Leanne Benjamin

Leanne was born in Australia, where she trained with Valerie Hansen in Queensland until the age of sixteen when she was accepted by the Royal Ballet Upper School in London. Whilst at the School, she won the Adeline Genée Gold Medal in 1980 and the Prix de Lausanne in 1981. She danced the title role in Giselle at the School's annual performance in 1982 and joined Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet in 1983. She was promoted to Soloist in 1985 and to Principal in 1987.

Her repertoire with SWRB (now Birmingham Royal Ballet) included the principal role in Swan Lake, Giselle, La Fille mal gardée, The Sleeping Beauty, Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Kenneth MacMillan's Las Hermanas, Quartet, Concerto, Elite Syncopations, and Hans Van Manen's Five Tangos. She created leading roles in David Bintley’s ballets Metamorphosis (Greta), The Snow Queen (Gerda) and danced the principal girl in Flowers of the Forest. In 1985 she was invited to be the British representative at the World Ballet Festival in Tokyo.

In 1988 she joined London Festival Ballet as a Principal, adding to her repertory the roles of Juliet and Livia in Romeo and Juliet (Ashton), the lead in The Nutcracker, Olga in Onegin (Cranko), Sphinx (Tetley), the Third Movement in Symphony in C (Balanchine), Swanhilda in Coppélia (Ronald Hynd), and the lead girl in Lander’s Etudes. She also created a role in Christopher Bruce's Symphony in Three Movements and danced Odette/Odile in Makarova's production of Swan Lake.

In Autumn 1990 she joined the Deutsche Oper ballet in Berlin under the direction of Peter Schaufuss, where she danced in Bournonville’s A Folktale, Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de deux, Apollo (Terpsichore), Symphony in C (First and Fourth Movement), Who Cares?, Roland Petit's Carmen, Schaufuss’ Giselle, Hans Van Manen's Twilight, Vinogradov’s Paquita Pas de trois, MacMillan's Different Drummer, Panov’s Cinderella and Béjart's The Ring (Brunhilda).

She has made many guest appearances with leading companies. In September 1988, she appeared with The Australian Ballet dancing the Pas de deux from La Fille mal gardée in their bicentennial celebrations. She also danced Peter Wright's Mirrors Walkers Pas de deux at the Royal Opera House in honour of Sir Frederick Ashton. In 1989 she appeared in Madrid, dancing the Pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet and in 1990 she danced the Corsaire Pas de deux with Peter Schaufuss at a gala in Seville. She has made guest appearances with Australian Ballet dancing Giselle and Etudes, various guest performances with K Ballet and the Manon Bedroom Pas de deux with Julio Bocca as part of the Arabesque 2004 Festival in the USA. She also partnered Manuel Legris in Thaïs Pas de deux for the L’entente Cordiale Gala Celebration in Paris and Julio Bocca at the Bournonville Festival in Denmark in June 2005. In August 2008 she made her debut dancing as part of Christopher Wheeldon’s company, Morphoses.

In 1991, she danced Swan Lake as a guest with the Dresden Ballet, and in December of the same year she danced a MacMillan Pas de deux, partnered by Stephen Jefferies, at a Charity Gala for CRUSAID in London. In 1991 she danced the Tchaikovsky Pas de deux and Apollo at the Kirov Theatre, followed by performances of Carmen and Symphony in C in Spain.

She joined The Royal Ballet as a First Soloist in September 1992 and made her debut in MacMillan's Mayerling (as both Mary Vetsera and Mitzi Caspar), Gloria, The Judas Tree (the Woman); Baryshnikov’s Don Quixote (Kitri); Swan Lake (Odette/Odile); The Sleeping Beauty (the Bluebird Pas de deux and Fairy of the Golden Vine); Frederick Ashton's The Dream (Titania) and Cinderella (the Autumn Fairy); and Balanchine's Symphony in C.

She was promoted to the rank of Principal immediately after making her Royal Ballet debut as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake on 13 May 1993. In the following seasons she made her debuts in the title roles of Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, Manon and Anastasia, as Irina in Winter Dreams, the Girl in The Invitation, the First Sister in My Brother, My Sisters, Danses concertantes, La Fin du jour, Requiem, Triad, William Forsythe's Herman Schmerman (First section); Matthew Hart’s Caught Dance, Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker (Sugar Plum Fairy); Ashton’s Thaïs Pas de deux, Voices of Spring, Rhapsody, Cinderella (title role); Balanchine’s Ballet Imperial, Tchaikovsky Pas de deux; Nikiya in La Bayadère and the Don Quixote Pas de deux. She also made her Royal Ballet debut as Princess Aurora in Anthony Dowell’s production of The Sleeping Beauty and Marie in MacMillan’s Different Drummer.

Since the re-opening of the Royal Opera House in 1999 she has made her debut in the second movement of MacMillan’s Concerto, Swanilda in Ninette de Valois’ Coppélia, the title role in Fokine’s The Firebird, the title role in Michael Corder’s Dance Variations, MacMillan’s Triad, as principal female lead in Song of the Earth, Antony Tudor’s The Leaves are Fading, Stephen Baynes Beyond Bach, Christopher Wheeldon’s Polyphonia, the title role in the production of Ashton’s Cinderella, the young girl in Mikhail Fokine’s Spectre de la Rose, the Girl in Blue in Bronsilava Nijinska’s Les Biches, George Balanchine’s Stravinsky Violin Concerto as part of the Second Aria Couple, the female role of the 2nd Principal Couple in Emeralds as part of Jewels and the Girl in Green in Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering.

Since joining The Royal Ballet she has created leading roles in Twyla Tharp's
Mr Worldly Wise, Glen Tetley’s Amores, Ashley Page’s Two Part Invention (Part II), When We Stop Talking (1998 Dance Bites Tour), the Purple Girl in
Michael Corder’s Masquerade (1999 Dance Bites Tour), Wayne MacGregor’s Qualia (World Premiere November 2003), Robert Garland’s Spring Rites (2004 Linbury Studio) Alastair Marriott’s Tanglewood (World Premier 2005), Liam Scarlett’s Despite (2006 In Good Company, Linbury), the Queen of the Earth in David Bintley’s Earth for Homage to The Queen (World Premiere 2006), Christopher Wheeldon’s DGV (Danse à grande vitesse) (World Premiere 2006), Alistair Marriot’s The Children of Adam (World Premiere 2007) as The Girl.

Television performances include the leading role in Bintley's The Snow Queen; a documentary for the BBC Masterclass series, dancing Giselle; and a BBC documentary about David Bintley and the making of Metamorphosis. With English National Ballet she danced the Pas de quatre in the recording of Natalia Makarova's Swan Lake. Her television appearances with The Royal Ballet include the principal role of The Woman in MacMillan's The Judas Tree, the Third Movement of Balanchine's Symphony in C, the Pas de deux from The Nutcracker which she performed at the 1993 Winter Gala and the Pas de deux from Frederick Ashton's The Dream which she danced at the Farewell Gala to mark the closure of the Royal Opera House for redevelopment. In December 1996 she appeared in Carlton Television's Christmas Dance programme, dancing Kitri's Act III solo from Don Quixote. She has performed in several BBC broadcasts from the Royal Opera House; the Opening Celebration in December 1999 where she danced the Pas de deux from MacMillan’s Gloria, in February 2000 the role of Swanilda in Ninette de Valois’ Coppélia, in May 2001 she danced the title role in The Firebird (available on DVD as Stravinsky Staged), in December 2004 she danced Voices of Spring in the Ashton Celebration programme on BBC 4 and MacMillan’s Requiem broadcast also on BBC4. She was also featured in Polly Borland’s photographic exhibition of ‘Australians’ at the National Portrait Gallery.

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