The Dance Locker: Alina Cojocaru

Welcome to a first look inside The Dance Locker, an occasional series in which dancers, directors and choreographers choose seven works that have particular significance for them, saying a few words about each.

Alina Cojocaru is former principal of The Royal Ballet and English National Ballet. At The Royal Ballet, she forged an unforgettable dance partnership with Johan Kobborg, also celebrated in performances as guest artists with other companies and in galas around the world. After moving to English National Ballet, she performed many lead roles including in Akram Khan’s reimagining of Giselle.

Alina continues to be a guest artist with Hamburg Ballet and to dance as a guest with other of the world’s leading companies.

In 2022, she founded the Alina Cojocaru Foundation, which aims to support the creation and development of new works that inspire wide and diverse audiences. Alina is presently working on a new full-length ballet, La Strada. Based on Federico Fellini’s famous 1954 film and with choreography by Natália Horečná, it premieres at Sadler’s Wells, London on January 25, 2024.

Giselle

The sheer volume of productions I’ve danced of this ballet make it seem like Giselle chose me in a way. The amazing thing is I learn something new with each version and performance of the role, so much so that there is a deep patina to my Giselle now.

There are many personal parallels that mean I feel very close to Giselle’s character. I love her warmth, that people want to be close to her, and her love of dance connects deeply to me. I didn’t think something would eclipse my feelings for dance, but my love for my two girls made me reframe that. In fact, it meant I was able to say ‘hello’ again to dance in richer tones. I’d always felt that despite everything, Giselle wants Albrecht to be free and to find happiness beyond her, but becoming a mother gave me a deeper knowledge of that selflessness.

I think we all understand that love transcends death, and if it can’t actually save somebody, love keeps the energy of that person with you for your lifetime. What fascinates me is how this ballet from 1841 still works today: betrayal happens all the time, both in tiny transgressions and monumental turning points, so the work chimes with us all. I’ve found instinctive moments in Akram Khan’s Giselle and dancing John Neumeier’s production, where Giselle’s mother is blind, which added another layer. I try to bring this along with me to other versions now. Giselle has offered me innumerable experiences to learn about myself, my craft, and love in its different forms.

Liliom (John Neumeier)

What was remarkable about this production was the quality of the guidance I received from someone like John at the front of the room; I could really think and put myself into the steps. It was challenging to discover how to identify with something my personal life doesn’t necessarily align with.

I danced the role of Julie. In Ferenc Molnár’s play, which John follows closely in his ballet, she is hit by Liliom. For me violence in relationships is an absolute forbidden, so the words of the play helped me understand why she would accept this action. It made me think about the power of words to act as tools for dance.

The ballet brought in to focus the side of people we don’t see. Despite Liliom’s darker actions, the inner impulse is actually good. His tragedy is the disconnect between these two things, and why there is a disconnect is a powerful question to try and answer. This context helped me find a deeper motivation for Julie’s actions. Julie and Liliom have an elegiac moment on a bench together and I keep this beautiful moment alive in my mind because it helped me see truths in life. The love they share at that bench can carry someone for a lifetime. Some of us experience just a glimpse of this kind of peace, and others feel it over their entire lives. These fleeting moments are easily missed but they are what bind our relationships. We have to be open to see them and allow those moments to sustain us.

The Glass Menagerie (John Neumeier)

This production is really so special. John had wanted to make this work for a very long time, and he finally found he had the right cast to do so in Hamburg in 2019. For me, the rehearsal process encapsulated what I think must happen in a choreographer’s mind before they really start with dancers, and John was allowing the cast to live in that intimate place with him. By its completion, we didn’t actually feel the piece needed to be seen in a huge auditorium. The Glass Menagerie felt so special and private that people coming two-by-two would have felt more appropriate!

There was a physical challenge for me that stretched my mind since my character, Laura, is physically impaired, but what also strikes me is that we premiered this piece in December 2019 right before the coronavirus pandemic, and then it was first thing I danced afterwards. Suddenly this ballet about a family absorbed feelings nobody could have anticipated because now the idea of ‘family’ held such a different weight for the entire world.

I was always passionate and curious about the timing between people and therefore the real reasons to move, but this ballet brought me to a deeper understanding, to the extent that the music became secondary because we were listening so intently to each other’s physical language. This connection and beautiful awareness between each of us meant every performance was different and that is really fascinating. The true value of working with John for this ballet was how immersive the experience was. It showed me how dance creates a different knowing of one another, indescribable really but no less important to life.

Lady of the Camellias (John Neumeier)

There isn’t one concrete reason for me to choose this ballet other than that I feel it is a ballet one has to experience. At different levels in my career I have found different shades in Lady of the Camellias. It outlines why I love working with John: he prepares you for your artistic journey in the most economic way. One correction unlocks a symphony of discoveries along the course of the ballet.

New things always come out of the process. At one time, John went back to the Dumas’ novel and a new treasure chest of thoughts entered the work. I think it’s like a tree, where you have the trunk and different branches come off it. The trunk offers you an artistic centre to journey from. For me as a dancer, it makes me see the importance of centring myself in who I am right now. I can’t dance Marguerite the same way I did three months ago because I am a different woman. I have happy memories of dancing the role after I had my daughter Chulpan, then other memories of dancing after I’d had pneumonia! It’s a rich place to be when you learn you can use this idea to help your dancing.

Another important practical lesson came from working on the role with Kevin Haigen. He helped me to be fake, since the role requires this, despite this element being so opposite to my natural impulse onstage. His advice to just simply do the steps helped me to problem solve. Now I know the body finds a way: you train yourself to be fake, to be natural, to be a certain way, and eventually it clicks.

Manon (Kenneth MacMillan)

Macmillan’s ballet taught me to ask how deep do I really go within a role? Initially, I felt I couldn’t connect to Manon as a woman because she was so wildly different from me, but this presented a problem because I knew if I did not believe myself in the role, an audience wouldn’t connect with me dancing it.

I had to find a motivation for Manon to leave with Monsieur GM, and looking at history helped. Renaissance courtesans like Veronica Franco had particular talents that displayed their cultural prowess. In Venice these women were permitted an education and access to libraries. This became the key for me.

My Manon’s talent was her intelligence. She has a curiosity and a hunger to learn about the world, and the high-stakes milieu of Monsieur GM and his associates insures her access to a world she wouldn’t otherwise have. The power is exciting for her, especially when she sees the effect it has on the men around her. Manon’s particular tragedy is she thinks she has outsmarted the system. Her naivety means she doesn’t appreciate the full implications of Des Grieux’s love, and she becomes a victim of conditioning from her brother, Lescaut.

The role helped me to understand how to really use a situation on stage for what it is. How can Manon ask the love-struck Des Grieux to commit crimes for her? With this kind of questioning, Manon becomes me and I become Manon, and we see how we bring ourselves to a character and how our own values interact with the framework of the role.

Romeo & Juliet (Johan Kobborg)

This ballet is special because it was wonderful to work with Johan in a different kind of way, similar to working with him on his La Sylphide. It sounds cliché, but working on this story was the thing that initially brought us together earlier in our careers.

I love talking with Johan about his ideas because he sees things I don’t initially see and the dialogue is energising. Filtering myself through his mind to bring out the story in the way he wanted was a wonderful experience. I felt huge excitement, but also a lot of responsibility and I was more nervous than I’ve ever been for anything, probably because I wanted it to be such a success for him.

We premiered the ballet in Verona and we had one performance at the Royal Albert Hall. We have a similar sensibility in that we focus on how to make these well-known and loved stories relevant for today. What are the things we need to think about that will make it most impactful for an audience member today?

For this production the sets work in a symbolic way and seeing Johan’s mind realise this was a privilege. Some of Shakespeare’s action was filtered out to concentrate our story telling and being alongside Johan throughout the process was a really beautiful experience.

La Strada (Natália Horečná)

This production, which has its premiere at Sadlers Wells in January, is meaningful in so many ways for me. Working with Natália taught me to trust that the right things will happen; they don’t necessarily need to be engineered. La Strada is my first full length commission, so I’ve had to hone a new skillset as a producer. The practicalities of the process showed me that I can only do what I can do, and that you have the power to do something at any moment. One small act starts a snowball effect and people react to it and help in their own way. Harnessing the humility to reach out to someone and say ‘I don’t know how to do this, but you do. Can you teach me? I want to learn,’ is revelatory.

What enhances this whole moment for me is the people we’ve assembled for the production. The group is what I’ve always wished for. At its core, the production has shown me life truly is about the journey, the beautiful jigsaw that falls into place. The destination is the same for all of us, but what we choose to do with our journey is in our hands and we have a remarkable way to manage it just by being conscious of what glasses we wear to see life with.

Words by Daniel Pratt in conversation with Alina Cojocaru.

La Strada, with choreography by Natália Horečná and featuring Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg is at Sadler’s Wells, London from January 25-28, 2024.

Coming in early January 2024, Alina Cojocaru looks ahead to La Strada with SeeingDance editor, David Mead.