Darcey Bussel OBE

Darcey Andrea Bussell CBE (born Marnie Mercedes Darcey Pemberton Crittle on 27 April 1969) is a retired English ballerina.

Darcey trained at the Arts Educational School and the Royal Ballet School and started her professional ballet career at Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet.

After a year she moved to the Royal Ballet, where she became a principal dancer at just 20 years old in 1989. Bussell is widely acclaimed as one of the great British ballerinas. She remained with the Royal Ballet for her whole career, but also performed as a guest artist with many leading ballet companies around the world including NYCB, the Kirov and the Australian Ballet.

Since retiring from ballet in 2007, Bussell has continued to be very committed to the world of dance. In 2012 she became the President of the Royal Academy of Dance. She is the Patron of the Sydney Dance Company and President of the Birmingham Royal Ballet's fund raising appeal. She is a patron of the International Dance Teachers Association, Ceccetti UK, Ceccetti Australia, Dance Teachers' Benevolent Fund UK, Du Boisson Dance Foundation and the New English Ballet Theatre. She is an ambassador for the giving programme of the New Zealand School of Dance and is on the board of the Margot Fonteyn Foundation.

In 2012 Bussell joined the judging panel of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. She is a patron of the medical charities Sight for All, Borne and the Henry Spink Foundation.

Sources and References - Further Reading

• http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/nov/08/darcey-bussell-judge-s...