Young stars get ready for Swan Lake at The Hawth

Swan Lake, one of the world's favourite classical ballets, comes to The Hawth, Crawley, in a dramatic production by English Youth Ballet.
Daniella Guillen-HallDaniella Guillen-Hall
Daniella Guillen-Hall

The show is at the venue on Friday, November 25 (7.30pm), and Saturday, November 26 (2.30pm and 7.30pm).

Dharam and Daniella are among the young stars.

Dharam Gill, 13, is from Langley Green. He goes to Hazelwick School and is training at Stages Performing Arts. In Swan Lake he is dancing as a member of the Mariinsky Ballet Company and also a Spanish Dancer.

Dharam GillDharam Gill
Dharam Gill
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Daniella Guillen-Hall, nine, is also from Langley Green. She goes to Langley Green Primary School and is training at the Louise Ryrie School of Dance and Drama. Daniella is a Cygnet in Swan Lake.

Dharam said: “I was nine years old when I started dancing. I started because my mum told me that she saw my sister’s dance school had a street dance class and thought I could go to it. My dance teacher Caroline told me I had a lot of potential so should join the other classes. I go to dancing every day of the week except for Friday. So I think I dance for about 27 hours a week. I had to give up gymnastics for dancing because I wanted to do more dancing.

“Dance is so important for me. I have just auditioned for Matilda in the West End and I got into the finals and I won’t know if I got in until Friday. I have made so many friends at dancing and it gives me something to do in the week days.”

He was delighted when his audition for English Youth Ballet was successful: “I felt really happy because I thought it could go on my CV and it would make it look better. I thought it would really help my ballet.

Dharam GillDharam Gill
Dharam Gill
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“I find the rehearsals really fun because I am never sitting down and am always dancing. We have finished all of our dances and it is coming together really well.”

Daniella said: “I started dancing when I was two-and-a-half, I think. I started because I saw the ballet Don Quixote on the TV and I just really wanted to dance. I go to dancing six days a week. My only day off is Tuesday but I love it! I once had to miss a party and my mum just had to miss parents’ evening at school because I was going to ballet. Dancing is really important to me because I have done it for so long and I just really love it. I think ballet makes me focus on just the good things and forget about anything bad.”

“I am a Cygnet in the ballet,” Daniella continued. “The Cygnets dance a lot with the Swans in Act 2 and 4. The Cygnets are quite fierce sometimes.”

“The ballet is looking really good because everybody knows what they are doing now. I like rehearsing with the professionals because it is so exciting to meet them and they are such good dancers.”

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Tickets cost £23.50 (discounts £21.50, Saturday 2.30pm £20, groups of 10 or more £20 with one free in every 10). Call 01293 553636.

English Youth Ballet’s production of Swan Lake is set in 1895 Imperial Russia and tells of love, rivalry, greed and murder. The action takes place in the Mariinsky Theatre – where the Mariinsky Ballet are preparing for a production of Swan Lake – and the sumptuous Royal Palace of the Tsar. Two unlikely lovers meet Odette, a dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet and Prince Sergei, son to the Tsar. The Tsar must ensure that Prince Sergei does not marry beneath his station. Equally, the tyrannical Baron Von Rothbart would do anything to secure a royal patronage for his ballet company.

He would even manipulate his own daughter...

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