Darcey Bussell

Darcey Bussell (born April 27, 1969, London, England) is a British ballet dancer and celebrity of the late 20th century. Renowned for the energy and passion of her performances, she was one of the youngest artists to serve as principal dancer in the Royal Ballet of London.

At age 13 Bussell began attending White Lodge, the lower school of the Royal Ballet. Although she had studied ballet since she was a small child, she started her serious training later than most students at the school; consequently, she initially experienced difficulty with the strenuous exercises and dance routines. She persevered nevertheless, and in 1986, when she was 17, she was chosen for the lead in a school performance at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House. In the same year, she also won the Prix de Lausanne (a major international dance competition held annually in Lausanne, Switzerland). After Bussell graduated from White Lodge in 1987, she was taken into the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet (later Birmingham Royal Ballet). A year later she was back at the Royal Ballet as a soloist, having been selected to create the role of Princess Rose in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s new version of The Prince of the Pagodas. She was promoted to principal dancer the day after its premiere in 1989, and in 1990 she was named Dance & Dancers magazine’s Dancer of the Year.

Bussell was equally at home in such dramatic classical ballets as Giselle and Romeo and Juliet and in the more modern works of such choreographers as George Balanchine. Her fame was not confined to the ballet stage, however. With the beauty, height, and long legs of a supermodel, Bussell found her way onto the pages of Vogue and Vanity Fair fashion magazines. She also appeared on television with various celebrities and screen-tested with Harrison Ford for the remake of the classic movie Sabrina (though the part finally went to an actress believed to have greater name recognition). In London her portrait was hung in the National Portrait Gallery.

Bussell performed every major role in the Royal Ballet’s repertoire and made frequent guest appearances with such companies as the New York City Ballet, the Paris Opéra Ballet, and the Frankfurt (Germany) Ballet. She was praised especially for the purity and radiance of her dancing, her strength and dynamism, and the intelligence and passion with which she portrayed her characters.

Bussell continued to perform for more than a decade. In 2007 she retired from her dancing career, but only after drawing extended thunderous applause for her final performance in MacMillan’s Song of the Earth at the Royal Opera House. She later immigrated to Australia with her family, where she subsequently produced a series of ballet-themed children’s books. In 2012, however, she moved back to London. Bussell frequently appeared on television, and she notably was a judge on the reality series Strictly Come Dancing (2009; 2012–18). She also played the mayor in Coppelia (2021), a live-action and animated film adaptation of the 19th-century comic ballet.

Bussell was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1995, Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2006, and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2018.