Dorich House Museum

As part of our Spirit of the Ballet collaboration with The Royal Ballet School, we are delighted to host a conversation on the evening of Wednesday 8 March between Dame Darcey Bussell and Anna Meadmore. Darcey and Anna will be discussing Darcey’s life in dance and Darcey will be sharing her personal recollections of some of the leading ballet figures displayed in our Spirit of the Ballet sculpture trail and footage from her private archive.

Darcey trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined The Royal Ballet in 1988, becoming the company’s youngest Principal Dancer the following year. After almost 20 years as Principal and becoming the most famous British ballerina of her generation, she retired in 2007. She is Artist Laureate of The Royal Ballet School, a title created especially for her to recognise her ongoing contribution to The School and to ballet. Amongst her many patronages, Darcey has been President of the Royal Academy of Dance since 2012. Darcey is founder of the charity DDMIX for Schools, a dance fitness program designed especially for PE and has recently co-created the Move-Assure Dance for Mental Wellbeing programme to be used as a social prescription. She remains a guest coach with The Royal Ballet and presents their live cinema relays.

Anna pursued a career as a professional dancer, teacher, choreographer and dance historian and has cared for the Special Collections at The Royal Ballet School for over twenty years.

Doors will open at 6.30pm to give visitors time to enjoy the house and collections with a complimentary glass of prosecco. The talk will commence at 7.30pm. Tickets are £20 and are available through Eventbrite.

Please note that this talk will be held in Dorich House Museum’s Modelling Studio, which is located on the first floor and does not have step-free access.