KEY POINTS:
A spring chicken at 69, Kiwi ballet doyen Sir Jon Trimmer reckons he'll be practising his pirouettes at 80. After all, what's another decade or so when you've already spent half a century with one company? "I keep wondering where the time's gone," chuckles Trimmer, who was in
his teens when he joined the then 3-year-old Royal New Zealand Ballet. "I feel very young, then I look in the mirror and get a bit of a fright!"
To mark this half-century and pay tribute to a remarkable career, the RNZB has created a special production of Don Quixote, now on a nationwide tour. Following recent appearances as the shoemaker in Cinderella and the priest in Romeo & Juliet, Trimmer's playing the title role in the story of the Don's final quest for adventure under the Barcelona sun. What makes this tour extra special for Trimmer is that, although he's got hundreds of productions under his belt, this is his first time performing in Don Quixote. "Also these days I tend to mainly play old ladies and witches so it'll be nice to be the hero for once, even an ageing, addled and confused one," he says. But whether he's impersonating Captain Hook or a wizened crone, it's always Trimmer who gets the most thunderous round of applause. (although he is quick to deny it). "I still get that buzz from performing, but the best thing is just the satisfaction of entertaining, and hopefully looking good enough for the public because you still worry about that, of course."
With his modest manner and ready laugh, "Jonty" - as he's known - looks seriously sprightly for his age. Although those trademark leaps have lost a bit of elevation, not every 69-year-old can bend both legs up over his head. "Only one at a time!" he notes.
Apart from two-year stints with the Royal Danish Ballet and the Australian Ballet early on, Trimmer hasn't flown the local ballet nest. Turning his back on an international career wasn't for lack of opportunities, but for love of home - and of the RNZB, which he couldn't bear to see disband in the early 70s. "It was at a very low ebb, it nearly folded so we stayed home to help it pick up again."
By we he means himself and wife Jacqui, a former RNZB dancer and longtime ballet mistress, now retired. "We chose not to have children: we were very naughty, we wanted our careers."
And what a career it has been. Plucking particular highlights is a tough task: there's performing in Giselle and Raymonda with ballet legends Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn; dancing in front of Hollywood stars Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton; touring the United States and Europe with the RNZB in the 60s. Eventually he plumps for performing in front of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip (three times), and in front of the Danish royal family (twice).
And in another highlight, this month Trimmer took home the Wellingtonian of the Year Award to add to a trophy cabinet that already includes a 1974 MBE for services to ballet and a knighthood in 1999. When he's not knee-deep in ballet, you'll likely find him volunteering in schools as a mime teacher, or making pottery and painting in his studio on the Kapiti Coast. "If I get to 100 I'll still be able to paint but I won't be able to dance!"
With three tours already planned for next year, he won't be hanging up those dancing slippers soon. But does he really wants to be dancing when he's 80? "I said that half in jest to see how artistic director Gary [Harris] and the staff would react, and they were a little astounded!" he laughs. "I'll take each year as it comes but if I could be dancing at 80 that'd be just wonderful. Why would I want to stop doing something I love?"
* Don Quixote visits Palmerston North on November 25-26, Napier on November 29-30, Auckland on December 3-7, and Hamilton December 10-11. Tickets for Auckland available at Ticketek, all others TicketDirect.
