It sounds like a modern Greek myth: a young woman in exile in Athens, her days of isolation marked out by a relentless rhythm of dance, practice, feedback, practice in a white-walled room.
But this is the Irish ballerina Melissa Hamilton, who chose to test herself against the gods who had advised that, at 16, she was too late for a career in ballet. She won that challenge in heroic style and is now a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet in London. Next month she’ll be appearing at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in her own gala show.
That room in Athens imprinted in her a heightened sense of place, and of the locations that have shaped her life. The original was her family home in Dromore, in the countryside of Co Down, where she lived a happy, active life with her parents and siblings. When lessons in music, sport and dance were on offer, she opted to go to a local ballet class once a week and, as she remembers it, “to play the violin badly”.
A stint at a ballet summer school in Aberdeen, in Scotland, when she turned 13 gave her unexpected impetus. “I was at that stage, really keen, full of dreams, and discovered that there was a system which could even lead to a career. But the other aspiring ballerinas like me were all in full-time intensive training.”
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Back home her always-supportive parents insisted that she do her GCSEs first, but the dream did not evaporate. “When I left school,” the 36-year-old says, “I thought, I can do this.” It was late for a dancer, especially a young girl, to start full-time training, “but I got a place at Elmhurst”, an intensive training school in Birmingham with close links to Birmingham Royal Ballet.
“It was hard,” Hamilton says, smiling at the understatement, “but I was stubborn. I know now that so much depends on character, determination and a commitment to what you believe in.”
After her first year, the naysayers told her she would never make it even to the corps de ballet – but, like the swivelling move of a pointe shoe, a window opened.
One of her tutors, Masha Mukhamedov, saw Hamilton’s defiant spirit – “my stubborn streak” – but told her she would need to go to Greece if she wanted to continue, as Mukhamedov was leaving to join her husband, the renowned Bolshoi dancer Irek Mukhamedov, there. And so Hamilton’s period of exile began.
There was financial investment, too, from her family, and some emotional sacrifice. With absences, family bonds can become fragmented, sometimes never recovering the seamless familiarity, as was poignantly depicted in Principal Ballerina, a recent BBC documentary about Hamilton.
But while her time in Athens involved pain and acute long-distance loneliness, she says it taught her resilience and endurance. She progressed under the strict discipline of Masha Mukhamedov, who was encouraging but also critical and relentless.
In 2007, Hamilton entered the high-profile Youth America Grand Prix as a tryout. She won – and then declined the award of a place in the second company of American Ballet Theatre, as she was determined to keep alive her dream of dancing at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, in London.
It was a whirlwind from then on. On the strength of a videotape, Monica Mason, who was the Royal Ballet’s director at the time, invited her to join a class. “I was so excited, focused and probably even a bit innocent. The room was full of stars: Tamara Rojo, Lauren Cuthbertson, Carlos Acosta. If I had thought about any of that even for a second I was undone, so I just did the class.”
Mason offered Hamilton a place, and she moved onwards and upwards through a mix of sheer luck – taking the opportunity to replace injured stars at the last moment – and, mostly, hard work. She climbed the ranks, rapidly being appointed artist, soloist and, by 2013, first soloist.
An early opportunity that had a lasting influence on Hamilton came from the innovative choreographer Wayne McGregor, whom Mason had lured to the Royal Ballet to help bring new energy and direction to the company.
McGregor’s work, which tends to test the limits of the body, needs dancers who are open to experiment; it was a good match for Hamilton’s already lithe and athletic figure: her flexibility, which was once described as defying gravity, was complemented by a grace and lightness that belied the strength beneath.
McGregor cast her frequently, most recently in MaddAddam, inspired by the dystopian novels of Margaret Atwood.
[ Regal with a severe ponytail: the six foot tall first lady of Irish balletOpens in new window ]
Hamilton took a leave of absence to dance with Saxon State Opera, in the German city of Dresden. “I wanted to explore other parts of the classical canon that I might not get a chance to perform before I retired,” she says.
It might seem strange to be thinking of retirement when you’re only in your late 20s, but anyone whose body is their means of artistic expression needs to remain aware of the potential brevity of their professional career.
That said, dancers are now “so much better looked after: advances in sports science, nutrition and technology all help to extend your life, allowing you to dance rigorously but in ways which don’t depend on technical endurance,” Hamilton says.
She returned to the Royal Ballet in 2017; a few years later the dancer Roberto Bolle, of La Scala Theatre Ballet, in Milan, invited her to join his summer gala – a tour with dancers from other companies that no doubt helped set Hamilton’s own gala ideas in motion.
Her face lights up as she recalls that time in Italy, her sense of place surfacing again. “Can you imagine dancing Juliet in Verona? Such a great arena, full of history and memories ... and the scale ... Dromore has 5,000 inhabitants, and I was there facing an audience of 50,000” over a couple of nights.
By 2024, Hamilton’s dream of becoming a principal with the Royal Ballet had become a reality. “I know it’s considered a bit late in my career, but I was so delighted. It gave me a huge burst of confidence to do more.”
And so, while taking on principal roles at the Royal Ballet, Hamilton found time to establish Hamilton Christou Productions and start to plan her own productions.
Her partner in the venture is her husband, Michael Christou, a designer and property developer of Greek background. Hamilton recognises the irony. “I love going to Greece now,” she says. “It’s my relaxing place.”
Her forthcoming visit to Ireland is another case of coming full circle. “Here I was, dancing with a company which was established by an Irishwoman, Ninette de Valois,” Hamilton says of her role at the Royal Ballet, “so I decided I really wanted to support and bring fine international dance to Ireland. Whenever I was dancing in Belfast, it was wonderful to be back with family in the audience and return to where I began.”
It’s a gentle acknowledgment of her identity. “I am really excited for Luail, the new Irish contemporary-dance company, and to be here during the Dublin Dance Festival,” says Hamilton, who represented the ballet sector on a panel about dance in Ireland hosted by the Irish Embassy in London on St Brigid’s Day, in company with Liz Roche of Luail and, representing traditional Irish dance, Edwina Guckian.
Hamilton’s Dublin gala includes a performance by Ballet Ireland; the company’s artistic director, Anne Maher, is full of enthusiasm about the collaboration. “Melissa is bringing first-rate, excellent dancers, and to be included with our work Stepping Over is so important for our dancers and the future,” she says.
The programme includes excerpts from classical and modern repertoire performed by a fine ensemble gathered from her friends and colleagues in leading companies.
She is particularly enthusiastic about performing La Luna, a piece that was choreographed by Maurice Béjart and most notably performed by the renowned French ballerina Sylvie Guillem.
“It’s a great honour to be approved to dance this solo,” Hamilton says. “It’s full of serenity but with a mix of melancholy and vulnerability yet strength and determination. Dancing it never feels like the same journey twice.”
Melissa Hamilton’s Ballet Stars Gala is at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, in Dublin, on May 9th; it will be at the Grand Opera House, Belfast, from Thursday, October 8th, until Saturday, October 10th; Dublin Dance Festival runs from Thursday, April 30th, until Saturday, May 16th
