Monica Mason - How I became Director of the Royal Ballet

Well I got to be the Director of the Royal Ballet also by a sort of quirk of fate because I had been working for about 20 years with Kenneth MacMillan and Anthony Dowell assisting both of them and I was officially assistant director to Anthony Dowell later on his directorship. When he retired and Ross Stretton came in it was agreed that I would be assistant director to Ross. So my aim was really to be the best possible assistant director that any director could want. To be able to mind-read and be one jump ahead for them always. But when Ross resigned and left after only one year, I was asked if I could care take for a while until I suppose people thought ' well now what do we do' because it was most unexpected. After about six weeks I thought, ' gosh this is really very demanding but I think it could be quite a lot of fun.' And then I was asked if I would consider taking on the directorship; I was offered three years, a contract for three years and I jumped at it. I thought, ' I' ve been here a long time and why don' t I give it a go, I shouldn' t be scared at this point.'

But I' d never really seen myself as a director because I wasn' t a choreographer and many of the directors have been that. I also didn' t have particular ambitions to do new productions of the great classics. So I didn' t want to feel like a charlatan really. But of course what I discovered there are many different ways of directing and again, like one does as a dancer, you try to do the best that you can do. And I' ve discovered that it is the most wonderful, wonderful job and I do love every day.