‘It makes you feel alive’: Royal Ballet’s Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov on dancing La Bayadère in Hong Kong
- Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov, principal dancers with the UK’s Royal Ballet, relish being in Hong Kong as guest dancers with the Hong Kong Ballet
- For their part, the Hong Kong troupe’s dancers, who will join them on stage for two performances, are thrilled to watch the stars in action
As Marianela Nuñez finishes her Act Three solo in La Bayadère, wild applause rings out – and it gets even wilder after her partner, Vadim Muntagirov, completes his own solo.
We are in the rehearsal studio at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and the audience consists of dancers from the Hong Kong Ballet, thrilled to be up close and personal with dancing of this stratospheric level.
Nuñez and Muntagirov are both superstars, but you’d never guess it from how they behave.
The two principals from the Royal Ballet, in the city as guest dancers with Hong Kong Ballet, accept the company’s applause with laughter and mock bows; throughout the day, they sit on the studio floor to watch the local dancers rehearse, applauding them too, chatting or cheerfully taking shyly requested photos with them.
Sitting down to talk to the Post later, the pair are refreshingly down to earth.
Nuñez, 41, recently celebrated her 25th year with the Royal Ballet. Born in Argentina but a long-time UK resident, she had spent just one year with the Royal Ballet School.
