Life
Israel's ballet boss
Joy Sable meets the Brit whose artistic vision has put Israeli ballet on the map
July 8, 2022 15:10
Joy Sable meets the Brit whose artistic vision has put Israeli ballet on the map
July 8, 2022 15:10
Claire Bayliss Nagar has a precious stash of Marmite and Typhoo tea bags in her kitchen in Tel Aviv. These quintessentially British items serve to remind her that, even after living in Israel for many years, her heart belongs to the UK. As artistic director of The Israel Ballet — the country’s foremost classical ballet company — she has a wealth of experience, both as a dancer and teacher, and is among a growing number of women who are at the helm of major dance companies around the world.
Her story began back in Birmingham where, like so many other little girls, she attended local ballet classes, following her two older sisters. It was obvious that she was born to dance. “When I could walk, I started dancing. My mother bought me a pair of little red leather ballet shoes so I could dance at home,” says Bayliss Nagar, speaking from Tel Aviv.
Her mother was a keen amateur dancer and her father enjoyed ballet, but Bayliss Nagar was not allowed to start classes until she was seven.
The Israel Ballet in Sleeping Beauty
“My mother thought I wouldn’t listen to a ballet teacher. She said, ‘As long as you do what the teacher says, if she says stand at the barre, you stand at the barre.’ So I was very studious and good, and did what the teacher told me. I fulfilled my mother’s dream.”
She successfully auditioned for White Lodge, the junior section of the Royal Ballet School, and left home to board there. “I loved White Lodge, I was there from 1974 to 1981. To be in beautiful Richmond Park and looking out of the windows at the dawn and seeing the deer, what’s not to love? It was very special, it was life-changing for me.”
As a student she had the opportunity to dance in productions at Covent Garden, including a memorable season in The Nutcracker, when Rudolf Nureyev played the role of Drosselmeyer. “He was rehearsing us and screaming at us. We were rats and children, and the rats had to jump onto the stage through the holes in the scenery on the chimes of the clock. Oy! If any of us jumped at the wrong time, he went berserk.”
She peppers her recollections with the names of fellow pupils who went on to have starry careers, such as Darcey Bussell and Alessandra Ferri. Kevin O’Hare, the current director of the Royal Ballet, was in the year below hers. On graduation, Bayliss Nagar was devastated not to be offered a contract with either the Royal Ballet or its sister company, the (then) Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet. She had no option but to audition for other companies, and so began a life on the road where she danced in London, Portugal, Italy and Monte Carlo.
It was while she was in Monte Carlo that she met her Israeli husband, Yaniv. When he returned to Israel to take up a job with the Batsheva Dance Company, she followed.
