The ballerinas swapping pointes for paints...
What happens when you spend your life dancing non-stop to find one morning that it’s all indefinitely on hold? It seemed everyone, no matter what their occupation, took to social media to start documenting their new at-home routines, whether it was a workout regime or a tried and tested recipe. Never before had we seen so much of people’s lives at home. We are now commiserating a whole year since the UK first went into lockdown, and although I could spend some time discussing how it affected me, my heart is more drawn to those in the art world who were forced to put their active schedules to bed and stay home. For dancers, the thought of not dancing must have been almost too much to bear. Pirouetting on a mat in your kitchen doesn’t quite fulfil that longing to be back in a studio or performing on stage. Whilst I spent most of lockdown getting fat and binging on boxsets, I was impressed by the dedication many dancers gave to staying fit, keeping active, and creating artistic projects to keep themselves stimulated. From Chisato Katsura’s DistDancing in Hoxton Docks, to Corey Baker’s Swan Lake Bath Ballet, many dancers sought ways to continue dancing and the results were innovative and original. However, what about those who looked elsewhere for artistic satisfaction? Two ballerinas from The Royal Ballet, who have always caught my eye, started to promote their drawing and painting skills. Once a simple pastime away from rehearsals, it became a serious outlet to relieve stress from the pandemic. Ashley Dean and Annette Buvoli have very different artistic styles, but to see how they each turned their hobby into fully functioning businesses throughout the last year has been fascinating to watch. I caught up with both of them to find out why they turned to fine art as a way to express themselves during this chaotic year.
'The Girls Collection' by Annette Buvoli
Annette grew up in Boulder, Colorado and moved to the Kirov Academy school in Washington DC at the age of thirteen. After successfully landing a place with the Bolshoi school, a summer school visit to The Royal Ballet swayed her and she auditioned and won her place at the school, arriving at 15 years old. Two years later she joined the company and has had a gradual rise ever since. Just before the pandemic hit, Annette started to break away from the corps de ballet with some important solo roles being sent her way, much to the satisfaction of her fans, of which I am one. “My career during that year had gone really well. I did my first solo and I was given the live cinema relay. I felt all of these pressures, but with them came these successes, and so I felt like I was on this rollercoaster and then suddenly it all just stopped. That was really hard to adjust to and even now, a year later, it hits me and I can’t believe we’re still here.” There was a brief return back to the stage for the dancers in December 2020 when they all came together and pushed through some performances of The Nutcracker, wishing that a full run of the ballet would go ahead. Unfortunately, we all know how that turned out, and after just a few shows, the company and the rest of the UK were forced back into another lockdown. “I had my lowest point when we came back to work and things were normal but not properly normal. I wanted to be exactly back where we had left off and that didn’t happen so that’s when I plummeted and felt very low. I think that dancers have all hit that feeling at different times during the lockdown because I think we’ve all experienced this loss of identity in some way. That sounds extreme, but it’s an extreme situation.” It must have been a real release to turn all of that pent up frustration into beautiful works of art. Annette is absolutely right. In many ways, if a dancer can’t perform or train in the studio, much of their identity is lost, no matter what else they have going on in the side-lines. “I pride myself on not being too much of a bun head, but there is a huge side of me that only really comes alive when we’re rehearsing and on stage”, Annette tells me. Well from my perspective it’s clear that she also comes alive with an art tool in her hand, as the drawings and prints she has created during this last year have been beautiful.
'Iridescent' by Ashley Dean
Ashley also grew up overseas. Born in South Africa, she started dancing in Johannesburg, before moving to Cape Town to continue her classes there. She trained at the English National Ballet School and later joined The Royal Ballet company in 2015. I first really took a shine to her dancing when I noticed her in Crystal Pite’s Flight Pattern. Her silent harrowing screams and agile interpretation of the choreography was something to see. Since then, she’s a dancer I always enjoy seeing on stage. Ashley too felt that the lockdown was a huge adjustment to get used to. “There have obviously been a lot of ups and downs. To be a full-time dancer, you need to put in the hours to keep up with your technique and stamina and it’s been a bit of a shock having so much time away from a full schedule”, Ashley tells me. She’s quick to tell me all of the pros to having so much free time though. “In many ways it’s been so nice because I’ve managed to create something that I didn’t even think was possible and to develop my work and push myself out of my comfort zone. I have this new sense of creativity and inspiration and I’ve been able to try different things.” There’s certainly a silver lining to every situation, no matter how bad, and luckily the pandemic allowed Ashley and Annette to experiment with their artistic talents. “I think it’s super important for dancers to have hobbies outside of ballet”, Ashley says. “You just don’t know when your dance career will end and it’s good to have something else to lean on. Dancing is an all-consuming career and you can get so involved emotionally that you lose perspective. If you have a bad day at work, it can feel like the end of the world! So it’s good to have a balance, to have perspective and to have other things that you really enjoy.”
Annette Buvoli painting at home
Annette’s introduction to art came from her mother who she says has always been a fantastic artist. “Mum used to make these little wooden cut outs for kids and she would paint them and turn them into door hangers. She used to write me stories when I was young and make little illustrations and if she ever has paper in front of her she will always be doodling. She is so talented.” It’s no surprise that her mum encouraged Annette to get painting, and when she was six, gifted her with a set of paints and brushes. “I’ve always had art in my life and I loved art class at school. Although it’s a new thing that I’ve dedicated my time to, it’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I first arrived in London, I went to the art store and bought loads of paints and sketchbooks. I didn’t really use them, but it was comforting to know that I had them there for when I needed them. I ended up going through a phase with a really bad ex where I wasn’t happy and so I would just draw.” It’s clear that art became a comfort for Annette, but also acted as a way to keep her company whilst away from her family.
'Celestial' by Ashley Dean
A similar introduction to art was experienced by Ashley, whose mum also gave her the inspiration to pick up the paintbrush. “My mum has always been creative and she used to bake professional cakes and make amazing flowers made out of icing. She’s made her own Christmas decorations in the past and now she makes ballet skirts for me! I was always so inspired by her and I think that’s always pushed me to be creative as well.” Similarly to Annette, Ashley found solace in creating works of art as a way to connect with home. “I love working with colour and blue is one of my favourite colours to work with. I end up using a lot of blue in my paintings because I used to live by the sea in South Africa and that blue reminds me of home.” About a year ago, she began to paint and advertised her pieces on her Instagram account. “I love abstract art but whenever I looked to buy something, there was always something I wanted to change so I started to experiment with acrylics and people started to tell me how much they liked my work. It wasn’t until lockdown, when I had so much time on my hands, that I started to experiment with colours and technique and then I received some orders and commissions and I sold about 11 paintings around Easter last year.” Although Ashley has created some paintings which are for sale on her website, her real tour de force comes in the style of line drawings. She first started playing around with calligraphy and making cards for Christmas and birthdays when she first set up her Instagram account, and this started to morph into line drawings. “It all started with calligraphy and I guess the line drawings in a way are a very similar technique to the writing. I started to replicate drawings that had been done by other artists to put them around my home and my husband kept telling me to design my own ones. I didn’t know where to begin but one day I just sat down and had a go and it sort of went from there.” The response was great and many, including myself, started to place orders and ask for commissions. Across Instagram, you can find all sorts of people hanging up her drawings within their homes, and at a time when the home has become the be all and end all of our days, many have used the opportunity to glam up certain areas by hanging art and drawings. It was such fun seeing Ashley’s line drawings doing so well and I found myself looking forward to each new image that she would post on Instagram. The main theme of her work are her subjects at The Royal Ballet and so her drawings are a good way to feed ballet lovers like myself at a time when going to see live theatre isn’t an option.
'Missing You' by Annette Buvoli
Annette’s style is very different, and in she burst with heaps of colour and fine art skill, putting her best paintbrush forward for us all to see. Over lockdown, we also had the opportunity to see what this other budding artist had to offer and she did not disappoint. During lockdown, I think most of us toyed with the idea of giving up work and changing direction somehow. Annette went down a similar route and even decided to take a Law course to see if that was an area that would suit her. “Talk about a crisis!”, she laughs. “It tired me out so much that in the end I just went out and bought a big canvas and started to paint. That’s how it all started. The course made me realise how much I love having a creative a job and making creative decisions.” So Annette the lawyer is unlikely, much to our appreciation as we can continue to look forward to seeing her dance on stage. I find it interesting how not dancing created these internal urges to get creativity back in her life, in one form or another. “It felt like I was on stage again when I was painting because it was that total creativity and loss of thought. Painting is almost meditative because you’re focusing so much on what you’re doing and it completely took over from about June last year. It was a great outlet for me, both when I was happy and sad.” That second half of last year saw Annette deliver a whole series of paintings, where women were the main focus in the subject matter. It’s also important to note that barely anywhere do we see a pointe shoe, tutu or dancer in her work. I wonder if this was intentional. “It was a conscious decision not to do ballet art. I don’t want to mix these worlds because art feels like it’s mine and the ballet world feels like it takes over the rest of my life. The painting feels very personal in that I get to do something that is completely different. Ballet has taken me away from home and it’s taken me away from a normal childhood. It’s not a bad thing, but as you get older, you realise how much ballet infiltrates your life, and in many amazing ways, but it’s been really nice to find a piece of my life that’s different.” Although Annette at times dabbles in ballet themed commissions, she assures me that it’s not the focus. Her female focused paintings, however, take centre stage. Annette tells me that although she loves men, she never considered drawing them. “I think there’s a lot going on behind the veil with women and I find them so inspiring and stunning. Over lockdown I started to learn more about women in power and I started to collect all of these images of women from all over the world who were all completely different. The more women I drew, the more I found I was unravelling some complex person.” I wonder if this complex person was really Annette, and she laughs and tells me that her mother’s intuition led her to understand the deeper meaning behind each image. “I have all of these different sides to my own personality and I think I was imprinting a little part of myself onto each painting and I guess they ended up in some way being little portrait of myself. My mum said to me at one point, “are all of these women, you?” and she asked if the inspiration behind each one represented how I was feeling at that time.” It’s funny in a way that Annette mentions this, as one of the pieces I have bought from her is of two women hugging each other. I bought it during lockdown, when I felt that the bond between women, whether a mother/daughter relationship or through friends, felt so strong and needed at a time of crisis. Putting such personal art out in front of the world must also feeling very daunting. “It feels more personal than dancing”, Annette tells me. “With dancing, you’re given a set of rules or choreography. But with drawing, and maybe this is because I don’t have any formal training, it feels like I’m constantly improvising. To keep showing that side of you can be scary but it’s also very liberating and has made me more confident.”
'Inferno' by Ashley Dean
Similarly to Annette, Ashley too sometimes shies away from certain commissions that she might not feel are in keeping with what she wants to do. “I prefer to do drawings based on images that I’ve been inspired by, rather than commissions where someone sends me an image to replicate as a line drawing. I absolutely love doing it for the individual because it gives them something they can have for themselves, but I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s the same inspiration that I get from seeing an image I have found myself.” There was one person who understood the importance of giving an artist complete freedom, and that was the choreographer, Wayne McGregor, who played an integral part in raising awareness of Ashley’s designs. “I got a call from him and I was sweating because I was so nervous!”, Ashley giggles. “He was telling me how much he loved my drawings and how he wanted to commission me to do a series for him. I think he loved how abstract my style is and he told me that he liked having to look into each drawing to see what they are as they aren’t that literal.” No surprises here that the abstract choreographer fell for the abstract drawings. McGregor asked Ashley to create a series of drawings using his productions as inspiration for the subject matter, which he later gifted to one of his friends. “He was really understanding of me as an artist and he said I could choose whichever photos I wanted from his archive of imagery. It was awesome because I could choose the images that really spoke to me which I find a lot easier.” Ashley says that working on the commission really pushed her to develop a style and hone in on her technique. “I started doing line drawings of different colleagues in different ballets and then people started to contact me to tell me how much they loved them so I felt I needed to keep pushing myself. I think I’ve really managed to create this technique that I’m confident with now, whereas it felt like a fluke in the beginning!” The subtlety of Ashley’s designs are refreshing and it’s unique to see the outline of dancers from big classical ballets in an abstract way. Stripped of embellished costume and sets, the honesty and purity of each figure is a good reminder of why we are all so in love with this art form.
'Yellow Jacket' by Annette Buvoli
Although Annette and Ashley both used painting and drawing as a way to reignite their creative flames, they both also decided to Alan Sugar-coat their works by offering their designs for sale. For Annette, her mum and her boyfriend, fellow Royal Ballet dancer Harry Churches, encouraged her to start selling her works. “Mum and Harry both said that I should show them and see if people would be interested in buying them. I was totally flabbergasted when people started buying them! I didn’t know how to ship art, how to wrap it or make sure that it arrived safely. There were all of these hurdles to learn but when you sell a painting you really feel on top of the world.” Annette tells me that organising the pricing and the admin side is something that feels unnatural to her. “The business side of it is what I struggle with the most but I know that feeling won’t last forever.” As someone who has bought art from Annette, I can confirm that the business side was perfect with regular communication and excellent service. Perhaps there is some self-doubt, as with a lot of artists, but I have no doubt that she will find continued success.
Ashley Dean wears her 'Frankie' t-shirt
Ashley has taken her business in a slightly different direction, by offering her designs not only as prints, but also in the form of various merchandise. You can buy her designs on mugs, clothing and even notebooks. “People kept asking me to put the designs on t-shirts and mugs and it’s honestly been a step-by-step approach and not something that I necessarily planned. I just gave it a go and I’ve been so amazed by the success of it!”, Ashley says. She too has a new website as having conversations via Instagram became difficult. “It makes life so much easier having the website as all of the products and prices are there for everyone to see. I commissioned my brother to build the website and it’s been a great collaboration between the two of us. I’m hoping that the website will be an easier way for me to navigate orders, especially when I go back to full time dancing. I think it will just be a step at a time to see how the business and the full dancing schedule will work alongside each other.”
'Infra' by Ashley Dean
So what about when they both go back to full time dancing? Will the art have to take a back seat? Annette has started to experiment with digital art and creating children’s art using her iPad. It’s a direction that she would like to go in, especially as using the iPad saves her time and can be easily whipped out in breaks during rehearsals at The Royal Opera House. Ashley has received some exciting commissions and has a potential opportunity to have some of her work on sale in The Royal Opera House shop. But how will they both balance these next steps when they return to the stage? “I’m a full-time dancer with The Royal Ballet and my business is my hobby so hopefully people will be understanding of that. When it’s my time to retire though, I hope this will be an established side-line business that could become something full-time” Ashley tells me. “I think it will be hard to find a balance once everything is back to normal but it’s something I definitely want to do. I feel like it’s my meditation and if I don’t do it, I start feeling unproductive” Annette says. “This time has made me realise that I can have other facets. Harry is studying and I’m doing art and it feels like we’re padding ourselves out as people. Maybe that will impact us when we go back to work.” I think this is an interesting thought. Perhaps after a year of soul searching, exploring different hobbies and a break away from their crazy schedules, we will see all of the dancers return to the stage with a new exuberance and approach to dancing. Only time will tell.
'Floral Fox' by Annette Buvoli
How refreshing it has been watching these dancers take their artistic talents elsewhere and applying them to artworks that we can all purchase. What I love about them both is that not only are they so talented, but when we hang their art in our homes, there is a story behind them. I look forward to the day that friends and family come over for dinner and ask about the line drawing hanging in my study or the painting of hugging women placed in my hallway. I don’t need to shy away and awkwardly say they’re from IKEA – instead I can proudly tell my guests that these pieces were created by two artists who also dance with The Royal Ballet. It’s not just about me boasting to people, but it’s also yet another example of people turning to art as a means of expression when everything around us seems to crumble. Art will live on, in all of its forms, because it’s necessary for our survival. As Annette so eloquently says, “I’m very optimistic about the art world because even though there’s no money, it will come back because we need it. Everybody needs it.” And with that, I look around my flat with hanging art on the walls, some ballet music playing on my speakers, and instantly feel better about our future.
*All images copyright Ashley Dean and Annette Buvoli
AMD Design by Ashley Dean
Instagram - @amddesign_
Buvoli Paints by Annette Buvoli
Instagram - @buvolipaints