits. Monica’s life was influenced twice by injury – first in the1960s when she replaced Svetlana Beriosova in the interval after the principal suffered back strain, which propelled her into the public eye; and later in 1972 when Monica broke her foot inspiring her to introduce medical care for dancers during her tenure as Director.
Monica worked with every director of The Royal Ballet – including Ninette de Valois and never sought to go anywhere else – ‘all the best choreographers come here’. She wanted to dance with MacMillan and caught his eye at a party ‘by showing off like hell’ and he responded, creating his first role for her in The Rite of Spring. Nureyev singled her out and she said of the Russian: ‘He made you understand that you should never make anything easy for yourself…he would give soloist notes as they came off stage as he was about to go on: ‘Cabriole better more petit battement. I go, I dance.’
In her decade as Director, Monica has introduced new and exciting approaches including bringing in contemporary dancer Wayne McGregor as Resident Choreographer. She has doubled the number of performances and confirmed the education, fundraising and outreach programmes as integral to the company’s offer – not to mention taking Romeo and Juliet to the giant 02 arena.
If you Google any of the rehearsal videos featuring Monica you cannot fail to be in awe of the knowledge and genuine gift that she has so generously passed on and will continue to do as she enters ‘retirement’ (for she will continue to contribute to the Company). Kevin O’Hare, a child of The Royal Ballet School, has worked his way up to take over as new Director and is only too aware of the treasure he will guard.
The exhibition is free to visitors but you can join a tour, at £7. Booking is essential. It runs until July 17th. For details of this and other Royal Opera House events, pointe your mouse to www.roh.org.uk.