‘The Messi of ballet’: Marianela Núñez, the Buenos Aires bombshell shaking up British dance

The superlative Royal Ballet star finally has her own show. She talks about fabulous footwork, her Argentina-inspired leotard – and why she named her cat after a certain footballer

Marianela Núñez is talking about football. This is before the World Cup final, after England’s game with Argentina. “That was a hard position for me!” she says. Núñez moved to England from Buenos Aires aged 15 and has danced with the Royal Ballet for 28 years. She’s a British citizen, but her loyalties are clear: check out her Argentina-inspired leotard on Instagram or her cat named after Lionel Messi.

In Argentina, they call her the Messi of ballet – although when it comes to who has the finest footwork, they should really be calling him the Núñez of football. A principal dancer since the age of 20, Núñez has been at the top of her game for so long you can forget what a remarkable dancer she is. When she faces the ballerina’s equivalent of a penalty kick – Swan Lake’s 32 fouettés, Sleeping Beauty’s Rose Adagio – you never doubt her, but it’s her romantic spirit, the bright beaming energy, her vivacity in Don Quixote, the tragic yearning of her Odette, the way she breathes in ballet like oxygen, that make her special. She is deeply besotted with what she does.
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