BALLET ROYALTY

Watching ballet dancers perform, there’s no doubting their gracefulness, elegance and beauty. But they are athletes too and each of them puts their body on the line in every performance. Three of the Royal Ballet’s ballerinos tell us how they keep in shape, what their bodies mean to them and how that can affect relationships

PHOTOGRAPHY: JENNY BOUGH FASHION & WORDS: JOSEPH KOCHARIAN

Marcelino and Valentino, all clothing dancers’ own

Valentino wears coat, £1,280, leggings, £490, both by Versace

Calvin wears poncho, £250, by Y-3

Marcelino wears blazer and trousers, both by Moschino, POA

Valentino wears vest, £280, by Wooyoungmi at Farfetch, trousers, £149, by Tiger Of Sweden

Marcelino wears tights, dancer’s own

Calvin wears jacket, £150, trousers, £100, top, £50, all by Topman Design

HAIR AND GROOMING: Cat Wyman using Bumble and bumble and Mac Cosmetics FASHION ASSISTANTS: Nick Byam, Umar Sarwar and Cory Labrosse

Valentino wears bib shorts, £157, by Café du Cycliste at Matches Fashion

VALENTINO ZUCCHETTI FIRST SOLOIST

What’s your favourite role of all the ones you’ve danced?

My favourite roles are usually the ones that require interpretation, so it can be Lescaut in Manon, or Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, roles that require acting as well as dancing.

In terms of your body, you have class every morning, rehearsal and then you have to perform on stage most evenings. How do you keep your body in peak condition?

I am rigorous and a bit extreme because we normally start at 10.30am. But I treat ballet class as working on muscles and placing myself for the day, rather than warming up. So I do a onehour warm up beforehand. That means I have a whole routine in the morning to prepare my body before class, then class is a way to get my body placed. The key to keeping your body in peak condition is to have the right balance of nutrition, rest and training and that’s what I do.