Do you have any early memories of being attracted to or interested in dance?
My career choice since leaving school at age 17 had been in Agriculture and at age 22 I had already served 3 years as an apprentice farmworker, and completed a year of college training. Although I was an athletic young man I had no interest in competitive sports and I had never been remotely interested in dance either until, on holiday in Cambridge, I went, reluctantly, with friends to see a film called “An Evening with the Royal Ballet”. The film in Cambridge featured a newly defected Russian dancer, Rudolf Nureyev and his athleticism, the music, the boundless energy, overwhelmed me and at that moment I knew I wanted to be a dancer. And I wanted to be a dancer even though, at that time, in 1965, it was unheard of for a 22 year old to start a career as a professional ballet dancer.
What did you do on discovering your passion for dance?
I was determined and undaunted and three days later I turned up at a local Cambridge Ballet School and announced my intention to an astonished director, Betty King, who assumed I meant to take up ballet as a hobby. When I said I was going to be a professional she asked me if I had any money to pay for training. I said ‘no’ but I was prepared to clean studios, work in her garden or do anything to pay my way. I think her curiosity got the better of her and she agreed to give me a try out. I was assigned to the empty male dressing room that had, apparently, not been occupied for 13 years.
In the end she trained me in elementary ballet, tap and what was then called “Stage Modern Dance”, and I also learned ballroom dancing to enable me to partner ladies who attended her evening classes.After a year Betty King said that I needed to go to London to further my training. She thought despite the odds, I had potential and she had given me all she could..
How did you develop your craft?
In London I used the same tactic that had got me accepted in Cambridge, and wormed my way successively into the open classes of freelance choreographers, Hilde Holga, Ernest Berk and the Stella Mann School, all of whom had fled the Nazis and ended up in the UK.
I trained free of charge for a year with Stella and began my tentative forays into simple choreography. For much of this time I was homeless but at some point I was staying with a South African Jewish Family; whose daughter was a friend. The family had fled South Africa, because as ANC members they received threats from the South African regime.This was my first real journey into politics which has remained a passion for me throughout my life.
Why choreography?
I applied to the Rambert school, again with no money, and was accepted. It was at this time I was introduced to the newly arrived Martha Graham technique and freed from the constraints of pure classical ballet. It was at that time I made my first really successful piece; a trio to the slow movement of Mahler’s 5th Symphony.
Angela Ellis, the director of the school, called me into her office and said that she had received some unexpected fees from a parent ( something I have never really believed,) and told me she was sending me to the International Choreography Competition in Bagnolet, Paris, with three of her dancers. I could present my Adagietto there. I went and I won!
As a result I was invited to present a short programme a few months later at another competition to compete for the Fondation de France prize. Again I won and received 1000 pounds prize money, the largest sum I had ever seen, let alone owned, for ‘Outstanding Artistic Achievement’.
I thought I was on my way, but much more was to come, including an apprenticeship with the Royal Ballet and an invitation to study for 6 months in New York with the amazing Alvin Ailey American Dance School.. That was a dream come true..and that’s another story!
See more information about Royston Maldoom’s life at the link below
