THE first time I tried on pointe shoes when I was a little girl, it felt like a dream—I remember that moment so clearly,’ reveals junior soloist Ivana Bueno, one of the dancers who will play the lead role of Clara in the English National Ballet’s (ENB) production of The Nutcracker at the London Coliseum this year. ‘I think I was about 10 years old. The older ballerinas had blisters on their feet; and, after wearing mine for the first time, I can remember excitedly checking my toes to see if I had any blisters, too.’
Sitting in a bright boardroom in between rehearsals at the Mulryan Centre for Dance, the state-of-the-art headquarters of the ENB in London City Island, Miss Bueno
