‘Keep reinventing yourself’ (From Hillingdon Times)

‘Keep reinventing yourself’

3:49pm Wednesday 14th December 2005

• Print
• Email
• Share

Wayne Sleep's mammoth career has spanned five decades, since he gained a scholarship with the Royal Ballet School at the age of 12, back in 1961.

But recent adventures in the jungle on ITV's I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, and a forthcoming tour with Marti Webb prove that he is not finished yet. Far from it.

On top of all the entertainment, he has plenty of work to keep his charity going, which gives scholarships to young performers.

The Wayne Sleep Foundation was, in a roundabout way, the result of his famous dance with Princess Diana at the Royal Ballet.

He says: "It was a charity that I formed when Princess Diana died. The press kept asking for interviews, and I said I had done all the ones I wanted to do. They started saying they would pay for them, so I thought Well there are a lot of kids who have got a place in a good school, and they couldn't afford to go.'"

He set up the charity initially with money paid for interviews about Diana. He has given away a number of scholarships since, and is keen to keep the momentum.

"The charity covers all types of performance, dance, singing, acting. I have given away ten or 15 scholarships since I started it."

He was undoubtedly a natural dancer, but did not plan a career in ballet.

"It was not really about ballet. I wanted to be on the stage as a performer. I had seen all the Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly movies, and that's really what I was all about. Then I won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School when I was 12, out of 400 other kids, and there you only learn ballet. I particularly enjoyed it and people seemed to think I was particularly okay at it, and gave me a place in the Royal Ballet. From there on, I had parts created for me, and it was only later in the early 80s that I started branching out into new musicals like Cats, and Song and Dance and Cabaret."

He has now "come full circle" and toured with the Royal Ballet to Japan this year. Of all the disciplines he has embraced, he has no doubt which is the most demanding.

"Most challenging is ballet. People stop doing it very early on if they are not good at it. It's a painful process. You have to be born for it. You can get away with it in other art forms, but in ballet there are no shortcuts. You can't suddenly be found you can't suddenly go to the jungle and become a star. It's a very hard career and a very short career, and it doesn't pay very much," he says.

Wayne finds it diffucult to name a highlight in his career, so much of it has been so spectacular.

He says: "Having my own show on TV, an all-dance show, and Andrew Lloyd Webber creating bits for me in Cats and Song and Dance.

"What I am really happy about is meeting people that I never thought I would meet in my life, like Gene Kelly. People that I aspired to be when I was a kid, and I ended up on the stage with them."

He has flourished for many years in an unforgiving business. The secret, he says, is creativity.

"Keep reinventing yourself, like Madonna has kept reinventing herself. You have to keep thinking of new ideas, and that's how choreographers survive as well, not just dancers. And don't do things that you look stupid doing at the age you are now. Know your limitations."

He certainly stretched his own limits when he appeared in a TV series of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, filmed in the jungle of Australia.

"The lack of food is real, there are tin buckets for toilets. In fact, you don't see the worst of it. All that every day, and having to get on with people and bite your lip. It was both enjoyable and nail biting."

He became a celebrity to a younger generation.

"It put me in touch with children again, so when I go and do my workshops for my charity, the kids know me by my name. And I got £88,000 for my charity, so I was able to give away many more scholarships."

Wayne plays Jumping Jack in Beauty and the Beast at the Theatre Royal, Windsor.

"He is always there to cheer everybody up, and helps keep the house clean," says Wayne.

He enjoys pantomime, but says it is important to maintain quality. "The thing about panto is that if you fall over it's funny, but if you fall over at Covent Garden you will probably get the sack. But it's a big responsibility as it's the first time children come to actual theatre, so it is very important to inspire them to want to come again."

Of this production he says: "It's very traditional, there are no smutty jokes. The wit comes from trying to do fun routines. When I am trying to get away from the Wicked Witch, I tap my way past her, so we have this challenge tap which is great fun. I get little children up on stage at the end to dance, the whole show is very interactive."

Beauty and the Beast is at Theatre Royal, Windsor until January 8. Tickets: 01753 853888

• Print
• Email
• Share