Darcey Bussell rises like a phoenix after depression down under

Nobody could have failed to be moved by Dar­cey Bus­sell’s farewell to the stage in 2007. It seemed more an out­pour­ing of grief than a sad farewell. She told The Sunday Times,

My God, I cracked. I just wanted to do the show really well, so that I’d be happy to fin­ish. But I just bawled. It was pathetic.

Bus­sell then set off with her hus­band and chil­dren to Aus­tralia. But she wasn’t ready to leave dance and London.

I got depressed. I didn’t appre­ci­ate how low I got. My hus­band did. He said, ‘You know, Dar­cey, you’re bet­ter when you’re busy.’ I thought it was weak­ness to show you couldn’t cope.

How very Brit­ish. She sums up her stiff upper lip attitude:

You still have to get on with the show. I had friends who wouldn’t smile for a whole day, but I had been brought up not to make other people feel bad just because you do.

It was dance that got Dar­cey smil­ing as she star­ted classes again in Australia.

As soon as I was mov­ing, I was happy. It didn’t have to be about per­fec­tion. There are so many styles to enjoy.

Now the fam­ily have moved back to Lon­don and she is slowly return­ing in the pub­lic eye. She has become pres­id­ent of the Royal Academy of Dance, the first ever face of the new anti-ageing Sanc­tu­ary Spa skin­care range, and is on the judging panel on Strictly Come Dan­cing.

Next up she’ll be in front of the biggest audi­ence of her career. Bil­lions of people. Play­ing a phoenix, she will rise dur­ing the Olympic clos­ing cere­mony, doing what she was born to do… dance.

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