Claire Fitzwilliam
Once upon a time at the Royal Ballet there were six young women of outstanding talent and promise, so diversely gifted that we looked forward to 20 years of thrilling performances of every ballerina role in the repertory. The year was 1982, or thereabouts, and their names were Brind, Chadwick, Eyden, Ferri, Fitzwilliam and Tucker. None of them, in the end, completed a career at Covent Garden, and of all the ‘might-have-beens’ perhaps the most regretted is Claire Fitzwilliam. Fitzwilliam was born in Cape Town in 1967 and studied locally starting at the age of four. Her mother, Ruth Andrews, had attended Sadler’s Wells with the likes of Antoinette Sibley! (She also happens to be the younger sister of Marion Andrews.) There was no doubt that she would instill this love in one of her four children. Fitzwilliam's former teachers knew they had a talented dancer and urged her parents to send her to a dance school in the USA or the UK, where she would have more options for a professional career. Famous almost as much for her somewhat unreal beauty as for her dedication, stage presence and extremely high extension, she auditioned for the Royal Ballet School in 1978, but was unable to attend until her family moved to London in 1980, when she was thirteen. She won an Adeline Genée Gold Medal Award and a gold metal the Moscow International Ballet Competition in 1981, a Prix de Lausanne win in 1982, and shortly before joining the Royal Ballet, she received a gold medal at the USA International Ballet Competition. If these awards don’t hint at what greatness should have come from her, nor the addition of a Sir Laurence Olivier Award for her role as Giselle in 1985, then perhaps the words of her mentors give a better idea of one of the world’s most-missed and least-influential ballet dancers. Sir Kenneth MacMillan remarked that ‘they had found the next Margot Fonteyn’ and, perhaps, the young dancer would surpass her. She mastered the classics and had some of the most impressive technique in the school’s late history and, along with Bryony Brind, it seemed that there was about to be a revisit to the magical era of Fonteyn and Sibley, one that had been sorely missed. Her ability to perform both the classic roles and MacMillans’ was a gift that would be taken advantage of during her years as a company member. She was accepted into the company before graduating from the school, in 1982. Promotion seemed inevitable for her and she only spent a year in the corps before dancing as a soloist, turning down offers from ABT and NYCB. With many of her talented peers leaving the company, most looked to Fitzwilliam to succeed in the tradition of greatness that was left when Fonteyn retired. She became the company’s youngest principal in 1985 (a title she still retains) and the role she will be remembered for, if anyone remembers her at all, is Giselle. She was the Giselle of her generation. But her interpretion of The Dying Swan is what will stick in my mind forever. Not since the great Anna Pavlova had the dance been as acclaimed as when Fitzwilliam took it to Covent Garden. I remember quite clearly that everyone around me was crying unashamedly as the spotlight dimmed. However, her second most acclaimed role was that of Mary Vetsera in Mayerling, followed by Juliet (MacMillians'). It seemed that only Fitzwilliam could authentically tap into the tragedy of some of the heroines she was appointed to play. Not since Pavlova, some remarked, had anyone seen such character in the characters. It was indeed a rare thing to take your eyes off her. A favourite of many choreographers and teachers, she was mentored personally by Fonteyn, and MacMillian created his Cinderella for her, reworked Mary Vetsera to capture Fitzwilliams’ ‘talent and spirit’, and created a role in The Prince of the Pagodas, which was passed on and recreated by Fitzwilliam’s apparent successor, Darcey Bussell. Fitzwilliam’s personal life caused her to go on a small hiatus in 1987, and she appeared as a guest artist in the Mariinsky Ballet for half of the season before returning to RB. In 1988, she married, and after becoming pregnant in 1989, she returned to Cape Town and retired from dancing altogether at the far-too-young age of twenty two. But by twenty two, she had done as much as many of her contemporaries. It is only a shame that we never got to see what might have become of her. {top}
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