Katherine MacAlister talks to young ballet dancer Hugo Brown whose latest show brings him back home

That Hugo Brown is destined for life as a great ballerina is a given, his utter professionalism and gracefulness making him a natural dancer, to the extent that his achievements belie his age.

His giggle is therefore utterly refreshing, reminding you that he is still a teenager and that off stage he is as gauche and awkward as his peers.

Hugo remains otherwise unaffected by his current meteoric climb to the heady heights of Ballet Central, aged just 19, his mates keeping his pointed pas de deux feet firmly on the ground.

Not bad for a lad from Chippy, who having trained at ballet school in Witney will be back on his home turf next week, hailing as he does from Hook Norton: “I’ve just got back after five days at home actually,” he grins, “which was amazing although I ate far too much chocolate and didn’t even wake up on Thursday,” he continues, echoing my own teenage boys, “but it’s all right because you get used to the routine at Ballet Central.”

So does he have a strict regime? “No, we are just told to eat healthily and that everything is good in moderation, except maybe Easter eggs,” he laughs. ”But when I’m dancing I need high energy foods or slow-release meals to keep me going.”

However nice Hugo is, we mustn’t underestimate the work and talent it’s taken to get this far. He began dancing at home with his sister, Hugo saying he was so fiercely competitive even then that he had to outdo her.

This progressed to dancing lessons at The Jill Stew School of Dance where there was one other boy in his class, and onwards. Being good at rugby and cricket at school helped ensure he wasn’t too badly teased about his dancing, but he shrugs and says “You expect it really so I just got on with it.”

He says there’s less of a stigma attached to ballet for boys now thanks to all the dancing on TV and Matthew Bourne’s all-male Swan Lake, but either way it hasn’t held him back; being just eight years old when accepted as a Junior Associate with The Royal Ballet School.

Chosen to perform in Sleeping Beauty and Ondine and playing the role of Orange & Shoe Page in two seasons of Cinderella with The Royal Ballet Company at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, inspired Hugo to become a professional classical ballet dancer, and after five years with the Royal Ballet Associates, he was offered a place at Central School of Ballet with whom he is currently touring.

When he comes back to Hooky however, his mates don’t treat him any differently. “One’s a fire alarm fitter, another’s a hairdresser, it’s a mixed bunch,” he smiles. “They do what they do and I do what I do.”

So why choose Ballet Central? “We tour the world which gives you that bit of extra experience and it’s fun,” he says.

Next, though, Hugo has got his heart set on joining Matthew Bourne, “but mainly my goal is just to keep dancing because as a profession it isn’t very secure, you go from job to job and have to keep working so you can never settle”.

There must be something in it then, something to continually motivate and inspire him?

Hugo giggles before explaining: “You can channel your emotions through dancing so if it’s a sad dance those emotions flow into you and if it’s a happy one you jump about. It’s hard to say really.

“But it’s not just the dancing, the company is great so we all enjoy it at the same time.”

SEE IT
Hugo Brown appears in Ballet Central’s varied repertoire at Chipping Norton Theatre on Thursday, May 1.
See chippingnortontheatre.com or call 01608 642350