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Kerry Biggin comes home with Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker
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| Biggin thrill: Kerry finds Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker!an uplifting experience |
If anything was going to leave Kerry Biggin dizzy, you would think it was all that twirling she has to do in Matthew Bourne's shows.
But no, says the 32-year-old dancer. If you're after a headspin, try flying long-haul to Australia and back in the space of just four days.
"When I got home on Saturday, the floor was moving beneath my feet," says Biggin, who was out in Sydney promoting the forthcoming Australian tour of Edward Scissorhands, in which she plays the lead, Kim Boggs. "I was pretty dazed and confused."
All the more so, given she is now straight back into playing Clara in the national tour of Nutcracker this week.
The show, which relaunched New Wimbledon Theatre in 2001, was also the first Bourne piece that Biggin ever danced in, after training at Rambert and stints with both Phoenix Dance and Jazz Xchange.
And it's not only Bourne who sees Wimbledon as his south-west London home. Biggin grew up in nearby Sutton and her old-school in Wallington always send a large group to see her shows.
"Clara has been a really lovely journey for me," she says. "Initially, I danced an orphan and a Marshmallow Girl, and covered the Liquorice Lady. But even then, Matthew asked me to look at Clara. He's really interested in nurturing young talent and often gives people the opportunity to study a role long before they get to perform it."
Biggin had been itching to work with Bourne ever since she saw his Highland Fling at Richmond Theatre. But looking back, she is pleased to have honed her dance technique elsewhere before coming to Bourne's particular brand of dance storytelling.
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| An actor too: Biggin draws out Clara's character through dance. |
"Matthew's emphasis on character and narrative was really a new thing for me," she explains. "Having to physicalise a thought or emotion or a certain type of person really stretches you as an actor as well as a dancer.
"And dancewise, I really like the way he pulls in a lot of different styles. In one show, you can go straight from a swing number to a balletic duet."
As one of Bourne's favourite principals, Biggin can turn her feet to either. But time after time, it's her gentle, quiet performances that steal the show - as sweet, surburbanite Kim in Scissorhands, as innocent but passionate Rita in The Car Man, and now as Clara the Orphan in this wonderfully kitsch reworking of Tchaikovsky's classic.
"Kim and Clara are both roles that embody the audience's perspective of what's going on," she says. "Matthew often casts me in that way and it's both a massive challenge and a responsibilty. I am the audience' eyes telling them how they should feel.
"The joy of Nutcracker is that it turns this classical, opulent setting completely upside down but still holds true to the story.
"It's not many dance shows that look at a girl coming of age. But that's what Clara is realising through her dream - that she is beginning to feel different, adult things."
Nutcracker!, New Wimbledon Theatre, The Broadway, Wimbledon, until Saturday, February 9, 7.30pm, Thur/Sat mat, 2.30pm, £14-£34, call 0870 060 6646.
12:33pm Thursday 7th February 2008
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