One wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of Tamara Rojo. The most fearsome figure on the British dance scene since the authoritarian reign of Ninette ‘Madam’ de Valois, she has capped a brilliant international career as a prima ballerina with a formidable decade as artistic director of English National Ballet (as well as the award of a PhD, the patented invention of an anti-bunion device and the birth of her first child at the age of 46). She is now about to move on with her dancer husband Isaac Hernandez, 16 years her junior, to a similar position in San Francisco. The Bay Area doesn’t know what a tornado is on its way.
How does her achievement at ENB stack up? Her managerial style has been, er, forceful, and it has yielded results. Nothing if not ambitious, she has undoubtedly raised the overall standard of dancing in the company, though she has struggled to find women to promote to the highest level.
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