Ambra Vallo is about to hang up her ballet pumps but before she does she will be taking to the stage in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre as part of the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s production of Giselle.

Ahead of her last ever performance in Dublin next month, we caught up with the Italian dancer to chat about the pressures of being a dancer and what she plans to do next...

                                               

So Ambra, what made you want to become a dancer?

I was a gymnast when I was younger and then I had a back injury so my mum and dad brought me to a ballet school because it was the most similar thing to gymnastics. It wasn’t a vocation at the beginning of my journey, it was just something else instead of doing gymnastics. But then I really started to enjoy it and got a scholarship when I was 12 to go to France and Belgium. That’s where it all started.

We’re sure you had to sacrifice a lot as a child. What was that like?

I was away from my country, my parents, my friends. You really are away from everything else that a normal kid of that age would experience. You’re in a boarding school with other kids that do ballet. It’s not a normal school. It’s a vocational school so you needed to sacrifice a lot and read up on a lot of things that a normal child wouldn’t experience. And also other little things like pain was normal for us. Like when I was 12 or 13, being in pain was normal for me. If muscles were hurting, if something was hurting, it was normal. A normal child wouldn’t see it in that way.

So is the depiction of ballet in films, such as Black Swan, accurate?

It’s a Hollywood movie so to make it interesting they need to put everything in there. All these things do exist but not in one place. One thing might exist in one company so it’s a bit like a parody. It’s not really like that. Of course it’s hard, there’s competition and you need to look a certain way but not everybody is anorexic. A lot of the dancers are very healthy. It would be the same in gymnastics or a normal work for that matter.

You have been in the Birmingham Royal Ballet since 1996. What has that been like?

It’s been amazing. They’re my family. It’s been an amazing journey. It’s a very friendly company. The people are very supportive of each other and we have healthy competition with each other. We work as a team and are all very close.

What do you enjoy most about what you do?

We are practically athletes but we are actors as well. That is the beauty of it. You do hard technical steps but at the same time you are playing a character. I think that’s the most beautiful part, that you are able to translate these emotions to the audience and create the character. And if you play the same character every day, every time you are performing it will be a bit different. It’s like painting in the same colour but a different shade. That is the beauty of live performance as well.

You are starring in one of the classical pieces of ballet, Giselle. Tell us about it.

Giselle is one of my favourite pieces along with Romeo and Juliet. What I like about Giselle is that the piece is very challenging because act one and two are very different. In act one she is a young girl and very fragile but then she dies and is betrayed so in the second act the style changes completely. She becomes a ghost and it’s very ethereal. It’s very difficult to come across with two different characters.

And you’re retiring soon. Are you nervous about that?

I’m really looking forward to my last show and I’m really happy to have it in Dublin because I think the Irish public are amazing. They’re so enthusiastic and very open. They’re a bit like Italians in that they show their emotions. I think it’s the best place ever to have my last show.

What has been the highlight of your career?

I’ve had a few but one of them would be Princess Diana giving me my promotion to the English National Ballet. She was the patron of English National Ballet. After my first Juliet performance, she came into the dressing room with tears in her eyes and she promoted me so that was amazing.

How about the low points?

I’ve got more low points but it has to be when I was injured with my knee. Before I was operated on I spent many years really suffering. It’s really hard to persist when you’ve got a life setback like that. It’s hard to go through the rehab and try to motivate yourself back again and start from the beginning but it’s part of a dancer’s life. The thing is the reality is very different behind the wings. It’s not what you see on stage. If you could see the show from the wings, you’ve got people in real pain. I danced with a dislocated toe one time. They put it back in and taped it up but I did a really hard show that night. I took so many Voltarol to numb the pain. A normal person wouldn’t have been able to do it. We are quite tough cookies.

So what comes next for you?

I’m going to graduate as I did a Masters in Sports Psychology. I’m already a yoga instructor as well as this summer I’m going for two months to learn all styles of yoga and I’m studying yoga Sports Science so I’m becoming a yoga sports coach. I’ll be working with dancers, gymnasts and ice skaters to help them reach the maximum of their performance. It’s very exciting.

Giselle is showing in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre from July 4th to 6th. Tickets are on sale now (prices start from €25).