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There is more to life than dance and more to a performing career than elegantly pointing your toes, even if, like Adam Cooper and Sarah Wildor, you do it rather well. As classical dancers, they reached the peak of their profession. They became Royal Ballet principals, they were showered with roles, they met each other - and thenthey left. It's not easy to leave the Royal Opera House's cushioned environment for the great outdoors. But those who do, do it for the freedom and variety. In Cooper and Wildor's case this means the chance to tackle musicals such as Rodgers and Hart's On Your Toes, which comes to London's Royal Festival Hall on Monday, 18 months after its premiere at the Leicester Haymarket.
Cooper had only been in the Royal Ballet a year when Sylvie Guillem picked him to partner her in Balanchine's Symphony in C and Tchaikovsky pas de deux. He was good- looking, green (just 19) and, most pertinently, tall enough for Guillem. Never a real virtuoso, his qualities were more to do with projection and, despite his inexperience, an aplomb that had everything to do with OK-let's- give-this-a-try and nothing to do with conceit. These qualities quickly brought him other roles: Romeo, Crown Prince Rudolf in Mayerling and the lead swan role in Adventures in Motion Pictures' male Swan Lake, plus a cameo appearance in Billy Elliot, both of which brought him general fame.
Cooper left the Royal Ballet in 1997, when it refused him leave to fulfil a Los Angeles run with this Swan Lake and he decided that he wanted a more multi-faceted career. Four years later, Wildor also left the company(her departure coinciding with Cooper's return to guest in Onegin). ROH audiences had...