Sarah Wildor
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Sarah Wildor (born 1972) is an actress and a dancer. She is most noted as a former principal dancer with The Royal Ballet, a leading international ballet company based at the Royal Opera House in
Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
, London.


Background

Wildor was born in 1972 in Eastwood, Essex, England. She received her professional dance training at both the lower and upper schools of the Royal Ballet School. She joined the Royal Ballet in 1991, was promoted to Soloist in 1995, then Principal in 1999. During her career with the Royal Ballet, she was celebrated for her musicality, grace, intensity and personality. She resigned from the Royal Ballet in 2001 to freelance and expand into Musical Theater and acting. Wildor married the actor, dancer, choreographer (and former Royal Ballet principal) Adam Cooper in 2000 and they have two children, Naomi and Alexander.


Selected repertoire with Royal Ballet


Productions by Dame Ninette de Valois

* Coppélia


Productions by Sir Frederick Ashton

* Cinderella *
Daphnis and Chloë ''Daphnis and Chloe'' ( el, Δάφνις καὶ Χλόη, ''Daphnis kai Chloē'') is an ancient Greek novel written in the Roman Empire, the only known work of the second-century AD Greek novelist and romance writer Longus. Setting and styl ...
* Enigma Variations * La Fille Mal Gardée * Ondine *Rhapsody *The Dream


Productions by Sir Kenneth MacMillan

*Anastasia *Concerto *Gloria *The Invitation *
Manon ''Manon'' () is an ''opéra comique'' in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel '' L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'' by the Abbé Prévost. It was first ...
*
Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...


Productions by Sir Peter Wright

*
Giselle ''Giselle'' (; ), originally titled ''Giselle, ou les Wilis'' (, ''Giselle, or The Wilis''), is a romantic ballet (" ballet-pantomime") in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, ...
* The Nutcracker ;


Freelance Dancer

Wildor took a leave of absence from the Royal Ballet in 1997 to play the lead in Matthew Bourne's ''Cinderella'' in London and in Los Angeles. Upon leaving the Royal Ballet in 2001, after a decade at Covent Garden, Wildor guest-starred with Scottish Ballet. She played the Young Girl in the company's revival of Frederick Ashton's 1961 romance ''The Two Pigeons''. It opened at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre in 2002. Later in 2002 Wildor together with Adam Cooper presented a tribute to Sir Kenneth MacMillan at Exeter and in Japan. Wildor played the role of Madame de Tourvel in a newly interpreted, 2005 production of '' Les Liaisons Dangereuses''. This version was conceived as a mixture of mime and dance. It was co-directed by Adam Cooper and Lez Brotherston, and choreographed by Cooper who also played the role of Viscomte de Valmont. The piece premiered in Japan early in the year before a summer season at Sadler's Wells.


Musical Theatre

Her first role in Musical Theatre was in 2002 in
Susan Stroman Susan P. Stroman (born October 17, 1954) is an American theatre director, choreographer, film director and performer. Her notable theater productions include '' The Producers'', '' Crazy for You'', ''Contact'', and '' The Scottsboro Boys''. She i ...
's dance musical Contact and she was nominated for a
Laurence Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known as ...
for Best Actress in a Musical. She followed with the female lead role in the 2003 production of ''On Your Toes'', with Adam Cooper providing the choreography and playing the male lead. Most notable was their duet to Richard Rodgers 'Slaughter on 10th Ave'. Wildor played the vampish Russian ballerina Vera Baronova, the role in which Natalia Makarova made a huge impact in the last London production 20 years ago. In 2009 she and Cooper again danced the famous 'Slaughter on 10th Ave' ballet (to different choreography) in a show called ''Shall We Dance'', conceived by Adam Cooper. This stage production was an ambitious all-dance show based on Richard Rodgers' songs and was directed and choreographed by Cooper. It was performed at Sadler's Wells.


Theatre

She played Elizabeth in the 2004 Joseph Wright's production of ''Frankenstein'' (based on the Mary Shelley classic) at the Derby Playhouse. Reviewer Alfred Hicklin says: "Sarah Wildor's willowy Elizabeth is particularly impressive, given that she has little to do but wring her hands in despair; the accomplishment of her gestural language is testament to her former career as a principal with the Royal Ballet." Wildor appeared in Shakespeare's ''Midsummer Night's Dream''. Sarah Wildor and Adam Cooper appeared in 2005 at the Seven Oaks Playhouse in a new production of Australian Peta Murray's 1991 two-hander ''Wallflowering'' under Julian Woolford's direction. They played a suburban Australian couple in Murray's comedy about love, marriage and ballroom dancing. The play includes short dance sequences, which counterpoint the dialogue scenes, and there is a continuous alternation between speech and dance. Wildor played an "awful dancer" in director Gavin McAlinden's 2007 production of ''You Can't Take it With You'' at Southwark Playhouse. This is a 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy from Moss Hart and George S Kaufman.


Other

*Sarah Wildor is a patron of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing Classical Ballet Faculty * Wildor was one of the judges at the 2014 finals of the Opera House competition of young British dancers.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wildor, Sarah 1972 births Living people People educated at the Royal Ballet School English ballerinas Dancers of The Royal Ballet Date of birth missing (living people)