Leanne Benjamin OBE: Built for Ballet

Australian ballerina Leanne Benjamin is a self-declared perfectionist - difficult in ballet, where the perfect performance is a tantalising impossibility. Her career took her from rural Queensland to the heights of The Royal Ballet in London. She conquered the great 19th-century ballets, created challenging new work, and revelled in the complex stories of Kenneth MacMillan. Leanne revisits her career in a new memoir, Built for Ballet (written with Sarah Crompton) and discusses her love of coaching, including of young dancers in the RAD's Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition. Leanne Benjamin was born in Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia, and began dancing at the age of three. At 16, she followed her older sister to the Royal Ballet School, then won the RAD's Genée Gold Medal and the Prix de Lausanne. She graduated into Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet (later Birmingham Royal Ballet) in 1983, then danced with London Festival and Deutsche Oper Ballets. She joined The Royal Ballet in 1992, retiring in 2013 after 20 years as a Principal. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia and received an OBE for services to dance. Find out more about the RAD's Fonteyn Competition: https://bit.ly/2RV9Qb7 Follow the RAD on social media, and join the conversation with David Jays. Instagram @royalacademyofdance Facebook @RoyalAcademyofDance Twitter @RADheadquarters YouTube / royalacademydance David Jays @mrdavidjays Sign up to our mailing list: https://bit.ly/3frWPh9 RAD is an independent educational charity and does not receive regular government funding. Every penny we make goes back into the work we do. You can support us by either naming a seat as part of our Name A Seat Campaign: https://bit.ly/3fnxEwm or make a donation: https://bit.ly/3bxA6z5 Leanne Benjamin: Built for Ballet by Leanne Benjamin and Sarah Crompton is published by Melbourne Books. https://bit.ly/3vRhpiM Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.