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Blond ambition
From Boston Ballet to the Royal
BY IRIS FANGER

LONDON — On entering the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden by its stage door, you can imagine you’re inhaling the dust of the centuries in a theater that dates back to 1858, on a site that’s been dedicated to performance since 1732. For an American being led through the backstage catacombs, the aura was daunting, so it wasn’t hard to imagine former Boston Ballet principal dancer Sarah Lamb’s impressions when she joined the Royal Ballet, which shares the venerable stage with the Royal Opera. "At first it was quite a different atmosphere, but now it’s okay. I felt quite unwelcome. In Boston, people are much more amiable. A lot of people told me that they would be more distant because I’m coming in at a high level."

Lamb joined the Royal this past August as a first soloist, just one rank beneath principal, and one of only three additions to the troupe of 88 dancers. She spent five years at Boston Ballet, starting as a member of the corps in 1999 and being promoted to soloist and then last season to principal. But she’d been at the company’s school since age six and had twice been Clara in BB’s Nutcracker, so as she points out, "In Boston, everyone knew me even when I was just in the school."

In person, Lamb exudes little of the authority she commanded on the Wang Theatre stage where she appeared in roles as varied as the stern Queen of the Wilis in Giselle, the giddy teenage Juliet in Rudi van Dantzig’s Romeo and Juliet, and the fast-moving human gyroscope in David Dawson’s The Grey Area. Barely 24, with white blond hair and a luminous pale complexion, she looks more like Alice astonished at finding herself in Wonderland than a highly praised professional on the brink of stardom. This month, she’s slated for a featured role: she’ll dance "the girl with the scarf who bourrées around," as she describes it, in Thaïs Pas de Deux, on a program of works by the late Frederick Ashton. Lamb will also understudy the lead ballerinas in the two full-length Ashton ballets that follow, Sylvia and Cinderella.

A child of British parents who work for the Brookline Public Schools, Lamb holds dual citizenship, so she’s able to dance in England without a special permit. And she makes the transition that most ballet dancers would kill for sound easy: "I sent a video to [Royal Ballet director] Monica Mason. A few weeks later, she said, ‘Come, take company class.’ I flew from Boston to London one Friday last February. After the class, she gave me a quick response, offering to hire me as first soloist. I had been in Boston since earth, so I thought it would be a good idea to join another company, to learn a new repertory."

On this same killer weekend, she flew on to Amsterdam a day later, auditioned for the Dutch National Ballet, and was offered a principal contract by its director. "It was hard to turn it down, but the Royal Ballet is the Royal Ballet. I told Mikko [Nissinen, Boston Ballet’s artistic director] after I came back. I didn’t want him to hear it as a rumor."

The youngest Boston Ballet principal, Lamb was also the company’s most promising. But who can blame her for leaving? The Royal is one of the most prestigious companies in the world. What’s more, she enjoys a year-around contract with a week’s winter leave and four weeks’ summer vacation as opposed to the Boston Ballet contract of 36-to-40 weeks a year. "Once you’re signed on, you’re there on a continuing basis until spoken to about retiring. The dancers are much more protected."

Then there’s the luxury of spending each day and night at the Royal Opera House. Boston Ballet has a beautiful studio home, but it has to make do with a just few days’ rehearsal on stage before opening its productions at the Wang Theatre. And as last year’s eviction of the company’s Nutcracker from the Wang made clear, Boston Ballet has no guaranteed place in which to perform.

On the down side, Lamb will for the moment have fewer big opportunities because the Royal is double the size of BB. She’ll have to prove herself in London before she’s cast in the leading roles she performed in BB’s Swan Lake and La Fille Mal Gardée, ballets that are coming up at the Royal. No problem, according to company spokesman Simon Magill. "She’ll make lots of waves this season. She’s doing all the solo roles."

And if entering the stage door was an experience to evoke awe, sitting in the red-velvet and gold-embellished Opera House to watch the Royal was even more so, especially since Lamb had a role on the season’s opening program. There she was, blond ambition from Boston, behind that glorious proscenium arch crowned by the royal insignia of the lion and the unicorn, as one of the partners in the four couples backing the leads in Kenneth MacMillan’s Requiem. "I’m very relieved I made the decision that I did," Lamb says. Way to go, Sarah.


Issue Date: November 5 - 11, 2004
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