To The Pointe Meets Lachlan Monaghan

Leaving my interview with Lachlan Monaghan, I feel inspired and motivated, believing that any dream I have can come true. This is the effect he has on people. He was recently promoted to Soloist at Birmingham Royal Ballet and is calm and collected when he speaks; he is intelligent, thought provoking and indeed inspiring. Lachlan is ambitious and wants to conquer the ballet world in every way that he possibly can. He doesn’t see why he shouldn’t and neither do I. There is a fire in him and a will to do it all that I don’t often see in artists. There is little time for insecurities or mulling over the past; instead he is all about the future and goals he wants to achieve. Throughout our interview he says things like ‘as I grow older’ or ‘at my age’ but at just 25 it’s unusual to hear someone so wise for his age. Being ambitious is often seen as a negative but Lachlan’s ambition stems from his passion and love for what he does. He’s also just a genuinely nice guy whose presence I really enjoyed being around. Last season, Lachlan made many debuts at Birmingham Royal Ballet in a selection of meaty roles, many of which are beginning to shape him as the new princely rising star within the company. He will now have the opportunity to show off his funny side as the company open their new season with La Fille mal gardee – the charming Frederick Ashton classic which will see Lachlan take on the leading role of Colas. For a boy who grew up in Sydney, whose dreams are coming true in Birmingham, it would seem he’s having a whale of a time. I sat down with him to find out more…

Lachlan Monaghan, photo copyright Rosanna Ely

I ask Lachlan how he got into ballet and he tells me that although it was the usual story of attending class with his sister, he was actually very reluctant to take up ballet. “I started by doing tap dancing, that was my initial passion and still a big passion of mine actually. I had a great teacher and he encouraged me to get into ballet, as it was a more stable classical career. But when I first started doing tap I told my mum that I didn’t want to do ballet and not to put in me in tights!” Although he wasn’t sure at first, as soon as Lachlan began his first class he tells me what an impact it had on him. “It just hooked me. I had always been a bit of a perfectionist, even as a kid growing up and I had done a lot of athletics, gymnastics and competitive swimming. That constant striving for perfection is what attracted me to ballet.” As his interest grew in the art form, so did his ambition to make ballet his career. “I moved to a performing arts school in Sydney and that’s where I started intense ballet lessons. I had a fantastic male teacher which I think is so important for boys and he taught me so much that I know about partnering and jumping, which are two of the most important aspects for a male ballet dancer. He really inspired me and so I began to do a lot of training at the school.” Although Lachlan stepped the training up a gear, he never imagined that it would be a career. “It’s not something I had in my mind that could become a career but I just kept pushing and that’s when I was lucky enough to win the McDonald’s ballet scholarship in Sydney.” Lachlan tells me that the scholarship gives young dancers the opportunity to audition at a British ballet school, so off he went to give it all he had at the Royal Ballet School. “I had always wanted to come to London and it was always on my horizon. I used to watch loads of Royal Ballet DVDs and I looked up to so many of their dancers. I had also followed Steven McRae’s career very closely because we were both from Western Sydney and had the same tap teacher, a guy called Glenn Wood, so I was very inspired by him. I was lucky enough to be accepted into the school and I started in the January 2010, so half way through the year.”

Lachlan Monaghan in 'The Nutcracker', photo copyright Tyrone Singleton

I’m always so struck by dancers who travel far away from home to make their dreams a reality at such a young age. Not only did Lachlan travel across the globe to start a new life in ballet but he did it half way through the school year, something which he found pretty difficult at the time. “It was like being thrown in at the deep end and it was really tough. Everyone had found their groups of friends and figured everyone out so it was tough. I was also very homesick – I’d just turned sixteen, had never lived away from home, never shared a room with anyone, it was all just a bit of a shock to a little Aussie boy!” I ask him how long it took before he settled in and he tells me that after about six months he felt a lot better. “It was a lot easier to go back in the second year. It taught me to be very independent and strong and I just kept reminding myself why I was there.” I wonder whether Lachlan still gets homesick. Birmingham must be a pretty big change from the sunny beaches of Sydney. “I go through phases”, he tells me, “I’m quite homesick at the moment because I haven’t been home for two and a half years so it’s been a long time. My family have seen me dance though so that’s made it easier and my mum tries to see what she can but obviously she can’t see everything.” Although the beginnings were difficult, he has only positive words to say about his experience at the school. “I loved it and was a really great working experience”, he tells me. He was also put in a fortunate position by being offered his contract at Birmingham Royal Ballet in the January of his final year, allowing him to fully enjoy the final months of school.

Lachlan Monaghan in the poster for 'Hobson's Choice', photo copyright Bella Kotak

I ask Lachlan how his journey into Birmingham Royal Ballet began. “I had first seen them perform at Sadler’s Wells and I always kept an eye on when they were here. I always felt they were such a fantastic company of just really lovely people and I loved the performances they did. In my second year at the Royal Ballet School, I took part in the Lynn Seymour competition where you’re asked to pick a non-classical solo. I chose David Bintley’s Hobson’s Choice and I was later asked to perform it at the Ninette de Valois conference at the Royal Opera House. Michael O’Hare came to coach me and I think that was my stepping stone to Birmingham Royal Ballet. It’s quite an important piece in our repertoire so I think it’s part of the reason that I got my job!” Lachlan clearly impressed O’Hare and an offer into the company soon followed. Pretty smooth sailing for a guy who had a tough start when moving over to the UK. I ask Lachlan why he loves to dance at Birmingham Royal Ballet. What is it about dancing there that has kept him dancing so passionately with this company? “One of the huge things for me is the amount of performance we get to do. I’ve done hundreds and hundreds of shows so when the time comes and you need to dance something a bit more difficult, you’re prepared. You step on stage and it’s like your second home. I feel really lucky because not all ballet companies get that same stage time. We’ll do loads of Sleeping Beauties, for example, and let’s say that in that time you get to dance ten Bluebirds, so by the third or fourth, you’re really in a flow.” I’ve never really thought of it this way. I would assume dancers find it so difficult to dance those mammoth runs of Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, but Lachlan’s reasoning makes perfect sense. At the end of the day, you can’t expect to progress as a dancer without practice and what better practice than performing on stage. Lachlan is keen to tell me how much he loves the people in the company too. “They are fantastic. Everyone has such individual strength and it’s really fascinating to watch. They are all such true artists and it’s been so inspiring to develop around that. It’s a really supportive atmosphere.” I tell him how I think that also comes across on stage. The people I’ve met from Birmingham Royal Ballet have always been genuine and sweet people. They are like a family and you see this bond when you watch them dance. The company are also known for their rigorous touring calendar and I ask Lachlan if he enjoys the touring part of the job. “I do like it and I especially love the international tours. Japan, for example, is fantastic and amazing. You feel like a celebrity! I think the British venues are good too though. We always have such amazing audiences in Plymouth and Salford is really close to my heart because I’ve made a lot of debuts there. It’s a really beautiful theatre too, it’s iconic. London is also always a highlight and I love coming back here to see old friends.” Although they tour a lot, the company’s main base is at the Birmingham Hippodrome. I can’t imagine how big a difference it must be for a boy from Sydney to be calling our second city home. “It’s really grown on me but it’s very different from Sydney. I loved living in London because I was in the middle of Covent Garden and I felt so inspired by everything but then I moved to Birmingham and I hadn’t heard great things. But it’s really up and coming and there’s a great support for the arts up there. I’ve grown to really like it.”

Lachlan Monaghan and Maureya Lebowitz in 'The Nutcracker', photo copyright Tyrone Singleton

There’s a real vulnerability in Lachlan’s character which I think will serve him well when he dances Ashton and MacMillan’s works. He’s an ambitious guy but there’s a softness to him that I find very endearing. He is clearly an intelligent person which I think is probably why he’s learnt to let go of striving for the ‘ballet ideal’ that many dancers search for. “We’re always aiming for perfection but we’ll never get there because there’s always something that can be improved. I say we’ll never get there, but I don’t believe it’s physically possible. Things are always evolving, there’s always going to be something better you can do. I think I’ve come to realise that it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. If you come off stage feeling fantastic and you’ve made the audience feel something then you’ve done a good job. There’s a lot more to ballet than just perfecting the steps.” I think that a large part of why Lachlan has learnt to let go over the years is because he used to get quite nervous before performances. “I used to really struggle with nerves but I got over it through stage experience and learning to be comfortable on stage. I learnt that you’re never going to do a show that you’re fully happy with or that you don’t want to improve.” I’m impressed that he figured this out pretty early on in his career. Dancers can often put far too much pressure on delivering a perfect performance and can find themselves in a Black-Swan-Natalie-Portman situation. Not ideal. Although Lachlan was able to let go by himself, I wonder whether having a strong partnership has also helped him to become comfortable on stage. “There’s a comfort that you feel when you’re with a partner on stage. An ease. You feel really at home when you dance with someone that you work well with.” It’s clear how much he loves to partner his ladies on the stage. This attentiveness to show them off and dance with them not against them will definitely take him far. “It’s truly that thing of two people dancing as one. That’s why you spend time rehearsing and seeing what each other is like. For those two hours, you know that you’re on stage but you almost forget about it. You forget about all the pressures and you just dance together and that is what is most important. It’s the connection and the way that they look at you that I love.” The way I was looking at Lachlan whilst he said this was probably a bit hazy and googly-eyed. It’s quite difficult to hold a man’s gaze and remain professional when he’s discussing the most romantic side to ballet. I wonder which lucky dancers he most enjoys partnering and he smiles as he tells me that “Maureya is lovely to dance with.” Ah the lovely Maureya Liebowitz. A real gem in the company whose rising recognition seems to be on a par with Lachlan’s. He has danced many times with Maureya and they have a special connection on stage. “I’ve done all of my big roles with her. We both debuted together in Coppelia last year and we’ve done The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty together.” Of his shows in Sleeping Beauty he tells me “every show I performed with Maureya and we had an absolute blast. She’s divine to dance with and there’s such a connection there. Every time we left the stage we just felt so thankful.” Another dancer that Lachlan is overjoyed to have worked with is recently retired former Principal, Jenna Roberts. “To have danced with Jenna was incredible and I never thought that I would have that opportunity. I always thought I was a bit short but then Le Baiser de la Fee came up and it worked. We danced the opening night at Sadler’s Wells together and I just loved it.”

Lachlan Monaghan and Yaoqian Shang in 'Aladdin', photo copyright Bill Cooper

Although Lachlan loves partnering, it’s important that we turn to his solo roles and the impressive debuts that he has made so far this year. “The last twelve months have been really exciting. I danced one of my dream roles for the first time which was in Kenneth MacMillan’s Concerto. The choreography is so challenging and the music is so beautiful. I feel so lucky to have done that. I also made my debut as Aladdin in David Bintley’s production and I loved that too.” Lachlan has also made his debut in some of the well known princely roles this year. There was one in particular that he was surprised to be cast in. “I made my debut as Florimund in The Sleeping Beauty which was really shocking. I guess I don’t consider myself to be really long and tall but it depends on the partner I’m put with. I just never expected to do it this year and I found it really challenging.” I tell Lachlan that I always think Florimund must be a difficult character to get into. He appears pretty late in the game, without much time for character development, so his wistful longing to find love needs to be clear from the moment he steps on stage. “You have to run on with a bit of a backstory in your mind to try and make it convincing so it’s difficult. I got on with it though and just ran on adrenaline!” Lachlan also made his debut as the Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty and as the Nutcracker Prince, a role he loved to dance. “I was almost in tears during that Act One pas de deux when he first wakes up. It’s so divine and one of those priceless unforgettable moments dancing to that piece of music.” I couldn’t agree more, that piece of music is one of my favourites amongst all of ballet’s various scores. There is something quite romantic and chivalrous about Lachlan and as I sit opposite him, I can clearly see why he’s been cast as a danseur noble so often this year. He is a natural prince, lithe and elegant with a noble demeanour. He doesn’t seem as convinced though. “I feel like I’m a natural mover so I found it a bit difficult doing the white tights and white shoes roles! I haven’t got natural bendy feet but I suppose that even with the classics, it’s not just about technique. These are fairytales so you need to make that story show on stage.” There may be a flicker of self doubt here, but Lachlan feels he is more of a natural classical dancer and tells me that he thinks he’s better suited to classical pieces. That’s not to say that he hasn’t loved dancing in David Bintley’s works over the years. “I love David’s Shakespeare Suite and I’ve danced the role of Hamlet which was a huge highlight of mine. You can dance a bit more and I really love that. I also can’t wait to dance in Hobson’s Choice, it’s so close to my heart and I think it’s one of David’s best ballets.” Lachlan actually features on the poster for the ballet, something he is understandably proud of. It must also mean a lot considering it will be the last time that the company perform it with David as their Artistic Director. Lachlan tells me how he thinks David’s departure will be an emotional one for the company. He has clearly had a positive impact on Lachlan, and has given him confidence during times when he’s been unsure of certain roles. “I was cast as Caliban in his production of The Tempest and I just didn’t think I was right for it. Brandon Lawrence and Tyrone Singleton had also been cast and they are very tall boys who are so strong and have this intensity which I felt I wasn’t able to get. I told David that I didn’t see myself doing it and that I found it difficult to get into the character but he said that he needed someone with a really strong stage presence and he felt that was me. As soon as he said that, I flipped my view and really got stuck into the rehearsal. I ended up loving it!”

Lachlan Monaghan and Miki Mizutani in 'La Fille Mal Gardee', photo copyright Bill Cooper

Lachlan has recently made his debut as Colas in Frederick Ashton’s classic La Fille mal gardee and will be touring it with the company over the next couple of months. What a wonderful start to the season I tell him and he tells me how much he loves it. He will be dancing the role alongside Miki Mizutani who will dance Lise. Again, it’s only sincere praise when he talks about her: “working with Miki has been a very special and memorable experience. She’s been a dream!” Another ballet that he also feels so happy to always be a part of is Kenneth MacMillan’s production of Romeo and Juliet. When I ask him about dream roles, there’s no beating around the bush and before I finish my question he’s responded with ‘Romeo.’ No surprises there for this romantic soul. “It’s my dream role. It’s everything – the passion, the story, to fall in love. To go through that story on stage I think would be amazing.” I think he’d make a fine Romeo and would add some intelligent layers to the narrative. He has already made his debut though as Mercutio, another role that he holds close to his heart. “It’s such a highlight for me to get into that story. I feel really at home and comfortable when I dance Mercutio. I feel I can be a lot of myself in that role and I quite like to instil little bits of my own character in most things because I think that’s what makes you unique.” This approach tells me that not only is he a success in the classics, but he’ll have the depth and understanding of character to convey MacMillan’s roles. “What I love most with Romeo and Juliet is that I can just be a person. You’re not a prince or a bird, you’re just a person who’s having fights, falling in love, being cheeky and that’s what I love about it. It’s also great not standing in a classical position and just standing on two feet, feeling something and trying to tell the story through your eyes.” I once went to an ‘In Conversation’ evening at the Royal Opera House featuring Alessandra Ferri who was discussing her career with the audience. She said something very similar and told the audience that she was at her happiest dancing in roles like Juliet where it’s a woman on stage with real emotions and experiences, she didn’t have to be a fairy or a princess and that was what she liked to dance the most. If Lachlan’s thinking in the same bracket as one of the best Juliets of the last few decades, then he’s in good company.

Lachlan Monaghan as Mercutio in 'Romeo and Juliet', photo copyright Bill Cooper

A dancer that Lachlan unsurprisingly looks up to is Steven McRae, Principal at The Royal Ballet. Both are boys from Sydney with a similar ambition, so it comes as no surprise that Lachlan has followed his career over the years. “His versatility and dynamic is amazing. He’s such an exciting performer and I think that’s why I think he’s great. Dancers like him give it their all and you feel like you’re getting an insight into their whole being. There’s nothing hidden and there’s nothing that they’re holding back from you.” He’s clearly very passionate about this and jokes that it sounds like he’s about to burst into a song from The Greatest Showman. I ask Lachlan if there are any dancers he would love to share the stage with, but before he answers I suggest he tries a tap duo with McRae. He tells me that he’s actually thought about it many times. He also cites Baryshnikov as an influence because of “his power and gutsiness.” He seeks most of his inspiration though closer to home within the company. “We are very lucky to be surrounded by dancers every day that are inspiring and sometimes you forget how amazing they are. I really looked up to Iain Mackay and he coached me for my Nutcracker Prince debut which was really special.”

Lachlan Monaghan's photo of Yaoqian Shang

There’s a real artistic feel about Lachlan and his take on the world is dreamy and ethereal. He has a romantic view of life and wants to experience it all - such desire is infectious when you talk to him. His passion for the arts spans well outside of ballet and he tells me how much he loves photography. “It’s a big hobby of mine and I’m really trying to get into it more now. I’ve started an Instagram account to show behind the scenes and I’m trying to explore that in my images. One of my favourite shots is of Yaoqian Shang preparing for Aurora. She’s arching her back and breathing back stage and you just don’t normally associate it with the image of a ballerina. It’s that insight that I love.” His photos really are wonderful and provide a behind the scenes view of the company which many of us long to see. He tells me how much he also loves music and that he’s a bit of a whiz on the piano. “I like to compose now and then and whenever I get the chance I play for ballet class. Sometimes if a pianist is late, everyone will shout my name and I’ll get on the piano for a few exercises!” This musical flair has no doubt been key to mastering the musicality needed for a dancer. Not only does he have certain passions outside of ballet, he’s also keen to experiment with creating within the realm of dance. “I’m very into choreography and I did a lot at school. One of my dreams is to compose and choreograph something. It would be such an interesting process.” I tell him that it sounds similar to Hofesh Shechter who composes a lot of music to go with his choreography. “It must be an amazing journey but you’d have to have very patient dancers!” I tell him that it sounds like he wants to make his own Lachlan world but he jokes, telling me that sounds rather dull. Well his dreams certainly aren’t dull. This guy is in it for the long haul and can already see his whole life after retiring from ballet. “I would love to head up my own company one day”, he tells me, and I say how I admire his big dreams. “I’m ambitious and I always like to think about what comes next.” I think of Lachlan like the male Tamara Rojo. I see that same ambition and dedication that drove her and I am fully confident that he will one day run his own company. Although ambitious, there’s no ego with Lachlan, instead just sheer excitement for what the future holds. “My mum always taught me to stay grounded and to appreciate the moment. I try to but then I’ll spring off into something again!”

Lachlan Monaghan and Miki Mizutani in 'La Fille Mal Gardee', photo copyright Bill Cooper

As our interview draws to its end, I ask Lachlan what advice he would give to other dancers. He tells me how important he thinks it is to keep a perspective on things and that remaining true to yourself will be what makes you stand out. I’m reminded of the earlier part of our conversation where he tells me that he tries to “add a bit of Lachlan” wherever he can. He tells me that the most important thing though is simply to love it. “Any career in the arts is incredibly difficult so you have to love it. When you’re going through those hard times, loving it is what is going to get you through. You’ve got to love it for yourself, because ultimately this career is for you and you’re the one who’s going to remember the moments.” I know Lachlan’s talking about remembering his great debuts, his wonderful partners and his exquisite time on stage, but for me, I’ll be remembering this interview. Sitting down with Lachlan has been a dreamy experience and I could listen to him talk for hours. As he walks off into the distance, I have a funny feeling that I’ll be watching his career over the next few decades, long after he finishes dancing. This kid’s going places, and I’ll be watching it all.

*With thanks to Birmingham Royal Ballet, Lachlan Monaghan and Emma Goodacre

You can follow Lachlan's behind the scenes snaps via instagram: lachlense.photography