Natalia Osipova: Royal Ballet principal dancer talks intimately about her career, new film, Pure Dance & Arthur Pita’s The Mother

Natalia Osipova has often been described as an enigma, as a dancer who keeps her audiences on the edge of their seats with pure but unpredictable performances, that makes you hold your breathe, as you never know what you’re about to experience until this star steps on stage. I had the privilege of being invited into Natasha’s (yes she prefers to be called Natasha, although Natalia is the name on her passport!) home to meet her two gorgeous dogs and her new fiancé, fellow Royal Ballet dancer Jason Kittelberger. We discussed her journey from Russia and the Bolshoi to The Royal Ballet, the challenges and disappointments she’s faced throughout her career, how she prepares to perform and manages the anxiety and emotions that are the driving force of her powerful performances. We talk about her experience of being filmed for Force of Nature Natalia, how she prepared for the dark role in Arthur Pita’s The Mother and much more… This podcast is a recording of the video interview conducted with the wonderful translation by Alice Terekhof. We didn’t plan for this to be a podcast, but the conversation was so honest and revealing that we just had to share. Natalia Osipova is premiering Arthur Pita’s The Mother with Jonathan Goddard (read our interview here) at Southbank 20-22 June; she then heads off to Japan with the Royal Ballet and then returns for the next season in London and also presents her own programme Pure Dance at Sadler’s Wells 22-26 October. Her documentary Force of Nature Natalia is out at Curzon cinemas across the UK. LISTEN TO NATALIA OSIPOVA IN HER OWN WORDS – PRESS PLAY! https://djwpodcasts.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/1wwwod/Natalia+Osipova.mp3 ‘The Mother’ featuring Natalia Osipova photo by Anastasia Tikhonova Natalia Osipova_Pure Dance Leaves are Fading -Dancer Natalia Osipova. Photo by Johan Persson