Best Foot Forward

Max Lilley has a lot to thank his grandmother for.

 

“She would always take us to watch ballet,” he smiles. “Every year, we’d see The Nutcracker. I must have around 100 Nutcracker programmes.”

 

But her influence doesn’t stop there. As Max gets set for a two-week run in the Royal Ballet’s adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at The Royal Opera House, the Sternian has been reflecting on where his dance career began.

 

“Grandma said to me that ballet dancers are usually stronger than a lot of rugby players,” he explains. “I was playing rugby here at LWC at the time and thought that if I could do both, then I would be a stronger rugby player and a good dancer. I started taking dance classes and I really enjoyed it. After a few months, I decided that I wanted to take it more seriously.”

 

If you think that’s the point at which Max hung up his rugby boots, then think again. In true LWC style, he continued to do both for some time.

 

“I did a summer school in ballet and I came back to LWC for the start of term and continued with the dance training. But I also continued with rugby, because I loved it. About a year later, my rugby coaches were telling me I was a lot stronger and more flexible and that they thought it was down to the ballet.”

 

Eventually, Max did have to make a choice and that choice was dance. This is a decision that has proven fruitful. Having ended his time on the English National Ballet Trainee Programme earlier this year, he cites the ENB’s Giselle and Swan Lake as some of his most recent work, before taking the role of a guard in Christopher Wheeldon’s interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s surreal family tale.

 

“LWC encouraged me to do everything and be the best I could be. It made me strong and resilient towards anyone who told me that I couldn’t do something. If a director were to tell me now that they didn’t want me, I know that’s fine and another one will. It’s about character building and believing in yourself. I tried everything and found the thing that I loved.”

— Max Lilley, Sternian

 

“Nothing else matters when you’re on stage,” he reveals. “You enter this bubble and everyone in it wants the same thing. We’re all there because we love it and because we’re good at it.” He admits that ballet appeals to his love of order and precision. “There’s a certain look to it,” he explains. “I love the control of it. If my bookshelf at home isn’t looking right, I’ll change it all around until everything is at the perfect height. It’s the same with ballet. It’s so defined.”

 

Naturally, achieving perfection is no easy feat. At just 19, Max has had to make a number of sacrifices already. “You have to constantly push yourself; there’s no one telling you to stay longer after class and practise, or anyone to help you to remember the steps. There’s also no one to tell you that you don’t need to go out on a night out with a group of friends so that you can stay home and rest for the next show.”

   

But Max is well aware of the repercussions of not being on top form at this level of ballet. “You have to constantly be ‘thinking’ when you’re on stage,” he explains. “There are always people around you and you have to watch where they are. Some teachers will watch the performance from the front, but then they’ll also go above. If the pattern doesn’t work, they’ll tell you and they’ll move you. But being on stage for companies like the English National Ballet holds a lot of responsibility. If I do badly, they won’t choose me again, so you can’t afford to put a foot wrong. But it’s so much fun and the applause afterwards is lovely.”

 

Max’s average day is no nine-to-five. “It usually starts at around 11 and if it’s a double show day, you’ll finish your ballet class at around 12.30. They are always an hour and a half, minimum. You then get ready for the first show, which often starts at 2.30. An hour before curtain-up, the stage will be available for you to use to warm-up. After the first show (which is usually around two hours long), you’ll have a break to get some food or socialise. Quite often, the teachers will come and sit with you. In a company like the ENB, there’s a very relaxed feel and so it’s really nice. Then you’ll get ready for the second show and you’ll finish at around ten to ten thirty.”

 

Whilst Max knew that dance was something he wanted to do from a relatively young age, he also admits that it’s brought some unexpected benefits to other areas of his life. “Ballet and dance fed everything,” he continues. “It made everything else so much better: hand-eye coordination, memory and maybe my dyslexia plays a part in that. We have to pick up steps really quickly and remember them, which in turn helps everything else.”

 

When asked how LWC fits into the story so far, Max is unequivocal. “LWC encouraged me to do everything and be the best I could be. It made me strong and resilient towards anyone who told me that I couldn’t do something. If a director were to tell me now that they didn’t want me, I know that’s fine and another one will. It’s about character building and believing in yourself. I tried everything and found the thing that I loved.”

 

Max Lilley is performing in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at The Royal Opera House from Friday, 13^th until Saturday, 28^th June.