Wayne Eagling

Early life and training

Wayne John Eagling was born in Montréal, Québec, to Anglophone parents, Edward and Thelma Eagling. He spent much of his childhood and youth in California, where his family had moved. As a boy, he augmented his academic studies by attending classes at the Patricia Ramsey Studio of Dance Arts. There, he developed into a gifted student of classical ballet and, as he matured, was encouraged by his teachers to pursue a career as a professional dancer. In 1965, when he was 15, he was noticed by Michael Somes and Gerd Larsen of the Royal Ballet during the company's tour of the United States and was offered a place at the Royal Ballet School in London. He moved to England in the late 1960s, when "swinging London," the vibrant cultural phenomenon of fashion, popular music, and entertainment, was at its peak. Eagling resisted its allure, however, and remained a devoted student of classical ballet and related arts. A strapping young man, he was invited to join The Royal Ballet in 1969, when he was only 18.

Professional career

Eagling proved to be a valuable addition to the company. A supple and powerful dancer, he was promoted to soloist in 1972 and to principal dancer in 1975. As the product of "an eclectic training with a mix of lots of different methods," he was exceptionally versatile. He performed the leading roles of princes, gallants, and swains in the nineteenth-century classics—partnering such luminaries as Margot Fonteyn, Jennifer Penney, and Merle Park—but he was best known for his work in the twentieth-century repertory. A favorite of renowned British choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, he created roles in a number of his works, including Elite Syncopations, a suite of ragtime dances, and Gloria, an elegiac work about the futility of war. He danced the role of Crown Prince Rudolf in the New York premiere of MacMillan's Mayerling in April 1983. He also danced in ballets by Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Rudolf Nureyev, among others. He was especially admired as Balanchine's Apollo, as Woyzeck in MacMillan's Different Drummer, and as the Chosen One in Glen Tetley's The Rite of Spring, the first male dancer to undertake that dramatic role. While still active as a principal dancer, Eagling began to take part in choreographic workshops sponsored by the Royal Ballet. His first work for the company was Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus, made in 1984. Other works soon followed, mounted for his home company and for companies abroad.

In 1991, Eagling retired from dancing and took up the post of artistic director of Het Nationale Ballet (Dutch National Ballet) in Amsterdam. As chief choreographer, he created a spate of new works in the following years. In 1996, he collaborated with Toer van Schayk on a new production of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Set in Amsterdam around 1810, with skaters on a frozen canal and Saint Nicholas instead of Herr Drosselmeyer, it was an immediate hit with the Dutch public and was later staged by the Finnish National Ballet and the Polish National Ballet. During Eagling's tenure as artistic director, he not only maintained the classical and neoclassical repertory of the Dutch National Ballet but actively commissioned new works by contemporary choreographers such as Ashley Page and David Dawson. After he left his post in Holland in 2003, he worked on the international scene for two years, occasionally staging works for the legendary Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.

In December 2005, Eagling was appointed artistic director of the English National Ballet in London, where he continued to invent new stage works. Notable among them were the witty Men Y Men, set for nine male dancers in 2009, and, in 2010, yet another version of The Nutcracker, a perennial favorite. During his seven years with this company, he was warmly appreciated by audiences and was both respected and beloved by his dancers. In 2012, however, he was forced to resign in a controversial dispute with the governing board over drastic cuts to the company budget.

Roles created

Eagling created numerous roles in the works of Sir Kenneth MacMillan and other choreographers. Among them are the following.

In MacMillan ballets

In other works

Works choreographed

Among the works choreographed by Eagling for various companies are the following.

Legacy

Eagling can be seen dancing on three DVDs that are commercially available. In a Royal Ballet performance of MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet, recorded in 1984 and released by Kultur Video in 2005, he is partnered with Alessandra Ferri, an acclaimed interpreter of the role of Juliet. At the end of 1984, the BBC recorded the New Year's Eve gala performance of Johann Strauss's operetta Die Fledermaus at the Royal Opera House, starring Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Hermann Prey. In the party scene, it featured Ashton's exuberant pas de deux set to the famous waltz "Frülingsstimmen" ("Voices of Spring") and danced with joyous abandon by Eagling and Merle Park. Both these recorded performances show him in the prime of his career. Eagling can also be seen performing the "Four Seasons" ballet from Giuseppe Verdi's opera I vespri siciliani, in a production from the Teatro alla Scala, opposite Carla Fracci to choreography by Micha van Hoecke. The production opened La Scala's season in December 1989.