As some of you might know I am currently touring the United kingdom with Les Ballets Trockadero de Montecarlo. And as expected a tour cannot be smooth and escape tornados, in this case a tragedy but awaited historic moment. Queen's Elizabeth II passing.
Coming to the UK this year for me was definetely a redemption from the past because for personal reasons my first time here with the company was quite difficult. We started with Program A at the Peacock Theatre which meant Swan Lake, Nightcrawlers and Walpurgishnacht. For my surprise I finally after years of waiting with a global pandemic in between had my debut as a Nymph with the new lovely costumes made by our wardrobe supervisor Nicole Valencia. I felt beautiful at all times and even though I didn't have a tons of rehearsal to prepare because it was a last minute cast change I enjoy every second i was on stage along side Duane Gosa who I admire for a variety of reasons it was an honor to dance next to him. But who would have known what was gonna happen as the weekend approached us.
On Thursday the eight the day felt weird but I did not think any of it we have had shows already so I assume i was just tired. Once the morning went away and I made my way to the theatre, news started coming put about the Royal family feeling concern about The Queen's health but honestly she was quite old so I thought she will get some rich people medicine and be ruling the country again tomorrow as usual, after warm up class and rehearsal while doing my makeup the news came down like fire on the group chat we dancers have : The Queen has died.
I was extremely shocked because different than most of the people in the company, I am European and grew up with Royal family and even though is a little bit of a controvertial opinion, I don't mind them and is part of my culture. I felt for some reason sad but at the same time excited because it doesn't happen every day that you wake up in London and The Queen for the past 70 years dies right when you are 10 minutes away from Buckingham Palace. Because of how the Spanish royal family works I thought, that's it our shows are cancel for the next two weeks but things happen quite different.
It definetely was quiter in the streets but nothng seemed to close down and different than I would imagine the show definetely went on. The only venue that cancel the show that same day was The Royal Opera House because of The Royals been patrons of it but every single other venue in the country continue their activities including ours. Only one thing changed in our show and that was the announcement. For those who have come to our show normally we have a pre-show talk whe changes in the program are announced with some comedy included but for obvious reasons it was replaced by two minutes of silence and the anthem of the United Kingdom.
It was really moving for me personally but is well know the love of The Queen for ballet so I did definetely dedicate my show to her. I could not help to get a bit irritated by some members of the company but I know I cannot blame them because the sense of empathy in America is something that I even forget sometimes because is a move along pace where We don't even have time to know what is happening around Us, so.. silence during the anthem was a lost battle.
The venue communicated with us that shows would not be cancel which for the following week was great knews because it was Program B where I would be doing the Lead ballerina role in Les Shylphides which it has become a cursed ballet at some points been canceled do to external events such us third varient of covid (Omicron) the past December 2021 Joyce season which delayed my Principal debut for several months. Second week felt like a unitopic with everything evolving The Queen's passing with schedule and tons of rumors and a never ending tv programming were you could see her face twenty four hours a day in every single channel. For me was not a burden because I do personally enjoy history and even more if it includes jewels and tiaras. Moving along with the week the same beggining of the show will happen and the news about the funeral the following week will start. At the first moments the production company was talking about cancelling the following show on monday 20th due to holiday to commemorate the funeral but the final decision was to continue as planned and the show will go on which it was a relieve because cancelling on monday meant that on tuesday we will have double show. Which it would be nice if I didn't have a triple bill on pointe making my shows quite hard, definetely not a great idea to be standing on your toes for legit 6 hours a day.
I love my job but as touring company things happen on the road such as injuries and been a small company that's when we all have to pull our weight to make the show happen and even though been on stage is a bless for me, is still hard when you as individual have a great responsabilitiy entertaining an audience that truthfully pay a lot of money to see us and should not know the strentgh need it to acomplished what we do. Our company for years have been looked as a group of drag queens performing around the world but our technical level as society has evolve and our rehearsals and goals are soemtimes ever bigger than a traditional ballet company because honestly is the only way to gain the respect of the ballet world where man are not supposed to go on pointe and portrait female roles on stage.
Ultimetely and with the sad news it has been extremely interesting to be present in The United Kingdom in such a historical moment and to be able to talk about it in the future. Now with everything over and the come back to normality the trip must continue to give the british audience what they deserve, ballet, class and comedy.
XOXO KEVIN GARCIA.
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