When superstar prima ballerina Darcey Bussell retired last year her life turned upside down literally

y as she moved to Australia to become a full-time mum. But, as she launches a series of childrens books, has she put away those ballet shoes for good?
By JANE GORDON

Darcey's new world

In the big black and white kitchen of her Sydney home, Darcey Bussell CBE is facing one of the biggest challenges of her life. he internationally famous 39-year-old former principal ballerina with the Royal Ballet who gave her final classical performance to an eight-minute standing ovation at Covent Garden a little over a year ago is baking her first-ever batch of cupcakes in front of a small but highly discerning audience: her two daughters, Phoebe, seven, and Zoe, four. Being a full-time mother is one of the biggest jobs in the world; its like another career for me. I love every moment of it even the challenge of making cupcakes. When I was with the Royal Ballet I was working six days a week and we had to have nannies, and the other day Phoebe turned to me and said, Mummy, are you the mummy-nanny now? she says. Darcey possesses the rare ability to make mundane domestic chores such as baking cakes and filling her childrens lunchboxes (which she does as we talk) look elegantly choreographed. In place of the dainty ballet shoes that were the tools of her previous trade she wears a pair of bright turquoise Crocs, to suit the new life she has embarked on in Australia with her husband, banker Angus Forbes, whom she married in 1997. It was always the couples intention to live abroad for a while after Darceys retirement from classical ballet. Sydney was the obvious choice they live in an Edwardian (or Federation as it is called in Australia) house in the expensive and fashionable suburb of Vaucluse as Angus is Australian and Darcey has her own strong family links with the country; her biological father, who died in 2000, was Australian, as is her adored stepfather. Turning her life upside down in every sense and going to live on the other side of the world has, she says with a contented smile, been a positive experience for the family. Where once her days were dominated by ballet rigorous classes every morning followed by rehearsals that could go on right through until the evening performance in her new role as mummy-nanny everything centres on the children. I get up at about 6.30am to give the girls breakfast and then walk them to school, about ten minutes away. There is no shortage of things to do during the day I am learning to play tennis and I swim a lot and then there are all the chores In the afternoon I pick them up and we might go to the beach, then back for homework, reading and a family dinner with Angus. She pauses for a moment, clearly wary of making her new life sound too idyllic. But you know, its early days its perfect at the moment but maybe we will have too much of a good thing. The lifestyle in Australia, she says, is ideal for bringing up a family offering the girls more space and freedom than they would have in London. The couple are in the process of converting their home into an eco-space with their own water tanks, solar power panels and vegetable garden. Even in the middle of the Australian winter the temperature today is 19 Celsius with bright-blue skies so that, in the late afternoon when we meet, the girls play in the garden with Loli and Pop their two spoodle (spaniels crossed with poodles) puppies while their mother talks. I was worried that they wouldnt notice the difference between the way we are now and the way they used to live children are very adaptable but they have noticed and they are loving it. They keep saying, Oh Mummy, its so good you are not going off on tour, and Oh Mummy, I am so glad you are not going to rehearsals today. They will probably get bored with me soon though, she says, underplaying the evident pleasure the new arrangement affords both herself and her daughters.

'Being a full-time mother is one of the biggest jobs in the world; it's like another career for me. I love every moment of it'
Living in Sydney also gives Darcey a darling of the paparazzi when she was living in London a degree of anonymity under which she can adjust to life after ballet. Because being a ballerina is not, she says with a rueful smile, just a job: it is a way of life. Darcey was born in London to Andrea, a British model, and John Crittle, an Australian designer who was a leading fashion figure in 1960s London. Darcey was adopted by her stepfather, dentist Phillip Bussell, after her parents divorced and her mother remarried (she had little or no contact with her biological father after the age of six when he returned to Australia).

She began Saturday morning ballet classes when she was five and fell in love with becoming a ballerina when her parents took her to a performance of The Red Shoes. At 13 she began studying her art seriously at the Royal Ballets White Lodge School. By 17 she had joined the company and at 20 she became the youngest principal dancer the Royal Ballet had ever had. She was regarded as the most gifted and prominent British ballerina since Dame Margot Fonteyn, and her dazzling career continued even after the birth of her children (a rarity among ballerinas). Bowing out of that (the lifespan of a classical ballet dancer never extends much longer than 35) couldnt have been easy and she admits that the move to Australia has made her retirement less of a wrench. Dancing has always been a passion for me, one that I will probably never be rid of. I knew early on that it is a short career and that there had to be a life after dancing, but its really tough because it is a bug and you are addicted to rehearsing and performing. I think if I was still living in London I would be walking into that theatre every day she says, a little wistfully. Darcey has not entirely given up her old life. She has joined the board of the Sydney Dance Company, a contemporary ballet company, and she has become involved in the creation of a delightful new series of books, Magic Ballerina, aimed at eight to ten-year-old girls. A brief foray into light entertainment earlier this year a three-week UK tour with Katherine Jenkins in the song and dance tribute show Viva La Diva was fun but will not, she thinks, be reprised. Her days are so full and so different that she is not yet aware of any gaping void left by her former career. What she misses, so far, is outweighed by what she doesnt miss: the punishing physical fitness regime that takes up six days a week of a dancers life.

'Dancing is a passion, one that I will probably never be rid of. It is a bug and you are addicted to rehearsing and performing'
Its very unnatural, ballet especially after having children. The physical pushing [training] involved starts to become bad for you because you are also carting round children. 'I began to notice pains that I hadnt had before and I wasnt able to recover as quickly. My body is very happy to have a rest, she admits. (There are no discernible changes to her long lean frame, although, she says with a shy smile, she would rather not wear one of her swimming costumes for our cameras.) Darcey is grateful that she took the advice of a revered, older French ballerina who early in her career warned her not to make the mistake of so many other dancers and not have children. Great ballerinas (as another principal dancer, Jennifer Fournier, recently commented) are usually so focused on their careers that they are left with just cats and memories. Might a third child be a part of Darceys retirement programme? I was told I couldnt have any more after I had Zoe. I was not made to have children nothing to do with ballet [in fact, she had pre-eclampsia in her first pregnancy] and I was just so lucky to have the two I have got. Being able to be with them now is a massive luxury I do appreciate that after 20 years of a full-on career. It was Darceys need to give something back that brought about her involvement with the Magic Ballerina books. The stories Darceys concept but written by an experienced author relate the adventures of Delphie Durand, a little girl who is given a pair of magic ballet shoes that take her into the land of Enchantia where she meets characters from famous classical ballets. I wanted to inspire every little girl who wants to be a dancer, to fire their imagination about the joys of being on the stage. The idea of a magic theatre where all the adventures happen came from Phoebe, who used to come and see me dance when she was small. 'In her childs imagination what happened on the stage was different to what was actually going on. She came to see me in Giselle and when, at the end of the first act, I died of a broken heart she turned to my husband and said, Its all right, Mummy is just having a rest. She is just having a lie-down before the next act.' Darcey has read the books to her girls but she is not encouraging them to follow her into her old profession (although Zoe, like a lot of four-year-olds, currently wants to be a ballerina). They both take ballet class at school but it would be a shame to push them into something I have done most of my life. I think their expectations would be too high for themselves. They would want to be a principal in the Royal Ballet it wouldnt be very fair! So has Phoebe got her own ambition? Well, yes, she has said that she would like to be an artist. She wants to be like Monet. Even more ambitious than wanting to be principal ballerina, laughs Darcey, as the cooker timer rings to indicate that those cupcakes are ready. As she takes them out and places them on a baking rack I ask her if this new life is as rewarding as say a curtain call at Covent Garden, and if she has any other unfulfilled ambitions? Being with the children at their age, when everything is so new, is hugely rewarding. I am learning so many new things how to cook, how to work on a computer. For now, this is all I want. But I am not somebody who can stay still for very long, so ask me again in a year. By then the novelty of all this may have worn off.