A Knight to remember

Injury could have meant a very different career for Carnforth’s Yvette Knight. Now the ballet star is en pointe as first soloist with Birmingham’s Royal Ballet

For thousands of little girls, the dream of becoming a ballerina in a pretty pink tutu remains just that – a dream. The harsh reality is that a dancer’s life is a tough one, with daily classes followed by long rehearsals and evening performances. To make it to the top requires a combination of talent, dedication and sheer hard work.

One person who has fulfilled that dream is Yvette Knight, now a First Soloist with the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Born and brought up in Carnforth, she started dancing at the age of three. There are no other dancers in her family, but what started as an enjoyable hobby soon became more serious, without her realising it.

‘To be honest, I think it just happened. I don’t think I really knew what a career was in dancing – I was just good at it and it was working, so I couldn’t stop it,’ she says. Yvette was encouraged to become a Junior Associate of the Royal Ballet School, taking classes in Manchester. Junior Associates – or ‘JA’s‘ as they are known, are children who take classes linked to the Royal Ballet School, in addition to their regular ballet classes. These lessons prepare pupils to audition for White Lodge, the junior section of the school, which is in Richmond Park, London.

The move to the prestigious boarding school was probably more traumatic for her parents than for Yvette. ‘I was absolutely fine, it didn’t faze me when I was 11,’ she says.