Dame Darcey Andrea Bussell, (born Marnie Mercedes Darcey Pemberton Crittle; 27 April 1969) is an English retired ballerina and a former judge on the BBC television dance contest Strictly Come Dancing.
Trained at the Arts Educational School and the Royal Ballet School, Bussell started her professional career at Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet, but after only one year she moved to the Royal Ballet, where she became the youngest-ever principal dancer at the age of 20 in 1989. Bussell is widely acclaimed as one of the great British ballerinas.
Bussell remained with The Royal Ballet for her whole career, more than two decades, but also performed as a guest artist with many leading companies including NYCB, La Scala Theatre Ballet, the Kirov Ballet, Hamburg Ballet and the Australian Ballet. She retired from ballet in 2007.
Early life
Darcey Bussell was born in London to Australian businessman John Crittle and his English wife, Andrea Williams.
After the couple divorced when Bussell was three, her mother remarried and Bussell was adopted by her mother's new husband, Australian dentist Philip Bussell. The family spent some time in Australia, where Bussell attended school before they returned to London for Bussell to be educated at Fox Primary School in Kensington. She was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of nine.
Career
Bussell studied "all forms of stagecraft" at the Arts Educational School, before joining the Royal Ballet Lower School, based at White Lodge, Richmond Park, aged 13. At 16, she progressed to the Royal Ballet Upper School in Baron's Court, before joining the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet in 1987. While studying at the Royal Ballet School, she appeared in a number of school productions, including performances at the Royal Opera House.
While Bussell was still at school, the choreographer Kenneth MacMillan had noticed her exceptional technique, and in 1988 he decided to use her to create the leading role in his ballet The Prince of the Pagodas to Benjamin Britten's music, which led to her moving to the Royal Ballet. A year later, in December 1989 on the opening night of the show, she was promoted to principal dancer at just 20 years old.
Bussell performed all the major classical roles numerous times throughout her career, including Masha in Winter Dreams and Princess Rose in The Prince of the Pagodas, both choreographed by MacMillan, as well as Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Nikiya and Gamzatti in La Bayadère, the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Manon in L'histoire de Manon, and Giselle in Giselle.
In total, she performed more than 80 different roles and 17 roles were created for her. In Sleeping Beauty alone, she performed Aurora in four different productions, one of which was Sir Anthony Dowell's production which she opened at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in front of President Clinton. She made several guest appearances with the New York City Ballet, starting in June 1993, with a performance of the pas de deux from Agon.
Bussell also guested with the Balletto Della Scala, Kirov Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Hamburg Ballet and the Australian Ballet. She danced the première of Sylvia by Léo Delibes choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 4 November 2004. In 2006, she announced her retirement as a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet, though stayed with the company as guest principal artist.
She retired from ballet on 8 June 2007 with a performance of MacMillan's Song of the Earth (music Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde). It was performed at the Royal Opera House in London, and broadcast live on BBC Two.
In 2012 Bussell participated in the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony, leading a troupe of 200 ballerinas and 4 male dancers from the Royal Ballet. The performance was known as "the Spirit of the Flame" and preceded the official dousing of the Olympic flame.
In 2016 Bussell launched a charity called DDMIX (Diverse dance mix) aimed at bringing dance into state schools. Working with choreographer and dancer, Nathan Clarke, DDMIX features dance elements from various styles including Irish, tango, waltz, jive, Bollywood, disco, flamenco, salsa and 1960s twist.
In 2020, she launched Move Assure, a social enterprise. Teaming up with Dr Peter Lovatt and Lindsey Lovatt, it aims to deliver a dance program that can be used as a social prescription.
Bussell performed the role of the mayor in the 2021 ballet film, Coppelia, a modern adaptation of the E.T.A. Hoffmann story combining live dance with animation.