Derek Suffling talks to top ballet dancer Irek Mukhamedov about the forthcoming Swan Dance season.

INTERNATIONALLY acclaimed dancer Irek Mukhamedov is looking forward to treading the boards again at Wycombe Swan.

Irek will be one of the high-profile stars on display in High Wycombe during the forthcoming Swan Dance season, which opens on Tuesday.

Russian-born Irek, former resident dancer with the Royal Ballet, spoke this week about his hopes for the Swan Dance season.

The 38-year-old dancer believes dedicated seasons like this create a mutually beneficial trade-off between provincial theatres and the well-established ballet companies in and around London.

"Every dance season at the Swan will bring a bigger audience and it will also tempt them to come and see some of the bigger productions, like Romeo and Juliet, for example, which can only be staged in London," Irek explains.

Irek will be familiar to Swan audiences as one of the principal dancers in the Royal Ballet's touring programme, Dance Bites. He says he is looking forward to his return to High Wycombe in March: "I've danced here twice before and I can say that the audiences really seem to understand and love dance."

Irek was born in the central Russian town of Kazan and started dancing at the age of five. He was a professional dancer by the time he was 18. His name became synonymous with the role of Sparticus, which he danced for the Bolshoi Ballet. Irek has lived in Britain for eight years and remains a guest performer for the Royal Ballet company.

Irek is hoping theatre goers in South Bucks will soon be linking his name with the role of Don Juan, which he will perform in Arc Dance Company's production, The Return of Don Juan, at the High Wycombe theatre in March.

This will be Irek's second collaboration with Arc Dance choreographer Kim Brandstrup and follows his starring role in the company's Othello, voted best dance production of 1997 in the Evening Standard awards.

Don Juan is Irek's favourite kind of production, and he feels it has the advantage of being accessible to people who may not have seen dance productions before.

He explains: "Don Juan has a strong narrative, and that will take the audience along. It's not abstract like some classical ballet can be. We have to take the audience with us."

The diversity of the Swan Dance season, with 13 top contemporary dance companies represented, is something Irek feels very positive about: "It's important to have dancers from the big companies like the Royal Ballet, but it's good to see all possible ways of moving the body and interpreting music," he explains.

The Swan Dance season gets under way with Tango Pasin on Tuesday. For more details on this and the rest of the Swan Dance season, call the box office on (01494) 512000

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