Dirty Dancing

Martin Harvey has been nominated for the Spotlight Award in recognition of his work with The Royal Ballet. Yet he has since taken an unprecedented leap to become the star of Dirty Dancing. He explains this surprising career twist to Claire Saul.

"Going from the Royal Ballet to Dirty Dancing is a massive jump and it appears like a strange thing for me to have done" says Martin Harvey with something of an understatement. Having been with The Royal Ballet since he attended White Lodge at the age of eleven, Martin went on to perform key roles such as Crown Prince Rudolf in Mayerling, Drum Major in Different Drummer and Lescaut in Manon. But since the end of September he has been playing the lead role of Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing, a switch which seems perplexing until Martin explains a little about the route he has taken to the stage door of London’s Aldwych Theatre. "Before I joined the Royal Ballet School I had done a bit of everything, I'd been on screen several times and also on stage; as a youngster I appeared as Oliver Twist in a UK tour of Oliver! and also as Wendy's brother Michael in Peter Pan on tour and in the West End. My experience was never very specific and I planned to go to a school where I would continue to sing, dance and act but I couldn't get a grant for any of the ones I wanted to attend. Then, The Royal Ballet offered me a place! Not only was it a huge shock, but as they had a government grant I could actually afford to go there. So I kind of ended up there by default. At the time I never really thought that I'd end up becoming a ballet dancer because I was just not the right type. Nor was it ever really my sole ambition.

But my teachers turned me into a half-decent ballet dancer and I was lucky enough to have a wonderful career with The Royal Ballet, with some very nice casting. From many highlights I would pick Crown Prince Rudolf in Mayerling but to be honest, one of the massive personal highlights was being created on. A couple of really big and important ballets were created with my involvement and not that many dancers have that privilege. So for that reason, taking the lead in Alistair Marriott's Tanglewood was a pretty big moment. That triple bill was very significant to me because I also did Kenneth MacMillan's My Brother, My Sisters for the first time that year. The whole experience of that time is a memory that is stamped on me pretty heavily and of huge personal significance. There were certain ballets and powerful, dramatic roles that I really wanted to do and I was lucky because I got to dance and experience all of them. Consequently, leaving the company was not hard as I had absolutely no regrets and nothing to look over my shoulder for, only fantastic memories".

So how was Martin lured into a West End musical? "Well, after my experiences when I was younger, I always thought that I might go back to acting and it just so happens that I was lucky enough to get the first job I auditioned for, but who'd have thought that Dirty Dancing was where I’d end up? Not me! I went to watch it when I was auditioning, expecting to be put off, but it blew me away. The audience was incredible, nothing like I had ever experienced before. There is something unique about Dirty Dancing audiences. And obviously everyone knows the film and all the iconic stuff in there that makes it what it is, but when I went to watch it I realised that it was something I’d seriously like to do. Johnny Castle is a great role. The stage version of Dirty Dancing is like the bonus track to the film. It is everything you'd expect to see and that you are dying to see again but also extra themes and elements to make the story possible theatrically. There is something of a party atmosphere too, people come along and escape the credit crunch and all the greyness that is around at the moment and completely let off steam. Every night, even on a dreary Monday, the entire audience is on its feet at the end. I'll probably never get used to it, it is astounding! I just count my lucky stars, really. The Royal Ballet was a pretty incredible experience and so is this. But I feel a bit more at home now, as though I am doing what I was designed to do".