Natalie Leftwich: Cover Girl

Here we bring you some excerpts from a recent interview Natalie gave for Northern Exposure our Friends publication. The full article appeared in the May 2004 issue. For more information on our Friends organisation, and to find out how you could recieve Northern Exposure 4 times a year, click here.

Where were you born and raised?

I was born in Beckley West Virginia and lived there until I was about nine. I think I’d finished third grade and was just going into fourth when my dad got a new job. He’s a Presbyterian minister and he preached at a church in Beckley until he got a better job – as head of the Presbytery of Eastern Virginia, and we moved to Virginia beach. (Situated on America’s east coast Chesapeake Bay, famous for pirates and glorious seafood.)

Above: Natalie dancing in Lambarena, part of our recent Mixed Programme.

Did you have a calling?

To Ballet? (she’s laughing again) Beckley was a really small town so when I went to Virginia I’d left my best friends, my school was much bigger, I basically had to start over - it was really hard for me. I started ballet classes and didn’t like the teacher so I gave it up for a year until my mom found a better school for me, the Virginia Beach Ballet Academy. I stayed there until I went to BalletMet to train with Yoko Ichino..

I don’t really remember any life changing moment, when I thought yeh, this is my calling. I just kept doing it because I liked it. It wasn’t until I left home to go to BalletMet that I thought, right, this is what I want to do for my career. I just had fun. I didn’t really know about any dancers, I wasn’t constantly watching dance videos. I had friends who were like that, who were obsessed (she pulls a face). I used to feel guilty about this, like I should be the same, be more into it all. Then again….most of my friends ended up quitting! I did however, wear my first ballet shoes constantly – my mom said I slept in them!

Then, at sixteen, I left home for the very first time and went to BalletMet for a summer. It was there that Yoko said ‘we really think you should come and train with us’ which would mean moving to Columbus. That summer was the first time I’d been away, I didn’t want to leave home! So I went back home for another year and got involved with the drama programme at school, doing all the musicals, stuff like West Side Story and Joseph. I also did lots of plays and became a National Thespian. I went back and joined the BalletMet professional training programme in 1997, then spent a year as an apprentice in the company before joining Northern Ballet Theatre in 2002.

Was it a big decision to move to England?

Oh yeh, I’d wanted to move when David (Nixon) left, but he knew and I knew that the best thing for me was to stay in Columbus for a year. My only year as a company member was the year David went to England, so it was kind of strange.

You’d not been out of America before?

No, I had to get a passport. I’d never been to England though apparently Leftwich is an English name! People say what a strange name – but it’s English! (It’s also a village in Cheshire) It was such a great opportunity and Christian (Broomhall) had filled me in on who everyone was, so when I arrived I felt I knew everyone and Martha (Leebolt) was here as well, who I knew from BalletMet.

It’s funny because sometimes I feel like I don’t know where home is. My parents never lived in Columbus with me and I lived there for five years, so that felt like home though none of my family lived there. My parents moved to Tennessee while I was at BalletMet so I’ve never lived where they live. Sometimes I definitely miss the States I miss having a car, I miss….just the atmosphere sometimes but I think that’s just because it’s home, not necessarily because it’s better, it’s just different, it’s just a home thing, you know - that feeling of being comfortable? I like being here, I’m very happy here but a lot of that has to do with work. I love working for David I think he’s remarkable, he gives us so many wonderful opportunities.

Do those opportunities or roles ever make you nervous?

I get nervous the first time I’m doing something. I just try and go out there and have a good time. Except, maybe, Lady Capulet. That was a bit different because I was even nervous in rehearsal, the first time David was watching. And when Massimo (Moricone) came, he’d created the ballet on dancers that were still in the company and I felt really intimidated because I was first cast. I kept thinking ‘why are they putting me in? I’m not ready for this.’ But then you know you’ve just got to go for it and do the best you can. That was really my first, big, theatrical role. I remember talking to Noi (Tolmer) before she left, as she’d done the role and people said she’d been amazing in it. She talked me through and kept saying ‘you’ll be great’ and by the time she’d finished I just couldn’t wait.

That mad scene at the end of the second act is all you do in that act, so you sit there just waiting, you know - to get mad! It’s difficult because when Lady Capulet comes on she’s not supposed to know what’s happened and I’d have got myself to the point where I already knew, I’d already felt everything I was going to feel. If I did it again I’d have to work on that. There are some nights when it just doesn’t feel as good but then you get good feedback, and notes, and you get more confident with each show.

Above: Natalie on set at the Dangerous Liaisons shoot.

If you hadn’t chosen dance for your career what would you be doing?

I might have stuck with acting and I was once scouted by this modelling agency, so I thought about that. I had head shots taken but I never took it any further. I mean there’s so many other things…

..Like being on a poster? (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

Oh that was cool! I was so-o proud about that. It was really, really fun. Everyone back home wanted copies. I took posters back last summer and my mom had it framed and hanging somewhere in their house within the week.

It was funny seeing them on the underground in London and one night we were walking outside the theatre and Keiko (Amemori) looked at it and said in a really loud voice ‘Isn’t that you?!’ so that everyone could hear.

So what do you want for the future?

Oh gosh! I just feel like I’ve been given such wonderful opportunities – maybe I should knock on wood, but I don’t feel like they’re going to stop. Everything’s going so well that I just want to keep doing what I’m doing. Just keep improving, doing better, working hard. It’s tiring, it’s hard work, but I chose to take this career path and I can choose to change it. If I ever get to the point when I find it too tiring, tedious or not fun any more – that’s when you decide to veer off in a different direction. Right now, I don’t see myself doing that real soon.