Laura Morera to Retire

[Ashton Fan]

Dancers have  relatively short performing careers and we all know that at some point each of them however distinguished will choose to retire. The great trick is to leave the stage before it leaves you. Morera has been a company member for more than twenty five years, she received her silver medal a couple of years ago, and despite some inexplicable gaps in her repertory she has almost certainly covered a far wider range of roles that are central to the company's repertory than most dancers manage in their careers. She is technically strong but never lets that get in the way of her performances which are always full of lively artistic and  interpretative imagination. Her career has almost certainly suffered from her versatility and her usefulness She told London Ballet Association that when she was promoted to Principal dancer that she was told that she would still be dancing her usuak repertory which at that time was essentially senior soloist roles where you have to make a mark. At that point in her career she was dancing assorted Prologue Fairies. the Neapolitan dance. Fairy Godmother and Fairy Autumn and leading roles in the Ashton repertory where she had, and has, few equals, as unlike Rojo , she knew that Ashton's choreography, dance vocabulary and style is not something you can put on and take off like an overcoat. 

Morera by her own account arrived at the RBS as something of a bravura technician and initially questioned why she had to go back to basics.She has since said that it was the best thing that could have happened to her for her career as a dancer.Steeped in Ashton from an early stage she understands his musicality and dances his choreography idiomatically and was dancing leading roles in his works.long before she was was given leading roles in the nineteenth century repertory.

Her nineteenth century repertory includes Giselle, Sugar Plum Fairy,Gamzatti and Swanilda. She has an extensive range of roles in the ballets created by the company's own choreographers which includes The Betrayed Girl (de Valois); Lise, Gipsy Girl, Fairy Godmother and Fairy Autumn.Titania,Nathalia Petrovna, the ballerina role in Rhapsody.Lady Elgar, side girl in Symphonic Variations, one of the Blue Girls and Diana (Ashton); Manon  and Mistress, Larisch and Mary Vetsera. Anastasia, and the Woman in The Song of the Earth ( MacMillan); the Red Queen,Paulina and the mother in Like Water for Chocolate (Wheeldon) ; Mary in Frankenstein, leading roles in Asphodel Meadows, Viscera and Symhpnoc Dances (Scarlett). She is making a belated debut as Cinderella when the ballet is revived in a few weeks time and her last appearance on stage at Covent Garden will be as Anastasia in Anastasia act III. She will give her final appearances with the company in A Month in the Country in Japan in July. After this she will work with the company as a coach.

 

[Helene]

An announcement:

https://www.broadwayworld.com/westend/article/Laura-Morera-Retires-as-a-Principal-Dancer-After-27-Years-20230209

[Drew]

I remember quite a few years back seeing what seemed to me a rather wrong-headed performance of Symphony in C at the Royal Ballet. When Morera came out to lead the 3rd movement, I breathed a sigh of relief: 'at last...somebody is moving without looking careful...' From what I have read, it's likely the company's performances in Symphony in C have gotten a lot better since that time, but Morera brought some life to the proceedings when, to my eyes, the rest of the company was still figuring things out.

Hope she continues to pass on her knowledge to future generations at the Royal Ballet and elsewhere...

[Josette]

I find her to be one of the most musical dancers I’ve seen and what a nuanced and profound actress she is!  I have a front row ticket for her last Cinderella this spring - dancing with Matthew Ball - a role she should have been given earlier, and I am so grateful that I will see her as Ashton’s Cinderella. 

[Drew]

5 hours ago, Josette said:

I find her to be one of the most musical dancers I’ve seen and what a nuanced and profound actress she is!  I have a front row ticket for her last Cinderella this spring - dancing with Matthew Ball - a role she should have been given earlier, and I am so grateful that I will see her as Ashton’s Cinderella. 

If you are able, then please do write about it.  

[Josette]

At your request, Drew.