Sarah Lamb
http://www.roh.org.uk/people/sarah-lamb
初めてサラを見たのはいつだろう、透明感と美しさに惹かれた。マノンのシネマかな。それからずっと気になっている。以前インタビュー記事を読んだが、彼女の経歴がわからず、全体がよくわからなかった。
ロイヤルバレエのHPのプロフィールには、2004年にファーストソリストとして入団し、2006年にプリンシパルに昇格。ウェイン・マクレガーのRaven Girl, Carbon Life, など多くの作品で役作りに参加。クリストファー・ウィールドンの冬物語などでも。
American dancer Sarah Lamb is a Principal of The Royal Ballet. She joined the Company as a First Soloist in 2004 and was promoted to Principal in 2006. She created the title role in Wayne McGregor’s Raven Girl and roles in his ballets Carbon Life, Live Fire Exercise, Limen, Chroma, Tetractys, Woolf Works, Multiverse and Yugen. She also has created roles for the Company in Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale and Electric Counterpoint, Ratmansky and Wheeldon’s 24 Preludes, David Dawson’s The Human Seasons and Twyla Tharp’s Illustrated ‘Farewell’.
ボストンに生まれ、ボストンバレエスクールでタチアナ・ニコラエヴナ・レガトの指導を受ける。1998年に芸術部門の大統領奨学生に選ばれ、クリントン大統領より金メダルを受ける。同年ボストンバレエ団に入団し、2001年にソリスト、2003年にプリンシパルに昇格。1999年の名古屋で開催された第3回日本国際バレエコンクール、2000年のニューヨーク国際バレエコンクール、2002年のUSA国際バレエコンクールそれぞれで銀メダルを獲得。
Lamb was born in Boston and trained at the Boston Ballet School with Tatiana Nicolaevna Legat. In 1998 she was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and awarded a gold medal by President Clinton. She joined Boston Ballet that year and was promoted to soloist in 2001 and principal in 2003. Her many awards include three silver medals at the Third Japan International Ballet Competition in Nagoya (1999), the New York International Ballet Competition (2000) and the USA International Ballet Competition (2002).
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/jan/12/sarah-lamb-royal-ballet?CMP=twt_fd
ガーディアンの2014年1月の記事を読みました
最終的に会えるまで2度予定がキャンセルされた。クリスマス休暇中、33歳のバレリーナはジュエルズとくるみ割り人形の主役を演じ、ジゼルのデビューに備えていた。私たちが楽しく飲み食いして時間を過ごす間、彼女にはバレエと眠る以外の時間がほとんどなかった。
Sarah Lamb cancels on me twice before we finally meet and when I discover her schedule I can see why. Over the Christmas holidays, the 33-year-old ballerina has been performing lead roles in both Jewels and The Nutcracker – while also preparing for her debut in Giselle. As the rest of us have been eating, partying and passing out, she's had little time for anything beyond work and sleep.
ラムがロイヤルバレエで最も多忙なプリンシパルダンサーの一人だとしたらそれは彼女の通常とは異なる多面性に原因がある。クラシックバレエでは明晰な技術と古くから伝わる舞台に映える魅力を放ち、コンテンポラリー作品では大胆不敵で抜け目のない、素早い動きをする。着古したリハーサル衣装でも、狭いオフィスでも、彼女は完璧な左右対称の卵型の顔とブロンドヘアと乳白色の肌で写真集に出てくるようなバレリーナであり続ける
If Lamb is currently one of the Royal Ballet's busiest principals, it's partly because she's so unusually versatile. To the classics, she brings a crystalline technique and an almost old-fashioned, theatrical glamour; in the more contemporary repertory, she's audacious, clever and fast. It doesn't hurt that even in her scruffy rehearsal clothes, sitting in a pokey office at the Opera House, she still manages to look like a picture-book ballerina, with her perfectly symmetrical oval face, blond hair and milky skin.
しかし、ラムが2人の姉妹と共にボストンでバレエのクラスに通い始めたとき、よくある甘えん坊ではなかった。小さなかわいい手を握りしめて「雲梯でよく遊んでいたから手にまめができてたの。皮膚が裂けてしまうから父がボクサーのように私の手を包んでくれたの。それが大好きだった」
Yet when Lamb was growing up in Boston and taking ballet class with her two sisters, she was nothing like a stereotypical bunhead. She holds out her small, pretty hands: "I still have calluses on my fingers because I used to play on the monkey bars so much. My dad had to wrap my hands up like a boxer's, because they got so ripped up. But I loved it."
15歳の時、思春期のいらいらが募り、寝室に閉じこもりカミュを読んでいた。「その頃かなり厄介な状況だったわ」としかめ面をした。「コミュニケーションを取っていなかったの。自分のことを実存主義者だと思っていて、母にとってはとても厄介だったはずよ」ラムが才能のあるダンサーなことは明らかだったが、両親と教師たちは大学に行くだろうと思われていた。最終的にバレエへと進めさせたのは例外的な教師の影響だった。
When she was 15, her version of a teenage strop was shutting herself in her bedroom and reading Albert Camus. "I was pretty terrible in those years," she grimaces. "I didn't communicate. I thought I was an existentialist. It must have been terrible to be my mother." Even though Lamb was clearly a talented dancer, it was assumed by her parents, both teachers, that she would go to university. What finally channelled this unlikely child into a ballet career, though, was the influence of a remarkable teacher.
毎日1時間半練習をしているボストンバレエスクールで元キロフバレエのバレリーナのタチアナ・レガトに教わっていた。よほどの神経でない限り、情熱的で二度と立ち上がれないように厳しいレガトの指導にはついていけないだろう。「彼女がほとんど英語が話せなくてよかったわ。彼女の言うことはほとんどがひどい内容だったから。一生懸命踊って、彼女が小指の爪を見たならそれが’よくできた’ということなの」
At Boston Ballet School, where Lamb studied for an hour and a half every day, she was taught by Tatiana Legat, a former Kirov ballerina. A lesser spirit than Lamb's might have been crushed by the passionate, very unreconstructed rigour of Legat's teaching. "She spoke hardly any English, which was probably good because a lot of what she was saying was horrible. You'd work really hard and then she'd point to half of her pinky fingernail, which meant, 'That's how much better it was.'"
レガトの指導の元、4年後にラムはボストンバレエと契約した。22歳にはプリンシパルに昇格し、とてもしあわせだった。「バレエ団は家族のようでいい友達もいたわ」しかし、彼女は絶えず変化を求めた。2004年にロンドンでロイヤルバレエのオーディションを受け、ソリストとしての契約申し出だったがそれを受けた
Yet Legat was an inspiration and, after four years, Lamb won a contract with Boston Ballet. By the age of 22, she was promoted to principal and remembers it as a happy time. "The company had a family quality and I had very good friends there." But she was also restless. In 2004, she flew to London to audition for the Royal and, even though she was initially offered only a soloist contract, she accepted.
その頃を振り返ると「知らないところに入っていくのは大変だった。ロイヤルバレエは大きなバレエ団でプリンシパルがコールドの名前を知らないことがあるなんて不思議に思った」けれど、驚いたのは多くのダンサーたちが11歳の頃からロイヤルバレエスクールのジュニア部門のホワイトロッジで生活してお互いを知っていることだった。「これには驚いたわ。アメリカでは上流階級だけが寄宿学校に行っていたのよ。違う世界のように感じたわ」
Looking back, she admits it was "hard to go into the unknown. The Royal was a much bigger company, and I found it bizarre that some of the principals didn't even know the names of some members of the corps de ballet." But just as disconcerting was the number of dancers who'd known each other since they were 11, having boarded together at White Lodge, the junior wing of the Royal Ballet School. "This was mind-blowing to me. In America you only go to boarding school if you're, like, one of the Bush children. It seemed of such another class and time."
彼らがラムがボストンで受けていた中等教育（高校）を受けていないことも奇妙に感じた。「おかしいと思うわ。14歳まで毎日7時間バレエをやっていたら身体には相当な負荷がかかるし、生活に適した外見でなくなるし、脳を消耗して栄養が行き届かなくなるわ」
It seemed odd to Lamb that these dancers hadn't experienced the kind of ordinary secondary education she'd had in Boston. "It doesn't seem right. If children are doing seven hours of ballet a day by the age of 14, it puts a lot of stress on their bodies, and it narrows their outlook on life. It's like starving their brain, denying them full nutrition."
ロイヤルバレエ団に入って4年後、ラムは足をケガして9か月踊れず、7か月歩けなかった。「とてもつらい時間だった。ダンサーでなかったら私は何なんだろうと自我の喪失に苦しんでいた」本を読んでまともな考えを保ち続けることができた。トルストイの「戦争と平和」も読んだ本の一部だ。戦争の場面を飛ばしたかと尋ねたら彼女は笑って「いつもウディ・アレンが言うことを思うの、”20分で『戦争と平和』を読む。ロシアに関する話だ”というのをね。私は飛ばさなかったわよ。好きでなくても最後まで読むわ。一種のプライドね」
Four years after joining the Royal, Lamb injured her foot so badly that she was off work for nine months and unable to walk for seven. "It was a very dark time," she admits, "struggling with a loss of identity, wondering who I am if not a dancer." One of the things that kept her sane was reading books, including Tolstoy's War and Peace. She laughs when I ask if she skipped any of the battle scenes. "I always think of that Woody Allen quote, 'I read War and Peace in 20 minutes. It involves Russia.' But no, I didn't skip anything. Even if I don't like a book, I'll always finish it. It's a point of pride."
ケガを乗り越えて、ラムはロンドンに腰を落ち着けたように感じた。元ダンサーと結婚し、イギリス人よりイギリス人らしくなり、Radio4（BBCのラジオ番組）の大ファンだ。「89歳の人よりも長い間Radio４を聴いていると思うわ。Pick of the Week（過去7日間に放送されたBBCラジオ番組からの抜粋番組）ができるくらいよ」今、彼女はジゼルのリハーサルに没頭している。ケガでキャリアが中断した時に準備していた役だ。月に照らされたロマンティックなスタイルは彼女には難しくはないが、繊細でもろいヒロインの彼女のやり方で作りあげることを考えている。「ジゼルはあらゆるものから守られた生活を送っていて、無知により傷ついてしまう。人には裏表があったり妥協して生活している社会を想像できない。彼女は誰も騙せないけれど、彼女が愛した人の行動が彼女の想いを吹き消してしまう」
Now, with the injury far behind her, Lamb feels very settled in London. She's married – to a former dancer – and has become more English than the English, at least in her devotion to Radio 4. "I probably listen to it more than most 89 year olds. I could do Pick of the Week." And she's very happily absorbed in rehearsals for Giselle, a role she was preparing to dance when injury disrupted her career. The moonlit, Romantic style of the ballet isn't a difficult challenge for her; thinking her way into the character of its naïve, fragile heroine is. "Giselle has led such a sheltered life – her innocence makes her very vulnerable. She really can't imagine a world of social conventions that forces people into duplicity and compromise. She could never deceive anyone herself, and the idea of someone she loves doing that to her blows her mind."
ジゼルはウェイン・マクレガーの新作「フーガの技法」の次に上演される。ラムは長い間マクレガーの作品の主要なダンサーを務めていて、特に彼女をモデルにした反抗的なヒロインが登場する「Raven Girl」は代表作だ。「夢が叶ったわ。ウェインは舞台で私の人生を見ているようなの。6歳の私、15歳の私をね」
Giselle will be followed by the new Wayne McGregor ballet The Art of Fugue, which is far more familiar territory. Lamb has long been one of McGregor's key dancers, and one of the highlights of her career was having the rebellious heroine of Raven Girl, his last ballet, modelled on her. "It was a dream come true. It was as if Wayne saw me at each stage of my life: the six-year-old me, the 15-year-old me."
ラムは経験を積んだからと言って成功するとは限らないことをよく知っている。しかし、マクレガーのパドドゥに潜在的に存在する性差別的な表現への批評には戸惑っている。女性が身体を伸ばし、身体を支えられ、危険なバランスを保ち難関なリフトで持ち上げられるのはミソニジストからは性差別的だと称される。男性が持ち上げる側で女性が受け身であること、女性が足を開き身体がゆがむポーズはポルノ的に解釈されかねない。ラムは頭を振って「意見はわかるけれど、実際に男性に持ち上げられているときは大変なのよ。ウェインやウィールドンの作品のデュエットでは形やラインから振付家の美学を読み取るの。美しくて興味が持てれば私は踊るし、そう思わなければ、女性は5分間地面に足を着けないのね、と感じるだけ」
Lamb accepts that there were elements in that highly experimental ballet that didn't entirely succeed. But she's perplexed by other criticisms regarding the potentially sexist nature of McGregor's pas de deux. His characteristically extended duets – in which women are stretched, folded and perilously balanced through a repertory of hyper-athletic lifts – have been identified by certain people as misogynist: partly because they position men as heavy lifters and women as passive objects, but also because some of the more splayed, contorted poses of the women's bodies can be interpreted as mildly pornographic. Lamb shakes her head. "I understand the argument but honestly, when you're being lifted by a man, you're really doing a lot of the work. And when I look at duets by Wayne or Chris Wheeldon, I read them as shapes and lines, the choreographer's aesthetic. If they're beautiful and interesting, they work for me. I'm not thinking, 'Oh, that woman hasn't been on the ground for five minutes.'"
同時に、コンテンポラリー作品で性差なくリフトを平等にする考えはおかしいと感じている。「バレエでは女性は男性より小さくて軽いもの。私たちは日に最大５つの作品を踊る。精神的にも肉体的にも負担が大きい。オデットやドンキを踊るときは最大の注意を払うわ」
Equally, she thinks it's invidious to expect lifting duties to be shared equally between the sexes as they are in some contemporary dance. "In ballet, women tend to be a lot smaller and lighter than men. We're also rehearsing up to five different ballets a day, which is a great mental and physical stress. If we're having to dance Odette or Don Q, we can't risk that very different strain on our bodies."
ラムとパートナーにとってここ数年とても負担が大きかった。ロイヤルバレエ団は新監督ケヴィン・オヘアが着任して様々な改革を実施しており、ケガや引退でプリンシパルが少なくなってきている。元ボリジョイバレエのスター、ナタリア・オシポアの加入で少し負担が減ったことを個人的に喜んでいる。「ナタリアの加入はとても重要よ。競争しようなんて思わない。”わぁ、なんてすてきな高いジャンプなの”て思うもの。とてもダイナミックな表現をするから彼女から多くを学べるわ」
For Lamb and her peers, the last couple of years have certainly been stressful. The Royal has undergone a number of transitions, with the arrival of a new director Kevin O'Hare and the loss of several principals due to injury or retirement. Lamb is personally delighted to have had her own workload slightly reduced by the hiring of former Bolshoi star Natalia Osipova. "I think it's really important she's here. I don't feel competitive. Obviously, I think, 'Wow, it would be nice to jump that high.' But she's such a dynamic presence I've already learned a lot from watching her."
ラムはこれからも長期にわたり踊り続けるが、次にやりたいことを尋ねると考えていることをつぶやいた。過去5年間、ロイヤルオペラハウスの組合の代表で、ダンサーたちと経営陣との間の橋渡しをして政治への興味がわいた。道義的な妥協が含まれることには用心しているけれど。「自分の食い扶持は自分で稼がなくてはいけない。テッド・ケネディについて読んでいるの。彼は上院で最もリベラルな議員だったけれど、投票歴をマーガレット・サッチャーと比べて彼女よりリベラルでなくなってしまった。どういうことかわかる？」
Hopefully, Lamb will still be learning and dancing for many seasons to come, though when I ask what her next move might be, she's buzzing with ideas. Having been Equity rep at the Royal for the past five years, liaising between dancers and management, she's very drawn towards a career in politics – though wary of the moral compromises involved. "You have to eat your own liver," she says. "I've just been reading about Ted Kennedy. He was the most liberal member of the Senate, but they've just compared his voting record to Margaret Thatcher's – and he came out as less liberal than her. Can you imagine?"
コンテンポラリー作品へ重心を置くのは興味をそそられる一方で、教師としてバレエにとどまり続けることも考える。「自分が前に進んでいくことよりも教えることに興味がある。どんな状況でも誰かの影響で変わることができる。私にタチアナ・レガトがいたように。彼女にすべてをささげるわ。私が私である理由が彼女だわ」
While moving on to a more contemporary dance style would be appealing, she says, so would remaining in ballet as a teacher. "I feel there's so much more to teaching than just passing on steps. In any discipline you can be changed by one person, and I had that with Tatiana Legat. I owe everything to her. I honestly think she's why I am who I am."