Romeo returns to the Royal Opera House

Growing up in Australia, Steven McRae dreamed of attending the Royal Ballet School in London. At 17, he achieved his goal and today he is a principal dancer at the Royal Opera House, starring in Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake.

In the heart of Covent Garden, the Royal Opera House has been home to the Royal Ballet since 1946. For Steven McRae, growing up in Sydney’s western suburbs during the eighties, the idea of performing on the hallowed Opera House stage in London was just a pipe dream.

“My upbringing was not glamorous. I grew up in quite a rough area. My family loved motorsport and my father was a drag racer and auto-electrician, so my sister and I were brought up at the racetrack,” says Steven.

It was watching his older sister dancing that first sparked his interest in ballet. “Aged 7, I said to my parents that I’d like to have a go and they never questioned it. They always said, ‘He wants to dance, so why not?’”

A ballet teacher was found but, although Steven’s prodigious talent was never in doubt and his parents were supportive, there was no way they could afford to send their son to train at the Royal Ballet School in London. 

Scholarship Pays

“It’s one of the most expensive schools on the planet!” says Steven. “But my teacher told me about this competition called the Prix de Lausanne which could open doors. So, in 2003, I arrived in Switzerland with my mum. I’d never been to Europe before. The only reason I could get there was because I’d won a dance competition and the prize money paid for my flight.”

The journey was worthwhile. Steven won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School and within hours, he and his mum were on a plane to London. “My mum had one night with me in London and then had to leave: I didn’t know a soul.”

At just 17, Steven’s first impressions of London were mixed. “Initially I hated it because my feelings were intertwined with homesickness. It was also winter, so that was a shock. I turned up with a pair of jeans and a jumper, thinking that was enough for a London winter!”

Although Steven struggled, his drive to succeed kept him going, as did his friendship with Elizabeth Harrod who would later become his wife.

 

Kindred Spirits

“I met Lizzie on my first day. She told me that it would get easier. She had boarded at the school since the age of 11. She’s from Yorkshire and would go six weeks at a time without seeing her family. We danced together and our friendship grew. When we became professionals, she went to Norway for a few years and I joined the Royal Ballet, becoming a soloist in 2006. When a soloist contract came up for her at the Royal Ballet in 2007, she came back and we were able to have a proper relationship.”

The couple married in 2011, the year that Steven won Best Male Dancer at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. They went on to have three children – Audrey, 6, Frederick, 4 and Rupert, 2. Elizabeth recently retired and Steven now juggles family life with the demands of being a principal.

“Our start time can be anywhere from 4 am to 6 am – our children just don’t sleep. They come in like pocket rockets and then it’s breakfast and getting dressed for school. I leave the house at 8am and arrive at the Opera House, go to the gym, then to Pilates and our daily ballet class. From midday, rehearsals begin. If there is a performance, rehearsals finish at 5.30 pm; the performance starts at 7.30 pm and finishes at 10.30pm. So, I usually have 12-hour days, six days a week.”

Injury Time

It sounds exhausting but Steven, who has spent the last few years recovering from an injury, is just glad to be back in action. In 2019, when he was playing des Grieux in Manon, he tore his Achilles tendon. He explains, “Just over four years ago my Achilles started to play up and I couldn’t walk properly and was on a lot of anti-inflammatories. Eventually, I had three procedures to try to correct things. I got back on stage after each operation and even filmed the role of Skimbleshanks in the Cats movie and did a master’s degree in marketing – it was bonkers! And then our third child arrived. Six weeks later, I was preparing for Manon but I was still in pain. I had a meeting with my medical team and said, ‘I’m in pain if I don’t dance and I’m in pain if I do, so I’m going to keep taking those tablets and dance.’”

And dance he did, until disaster struck – in front of an audience of 2,500 people. Steven takes up the story. “In Act 2 I took a little jump and thought I had tripped over something. I went to step again but didn’t have a leg to stand on, literally. I signalled to the stage manager and she had to tell the orchestra to stop and they brought the curtain in. Then I was lying in the wings in agony, the adrenalin had gone and you could see a chunk was missing from my leg where my Achilles had snapped and ricocheted up. It was horrific.” Momentarily, Steven thought his career was over but Royal Ballet Director, Kevin O’Hare convinced him otherwise, saying, “You will dance again.” Back to Ballet And with the true grit that saw Steven rise from first artist to principal in just four years, Steven did take to the stage again, in October 2021, playing Romeo. The production runs through to February and Steven is keen to encourage new audiences. “I didn’t come from the ballet world and I can see why people might say, ‘That’s not for me.’ If you’ve never seen a ballet, Romeo and Juliet by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House is the one. Most people know the story, Prokofiev’s score is incredible, there is naturalistic acting, beautiful partnering where the ballerina looks like she’s floating and sword fights.” On his Instagram feed, Steven posts photos of him working out to give followers an insight into his profession. “I want to show the athlete behind the artist; I want to inspire more people to check out ballet.” And judging by his huge following, the boy from the suburbs of Sydney who took the Royal Opera House by storm, is doing just that.   Steven's London What is your favourite London memory? Our wedding: we got married at Somerset House in 2011. My family came from Australia and Lizzie’s came from Yorkshire. We chose London because that was the place that brought us together. Another favourite memory is performing at Buckingham Palace. As a kid, I occasionally saw news about the Royal Family, and to find myself performing at Buckingham Palace in front of the Queen was a very odd scenario for a boy like me. Where do you like to eat in the capital? A little Michelin starred restaurant in Kew Gardens called The Glasshouse: I feel really lucky that our village has such a wonderful restaurant. In central London, we love going to Hakkasan for Chinese food and Nobu for Japanese. Where do you go to unwind? A few weeks ago, we were invited to a new spa near Covent Garden called Aire. There are ancient baths underground with different thermal temperatures: I was blown away and that’s my new place to unwind! What or who have you got on speed dial? Just my wife, she is my world. London's best kept secret is... The Piazza Terrace bar at The Royal Opera House where you can have a coffee or a cocktail and take in the most beautiful views of the whole piazza and the London Eye. You don’t need to have a ticket to a show, you can just access the bar from the main entrance. What do you like most about living and working in London? I love that there are so many things to do. You turn a corner and there’s an exhibition – we take the children to exhibitions at 180 The Strand. London is a exciting hub of possibilities and having our children grow up in that environment excites me.