Dublin ballerina is centre of attention
On that score she failed miserably. But she did reach the very top of another profession and has just finished starring as the soloist in Romeo and Juliet at Dublin’s Point Depot.
The 24-year-old dancing star, who grew up in Santry, says she never really thought about becoming a ballerina.
She began ballet classes when she was four with her two older sisters Siobhan and Eileen and never looked back. “I wanted to prove my ballet teacher wrong. I just took it a hundred steps too far and kept on going,” says Monica who is now one of the leading dancers of Russia’s infamous Perm State Ballet school.
But having made the trip to Russia when she was just 13 success wasn’t always straightforward. “When we went over there at first a group of Russian girls came in to watch us and they burst out laughing. Some of those same girls are now in the chorus and I’m the soloist,” says Monica proudly.
And Monica knows who to thank for her success. Her mother Monica and father Edward. “I don’t know how they did it. They kept me in money all the time. They do everything for me. They’re brilliant,” she said.
The enormous workload she goes through each day to remain at the top of her profession is staggering. Every morning Monica has class from 10am to 11am, immediately followed by rehearsals until 2pm. The evening is also taken up with rehearsals from 5pm to 10pm.
With such a schedule you wonder how she relaxes. “I don’t. I just go asleep,” she says. “But it’s my job and I love it even though you’re always on the job and if you are dancing in something important you can’t have a beer or anything. You have to eat carefully and be careful all the time.”
But life in Russia is good and Monica has no regrets. Monica hopes to return to Dublin eventually to teach dance but it looks like she won’t be leaving centre stage herself just yet.
