AUDITIONEE CAPTION CAROL CHRISTINE CLAIRE DEREK_DEANE DONNA EMMA EMMA_THE_TEACHER FEMALE_AUDITIONEE FEMALE_FRIEND FEMALE_VOICE HANNAH HEIDI JESS JOSE JULIE LATE_MAN LAURA LIAM MALE_AUDITIONEE MALE_BALLERINA MALE_INSTRUCTOR MALE_RUSSIAN_TEACHER MEL MICK MICKS_COLLEAGE MONICA MONICA_LOUGHMAN NICOLA SARAH SARARH SECOND_FEMALE_DANCER STELLA TAMARA_ROJO TRAIN_ATTENDANT VOICEOVER WAYNE_SLEEP YOUNG_AUDITIONEE VOICEOVER All over the land, big people are hiding away big passions. For some it’s It’s the need to dance. EMMA I know I am not the next Darcey Dussell but I can still give it a go WAYNE SLEEP The stereotype ballet dancer is thin as a rake, no flesh on your hips, like a stick insect. VOICEOVER But one man is about to change all that. WAYNE SLEEP I’m here to prove to that big people who are BIG or round deserve to be able to dance. In ballet. VOICEOVER Wayne Sleep was told he was too short to make it. But today he’s a ballet legend. WAYNE SLEEP Director of the company said you’re going to have to spin twice as fast as everybody else and jump twice as high, so I did. VOICEOVER Now he wants to make plus size dancer’s dreams come true. FEMALE VOICE I’m not your ideal what you expect as a ballet dancer. But I can dance. VOICEOVER Together with ballet mistress Monica, he’s going to break the biggest taboo, size MONICA LOUGHMAN The ballet community can be very “no you must have trained for twenty-five-hundred years and be”, no. Nice and sharp and. DEREK DEANE Fat, cellulite, bums and large breast doesn’t work WAYNE SLEEP Oh please. VOICEOVER Against all odds, they’re doing to defy the ballet world. MONICA LOUGHMAN There is a lot to do, I mean. VOICEOVER And turn a group of big armatures into beautiful swans. WAYNE SLEEP What if it is a tragedy? What if it all goes wrong? VOICEOVER To stage their very one ginormous performance WAYNE SLEEP Ooo hello. VOICEOVER Would be ballerina’s have leapt at the chance to send in audition tapes, showcasing their unique talents. WAYNE SLEEP Oh! Oh! … Oh!... I love it! VOICEOVER The response to Wayne’s appeal for plus size dancers has been stunning. WAYNE SLEEP Ha! It’s so musical! Ha! Oh how fabulous! Oh she’s got tassels. Yippee got another one! VOICEOVER Hundreds of women, and a few men. WAYNE SLEEP Yes, well where’s the ballet dear? VOICEOVER Are pinning their hopes on catching Wayne’s eye. WAYNE SLEEP There’s no flow, there’s no natural grace at all. Not big enough, bet she’s never heard that before. Not big enough! Oooph, size twenty. She’s really big, she can move though. The boundaries are endless now on choreography, even for big girls – we’ve got bigger boundaries. VOICEOVER From the hundreds of applicants Wayne’s chosen just 93 with the poise, personality and potential to audition in two weeks time. WAYNE SLEEP José! Big ballet. JOSÉ Hi. WAYNE SLEEP You made it. -J: Oh thank you dear. WAYNE SLEEP Well d’you wanna be in it? JOSE No WAYNE SLEEP Cos José’s a very good dancer. JOSÉ Well it’s not about me. WAYNE SLEEP And you’re just the right size José. JOSÉ Oh thank you bitch. WAYNE SLEEP Oh, I’m gonna have a rough time tonight. VOICEOVER Wayne’s got a reputation as a rebel in the ballet world, news of his project is already ruffling feathers. WAYNE SLEEP Every time I hear ‘What are you doing that for?’ You know ‘Oh dear, what a silly thing to do’, I’m thinking: up yours! VOICEOVER His venture strikes at the very heart of this art form. WAYNE SLEEP Fat dancers, we’re doing a fat ballet. MALE BALLERINA That’s me. WAYNE SLEEP No! VOICEOVER Tamara Rojo is one of the world’s top ballerinas. TAMARA ROJO I was told three times I shouldn’t be a ballet dancer. WAYNE SLEEP Really? TAMARA ROJO Yeah. WAYNE SLEEP Why was that? TAMARA ROJO Well once because a teacher thought I was talentless. Other ones because I was too big. For their standards. WAYNE SLEEP No, no. What too plump? TAMARA ROJO Yeah. WAYNE SLEEP Wow. TAMARA ROJO Too um, voluptuous. -WS: Voluptuous. TAMARA ROJO Apparently. WAYNE SLEEP Your chest measurement was quite large. TAMARA ROJO Yeah apparently. WAYNE SLEEP It’s personal to me as well. TAMARA ROJO Of course. WAYNE SLEEP Because I’m 5ft 2, the smallest person ever to get in royal ballet. TAMARA ROJO Yeah WAYNE SLEEP And if I’d stopped, I would’ve missed all the opportunities that I had later. TAMARA ROJO Yes. WAYNE SLEEP Do you think I’m mad for doing this? TAMARA ROJO No I think you’re brave. WAYNE SLEEP Yes thank you! TAMARA ROJO I think you are brave WAYNE SLEEP Ah yes. TAMARA ROJO But I like brave people. WAYNE SLEEP Yes so do I. I like myself! TAMARA ROJO Good! VOICEOVER Wayne’s taking his mission to the north, it’s where he grew up and first fell in love with ballet. EMMA I saw wayne’s advert on the internet the first few words were like ‘giving dancers a chance, who’ve always been turned away’. I were like ‘Right I need to do it’. Like, this is it. CAROL I heard about if from my old dance teacher but when I tell people that I’ve applied, the first thing people do is they’ll look me up and down because the first thing there gonna think is ‘Really, in your figure love?’ JULIE I’d like to like to close door that was opened to me when 7. I was told too fat, I’m too ugly. And that was the last time ever did ballet as a performance. LAURA As soon as anybody mentioned ballet, the first thing that comes to my mind is like angels really. I just feel like it’s a heavenly thing to do. NICOLA I think Self-delusion is a very powerful thing. But I’m not under many illusions that there are bits of me that wobble in directions which they don’t wobble on other people. VOICEOVER Wayne has called on Russian trained principal ballerina, and now teacher, Monica Loughman, to bring some military discipline to the operation. MONICA LOUGHMAN I’m the boss, shut up and do what I tell you. It’s never a physical attack, it’s almost like a ‘Come on!’ and it kind of just gets their blood going and heart pumping and they just, they just go again. It’s like a wake up call. VOICEOVER Having left home to train in Russia at 14, Monica knows just how judgemental the ballet world is when it comes to size. MONICA LOUGHMAN No do it again. There is no such thing as a larger ballerina. There is no such thing anywhere in the world as a larger ballerina -How is a man supposed to lift them? MALE RUSSIAN TEACHER MONICA LOUGHMAN MONICA LOUGHMAN There’s a very fine line between is it going to be credible or is it not and it’s –it depends very much on the people you choose. I mean so much of it depends on them. VOICEOVER Wayne’s project is reawakening dreams all over the north. SARAH I used to love it, I used to feel like a little fairy on top of a Christmas tree. VOICEOVER 38-year-old Sarah hasn’t done ballet since her mum stopped her lessons when she was 6. SARAH I did a little bit of dancing when I was little. I was really the wrong shape for the ballet and stuff so I went into modern and tap – Hello. You’re a little bit late. LATE MAN Oh they kept me in there talking. SARAH Oh yeah, sometimes they do. Well it’s only ten minutes ok. LATE MAN Thank you. SARAH Alright thank you. SARAH Alright. Thanks a lot. That always happens. I was a little bit tubby as a child, a little barrel shaped and always had a bit of a pot belly. Whereas the other kids in the class were really slender and… I just wasn’t the right shape for it. We didn’t have a right lot of money and my mum just decided ballet really wasn’t for me. I’d resigned myself to know that I were never going to be a dancer. You get older and you lose all your fairy tales. Everything gets broken, you don’t meet a handsome prince or you might do but you get divorced ten years later. VOICEOVER Wayne is leaving the London ballet world and returning to the north for the auditions. Across Yorkshire the wannabee ballerina’s are preparing for tomorrow. WAYNE SLEEP I came down at the age of 12 to audition for the Royal Ballet School out of 400 kids. My number was 13 which I thought was ominous and I thought ‘This ain’t gonna happen, that’s it’. You see nobody is safe, nobody’s spared, we all have to do the auditions. We knew nothing about classical ballet. We weren’t, um, educated that well, you know. We were very working class and then when I was lifted out of that and transported into Richmond park to a palace. Which is the junior school of the royal ballet school. I’d never seen a ballet before I got into the Royal Ballet School. TRAIN ATTENDANT Just a coffee sir? WAYNE SLEEP Yes please coffee. Let me see your first position. Let me see your fifth position. TRAIN ATTENDANT Ah, I don’t do ballet, more street dancing. -WS: Well do some. TRAIN ATTENDANT No I’m joking. I’m joking. I’m too old for it. WAYNE SLEEP See you later, bye. Far too slim for our show. MICK I can do graceful yes but it’s gonna be a challenge in’t it? And I- it’s gonna challenge me to see if I can be graceful. VOICEOVER 48-year-old Mick wants to add ballet to his ballroom, bokwa and zumba dance repertoire. With the help of YouTube, he’s been teaching himself for the auditions. MICK First. I think the third’s… I don’t know if it goes like that or like that. Is that good enough? MICKS COLLEAGE So what’s the idea behind then? They just thought – not being funny but no matter what shape or size you are if you got the commitment –if you’ve got the commitment anybody can do it? I’m not being funny but is that, is that what it is? You got the passion to do it? MICK Yeah anybody can do it. MICKS COLLEAGE Right, not being funny again but there’s certain moves in there that might be difficult you know what I mean? MICK I don’t feel my size when I’m doing it. I feel like I move about and just the same anybody else, until you actually see it and then you think ‘I’m a bit too big’. WAYNE SLEEP We’re in today for the auditions yes? I’ve been going up and down like a yoyo thinking ‘No it’s a wonderful idea and let’s do it, it’s going to work’ and then next thinking what have I got myself into? MONICA LOUGHMAN This is the very beginning and this is the most important part. We need to get it right. WAYNE SLEEP Really it’s their own self-confidence that’s gonna be biggest obstacle. VOICEOVER Just under 6 months from now the final selection of 16 women and 2 men will take to this stage to perform a ballet like no other. WAYNE SLEEP It’s quite a nice big space. MONICA LOUGHMAN Ah, it’s stunning. WAYNE SLEEP So if they’re in three lines this way, yeah that’s right. So we’ll be able to see them when they turn round do the bar work that way. MONICA LOUGHMAN Yep. VOICEOVER Today Wayne and Monica are looking for those with the best balance, co-ordination and musicality to put through to the second round. FEMALE AUDITIONEE Is this the first test? WAYNE SLEEP When you’ve danced with a ballet company for 40 years it’s very difficult to look to take that sort of look in your brain away and begin to look at ballet again from a bigger point of view. This goes totally against what I have been trained to do all my life. MONICA Once we make them look breath-taking however we do it and you inspire an audience they will know that this is not this elite and snobby art. It is people doing something that they are hugely passionate about and whatever size and shape you are it doesn’t matter, you need to inspire people. WAYNE SLEEP Are you ready for action? Yeah MONICA LOUGHMAN You ready to go? Yeah. Let’s do it. WAYNE SLEEP Okay, let’s do it. VOICEOVER The 93 auditionee’s range from size 12 to 26. The gap in their ballet experience is just as broad. WAYNE SLEEP My name is Wayne Sleep ... What’s funny about that? I was too small, I’m the smallest boy to have ever gotten in to the Royal Ballet. And the director of the company said ‘You’re going to have to spin twice as hard as everybody else and jump twice as high. So I did. Why shouldn’t anyone be able to dance their size, me, or their weight. MONICA LOUGHMAN Yes WAYNE SLEEP And now this is your opportunity because we are going to achieve an act from a famous ballet swan lake. MONICA LOUGHMAN Yes MONICA LOUGHMAN This is gonna be physically and mentally very challenging. You have got to get to bed early, you’ve gotta look after yourself, so you need to know that you have got to put in hours and you’ve gotta listen to me. WAYNE SLEEP We are looking for personality, people who are natural performers, people despite their size or their bad line because we can work on that. MONICA LOUGHMAN That’s my job. WAYNE SLEEP And we’ll have to work on that because I have seen the videos! MONICA LOUGHMAN Yes! So have I! EMMA You go to most auditions and they are like, ‘Ah she’s got mixed up - Weight watchers is further down’. There’s been many a time where I’ve cried and I’ve been like ‘There’s no point in me doing this’. CAPTION Emma, 22 Shop Assistant VOICEOVER This is the first audition Emma’s been invited to where she will be judged on her dance ability, not her size. EMMA No one really wants a chubby ballerina. Do they? They’ll think it’s that scene from Fantasia the film, the thing with the hippopotamuses and they’re in the tutus and they’re being thrown about. That’d probably be me. JULIE Wait till I start singing Ugly Duckling. EMMA Oh don’t. JULIE There once was an ugly duckling. EMMA I loved it when I walked in I felt eased and calm. I came in thinking ‘Right everyone’s the same, you’re not gonna stand out, the elephant in the room. So I love it, I’m excited to go in and doing it now. Yeah. WAYNE SLEEP They’ve all got smiles on their faces… So far. MONICA LOUGHMAN That’s good yeah, it’s a good start. WAYNE SLEEP A good start, don’t know if that’s the way it’s going to finish however. MONICA LOUGHMAN She looks like she’s praying to God on already. WAYNE SLEEP I always did. MONICA LOUGHMAN I still do. WAYNE SLEEP It’s the unknown, I still do before I go onstage. Please God help me. MONICA LOUGHMAN I’m there before I go on stage, I’m like this. WAYNE SLEEP Do you have superstitions? MONICA LOUGHMAN I don’t have time. WAYNE SLEEP Oh my chair’s rather low down. Might need a cushion. Can I have a cushion? Oh good thanks, a couple. MONICA LOUGHMAN Couple! SARAH Last time I danced was when I were 15. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for me and I hope I can get through to the final show. It’s a chance to be pretty. It’s a chance to do something that’s, that’s not dressed in uniform and clomping round in big boots. MICK Thought it were knees. MALE AUDITIONEE It’s beginning to look like the most disappointing swingers meet up ever, isn’t it? HEIDI This bit, when you’re waiting is horrible. When you get on there… become a princess. I was 18 I think, the last time I performed on that stage. And believe it or not it was a parody of Swan Lake, but we called it Duck Pond because it was a comedy version and I was the fat swan. I don’t know why but yeah it was good. Always a comedy part, big girl. This is serious because I know people will not be looking to laugh at me, they’ll be looking at me for different reason altogether and that’s quite scary. WAYNE SLEEP Oh here they come. VOICEOVER Wayne and Monica have divided the dancers into groups and designed a one size fits all class to help them spot those with potential. MALE INSTRUCTOR Work the eye line in the Arabesque dancers, reach up and out to the audience. Arms to the side. Tendu, plié, passé, stay, stay and hold it stll to finish. Hold the position, hold it, hold it. VOICEOVER She can’t even point her foot and if she had to do a jump and tried to land through the legs I’m afraid she’d break basically. Cos – You can’t improve that in five months. MONICA LOUGHMAN 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. WAYNE SLEEP It’s not posey turns though is it though. WAYNE SLEEP Hold it, hold it, hold it! Smile, breathe, shoulders down, tummy in, point the feet, stretch the knee, bravo. MALE INSTRUCTOR There we go. NICOLA A ballet studio smells of, kind of, effort and dreams. But it’s pretty nerve racking, there’s something about people being in tights with shoes that is quite intimidating and everyone else looks like they know what they’re doing. MALE INSTRUCTOR Stage right to start, eight jumps. Then stage left. Ready for four. WAYNE SLEEP Oh there she goes. Do that again. Entre char and double turn. Oh and single. Yay! Good one. Ok. Thank you number 6. That’s quite enough from you. CHRISTINE I’ve loved ballet since I was 4 and that’s really what I wanted to do. But I was told that I wouldn’t fit their criteria because I was too short um, and the wrong build. And a little bit weighty. VOICEOVER By the age of 16 Christine had won a place to the Royal ballet school. CHRISTINE I became obsessed by the way I looked so I just stopped eating. So I left and went home. It broke me really because that’s what I loved, I love ballet. And I just completely severed it. MALE INSTRUCTOR Very well done ladies fantastic, thank you. WAYNE SLEEP Thank you. MONICA LOUGHMAN Well done everybody. So it’ll be about twenty minutes and then we’ll post up whom we’re keeping but I just want to say thank you very much all for coming, I hope you enjoyed it. WAYNE SLEEP You didn’t feel too nervous did you? No not at all, second nature. Like ducks to a pond. Swans to a lake maybe. DONNA It was just awesome. It was wonderful. SARAH Felt like a fairy olive. SECOND FEMALE DANCER I know, I felt like Dumbo traipsing round like I were. NICOLA It’s just a good story to tell somebody that you once auditioned. YOUNG AUDITIONEE Yeah I auditioned for Swan Lake. NICOLA Exactly. VOICEOVER Wayne and Monica are looking for a Prince who can overcome evil and sweep the heroine off her feet. WAYNE SLEEP Dear, dear, dear. Well they’re having a go which is the main thing isn’t it? -ML: Yeah WAYNE SLEEP Who’s never done ballet before? -ML: Everyone! WAYNE SLEEP That’s why. LIAM The Nutcraker, Swan Lake and stuff, you look at them and you think that is a high standard of dance style and I would love to be able to do that high standard of dance. I would. And I just think ‘Someone as big as me could be as light footed as any ballet dancer’. WAYNE SLEEP Do you know what I’d like to see? I’d like to see walking across the room with authority just a straight walk across the room like you own the building. No shoulders up like this, no walking like that just straight walk slowly across the room for me. WAYNE SLEEP Next group, ready and go! MONICA LOUGHMAN They all look like they could do with not having beer for a year. WAYNE SLEEP I bet they’ll have a drink after this. Step and jump. MALE INSTRUCTOR Step and jump, step and jump. Alright. Over to this corner for me. -WS: Line up. -MALE INSTRUCTOR: Come on out guys Line up. Step and jump, step and jump. WAYNE SLEEP Five. Okay. Buh bye. MONICA LOUGHMAN Bye gentleman thank you. Well done. MALE INSTRUCTOR Thanks guys bye. MONICA LOUGHMAN The boys are gonna be very hard work. It’s like three year olds but three year olds that want to do it is better than three year olds fullstop… No coordination, no coordination, this one’s – no, no doesn’t know her right from her left. WAYNE SLEEP Very nice by the bra but below the waist it looked a bit tragic. MONICA LOUGHMAN Ok there you go. MALE INSTRUCTOR Alright, I’ll go and deliver the good news. -ML: Thank you very much. Somebody has to has to be disappointed. Sure I think most artists have stood in front of that list and it’s a real body blow I think for people and that’s happened to everyone. It’s happened to me, I’m sure it’s happened to Wayne, it’s happened to everybody and my heart goes out to them. MALE INSTRUCTOR So we’ve got number and name if you want to come have a look. VOICEOVER The results from the first round of auditions are up. FEMALE VOICE You made it. VOICEOVER Thirty seven people have been called back. CHRISTINE Christine Longster. AUDITIONEE Is that you? Ahh! VOICEOVER Within this group Wayne and Monica need to find the best eighteen for the corps de ballet and the leading roles in their bespoke Swan Lake. CHRISTINE I’m in the show! Yay! HEIDI Look at me I’m a princess. NICOLA I can’t remember my number. No… MICK No. Thank you. Not a match. See you later. I think it were just a bit too hard for me today, but never mind. Last hundred, I’ve done well. LIAM Honestly I don’t think I could be like a Swan really cos. I’m a majorette more than that kind of thing. MICK No it’s alright. FEMALE FRIEND Have you enjoy it though? MICK Yeah brilliant. LIAM I’m gonna go and have a McDonalds and have a bevy so…! EMMA I’m going to go now on the bus and then celebrate with – I think, a bar of chocolate on the train and the bus. Splashing out! CLAIRE We have got a ballet dress that would fit you! HEIDI I’m not wearing a ballet dress. CLAIRE I dare you to go in pink tights, a white ballet dress and a headband. HEIDI No I should be all in black because black’s quite slimming so I’ve been told. VOICEOVER Single mum of two Heidi teaches song and dance in her spare time. HEIDI It’s that chance to, to just get that round of applause again and get that feeling get that buzz that people appreciate what you do regardless of what you look like. CLAIRE She’s danced since she could walk, all my family have. She used to go to bed with her tap shoes on. She wouldn’t take them off. She’s not danced flat out for a long time. And that’s the difference to teaching, breath wise when you’re bigger. So we just, see how it goes. She’ll do her best. VOICEOVER Today Wayne and Monica must test nerve, commitment and fitness before they select the final eighteen. WAYNE SLEEP That would be good. MONICA LOUGHMAN Then the two boys. VOICEOVER They will be called in one at a time and asked to improvise to a 30 seconds from Swan Lake. WAYNE SLEEP Ha! You’ll be lucky. MONICA LOUGHMAN It tells you a lot about the person and how vulnerable they are and how comfortable they are in their own skin. But you see their major flaws because as soon as they’re under pressure your major flaws pop out. WAYNE SLEEP To dance the role of a Swan in Swan Lake you have to have fluidity and grace, and a sensitivity. It must look as if you haven’t got a bone in your body, there’s no connection, that your arms have become wings, right through to the end of your fingertips. MONICA LOUGHMAN Yes!... Hello. SARAH Hello MONICA LOUGHMAN This piece of music is from the second act of Swan Lake, so it’s where Odette the white swan meets the prince. So basically it’s the heart and soul of the whole ballet. It’s where they fall in love, just let the music do the work. Ok? That’s what I’m looking for, I’m looking for simplicity and just the fact that you can understand and kind of feel the music. MONICA LOUGHMAN So! Miss surprise, what would this mean for you getting on the stage if you were to make it to the final? SARAH It’d give me ma confidence back. I used to be up dancing all the time and I’ve not – I’ve kinda lost me dance if you know what I mean? MONICA LOUGHMAN I know yeah. SARAH I don’t know why. MONICA LOUGHMAN Tell me, why ballet, why now? SARAH Um, I need a challenge, my dad died in November and I was looking after him for a few years and I spent a lot of time trying to get people to do things. Um, I was a mum at eighteen, been a single mum since I was about twenty. MONICA LOUGHMAN Do me a favour, point that foot there for me. I mean are you kidding me? And do the other one for me. They’re gorgeous. They really are. They’re just divine. SARARH Thank you. HANNAH Hi. WAYNE SLEEP Hello! HANNAH Hi. WAYNE SLEEP Miss 119! HANNAH Yes that’s me. WAYNE SLEEP Ok! HANNAH People think I can’t do it because of my weight. I’ve had dance schools laugh at me before. WAYNE SLEEP How does that make you feel? HANNAH Gives me a fire to sort of carry on. Want to! WAYNE SLEEP Well good for you. HANNAH Give them something to laugh about, something to look at. WAYNE SLEEP Yes good. So um, did you ever feel you could reduce your bigness? HANNAH Yeah but I like food! WAYNE SLEEP Oh do you? HANNAH Yes! WAYNE SLEEP Do you think that’s what’s done it? HANNAH Yep, definitely! WAYNE SLEEP What do you do for a job? HANNAH Work in an office. WAYNE SLEEP What’s wrong with that? HANNAH What I do is boring and I want to do something that I love to do. Which is performing in front of people. WAYNE SLEEP Well done, thanks very much. HANNAH Thank you. WAYNE SLEEP Nice feet. HANNAH Ah thanks! … See you later! WAYNE SLEEP Bye. HANNAH Buh-Bye. WAYNE SLEEP She’s so joyous and that’s the first person I’ve seen with a really classical quality. In the fact that her arms were absolutely placed correctly, beautiful feet, it’s just the weight that’s held her back. It’s just being big. If she was thinner, she’d have done something with her career. Which is an awful shame to see all that go to waste just because she likes to eat. VOICEOVER Since dropping out of school, eighteen year old Hannah’s been working as a support officer, at the local council. HANNAH I feel trapped it’s like I’m here and it’s just doing the same thing everyday. I’m clock watching. I’ll be sat in my office and I’m just constantly staring at my clock thinking ‘It’s only twelve o’clock’. I want to be able to dance for people and just for them to go ‘Wow, look at her’. With Ballet it just makes me feel so much better about my self, it makes me feel beautiful. MONICA LOUGHMAN It’s very interesting audition I love it. I love it. I love seeing them by themselves. It’s essentially retraining somebody. So it’s giving them a new personality how their body moves, it’s reprogramming a body. MONICA LOUGHMAN Bam. VOICEOVER Wayne and will grill the hopefuls before they decide who to let in to their company. MEL I used to be a mixed martial arts fighter. WAYNE SLEEP Well we don’t want you falling out with the cast do we?! -MEL: No! JESS I wasn’t allowed in competitive ballet because I looked wrong in a tutu. MONICA LOUGHMAN You long wrong in a tutu? JESS Yeah. MONICA LOUGHMAN Ah, nine out of ten. WAYNE SLEEP It’s the first all round one I’ve seen that fits the category of this show. Right on, all rounder in every way – Oh! All round in everyway! Ooops! MONICA LOUGHMAN You’ve made my day. Thank you so much. Thank you. HEIDI Whether I get through or not I’ve loved it so, thank you. MONICA LOUGHMAN No it was a real pleasure, thank you so much. HEIDI Thank you. EMMA THE TEACHER For somebody to tell me now at the age of thirty-seven that I have beautiful feet and beautiful arms it just – yeah it means a lot. NICOLA I just think I’ve kinda done everything for everybody else all my life, um I don’t wanna cry and I just think it’s time for me. DONNA That was wonderful. I was really nervous but it was wonderful. He’s lovely, you’ll be fine. WAYNE SLEEP Good one. Yay, we’re getting there. MONICA LOUGHMAN We’ll see. WAYNE SLEEP Just play it once more and I’ll swan around. CAROL Beautiful, you’re in. WAYNE SLEEP I’m in? I’m too small. EMMA And breathe. AUDITIONEE Who did you see? EMMA Monica, absolutely fantastic, I don’t know what I was so nervous about. HEIDI Yeah because normally on a Sunday I’d be washing, ironing, being a mum d’you know what I mean? Doing that and today I’ve been dancing with Wayne Sleep! AUDITIONEE Good for you. HEIDI Yeah, yeah. WAYNE SLEEP Ok, thank you. What makes you think that you’re big? Because compared to a lot of others we’ve seen you’re not that… CLAIRE Big. My mum’s got – I was born into ballet because my mum’s been an RAD examiner across the world. WAYNE SLEEP Oh Yes. CLAIRE But I didn’t fit the mould that I thought was the mould. I was thinking that can’t be me so I need to give up so I gave up at fourteen with a real bitter taste, I got pregnant quite young and I went back to work for my mum because I had really bad post-natal depression and I couldn’t get a job that fit in with being mum and being poorly. WAYNE SLEEP I see, but you haven’t danced yourself for ages? CLAIRE No. No. Cos I’ve not dared. WAYNE SLEEP I see so it’s now, it’s just this week? CLAIRE From this com- yeah from yesterday. Was- WAYNE SLEEP From yesterday? CLAIRE Yeah. WAYNE SLEEP Really? CLAIRE I wanted to dance on stage and to make me mum proud because if she walked in the room now I’d do the, you know, the whole. Like with an old teacher. She doesn’t know that I’m here but if I did that- WAYNE SLEEP She doesn’t know you’re here? CLAIRE She doesn’t know I’m here because I’m – I didn’t want to tell her then if I got through I’d try and get as far as I could so I could invite her. WAYNE SLEEP Good. Right well thank you very much. CLAIRE Thank you. WAYNE SLEEP Thank you. Good to meet you, yeah and you. WAYNE SLEEP Bit on the thin side. That’s the only thing – but compared to dancers in company she wouldn’t get in cos she’s too big. So that’s sort of how I feel about it. I can’t believe the low esteem that some of these people have of themselves. CLAIRE Cried me eyes out. STELLA Ah you’re the second person who’ve said they’ve cried. MONICA LOUGHMAN I am taking a troupe of dancers. I am not taking, you know because I like you, I prefer your story. No. I need really good dancers, I need to put on a really good show and that’s all I really care about. So stories aside I’m looking at the bigger picture. WAYNE SLEEP Right let’s count up our yes’s. VOICEOVER From over 500 hopefuls Wayne and Monica have chosen their final eighteen. Those eighteen will have to put their lives on hold and commit to months of rigorous training. MONICA LOUGHMAN It’s been a long but a very, very good day. Thank you again and of course some people got through and some people didn’t but listen there are some things I didn’t get and life goes on, it’s not the end of the world. Ok. So I’m gonna –truly. So I’m gonna call out some numbers and if they could possibly wait in studio 2. Okay can you step forward then if your name is being called? Number 6, number 8, number 11. MONICA LOUGHMAN You got through. WAYNE SLEEP Look out the window there, there’s the northern ballet. That’s where we’ll be rehearsing from Saturday on. NICOLA Thank you Wayne. HANNAH Thank you Wayne. WAYNE SLEEP That’s alright dear. MONICA LOUGHMAN No crying. This is not crying time. Next week we begin the long journey that we have ahead of us and the end hopefully will be- WAYNE SLEEP Magnificent. MONICA LOUGHMAN Very successful and magnificent ending. But we have a long haul to get there and we have a lot, a lot of work to do. HEIDI Can go home! VOICEOVER For Heidi and the other dancers it’s the end of the road. HEIDI I might not have got it but the confidence is like from being there, is up here. You know? And I can go home and I can feel proud of meself that I’ve got this far. NICOLA Hiya, didn’t get through – Yes I did! CLAIRE I’m gonna be in it. In the ballet. DONNA Yeah, I’m in it, no, no. I’m in it. I’m in it. HEIDI Right, pub and Chinese it is then. MONICA LOUGHMAN They did a great job. Though like. I mean there were some stunners in there. -WAYNE SLEEP: I think they’ll be inspired. WAYNE SLEEP We have five months to make them into swans and ballerinas. My god, what a quest. NICOLA Oh come here! WAYNE SLEEP To the ballet! I was pretty, I was happy, at the ballet. Right, are we ready? VOICEOVER Wayne’s plan is to bring his troupe down from Leeds to watch an epic Swan Lake. Performed by the English National Ballet. WAYNE SLEEP They’re gonna see sixty swans all running into that round oval shape into the Albert Hall and they’re gonna see such precision it should frighten the life out of them so that they really know what they’re up against and what they’re trying to achieve. VOICEOVER In just five months Wayne’s not expecting to turn his troupe of plus sized amateurs into professionals. CAROL It’s gonna be so intimidating watching them ballerinas though. HANNAH I’m a swan. VOICEOVER But he does want to stir things up and prove there is room for bigger dancers. WAYNE SLEEP Can you take me to the Albert Hall please? Thank you. My biggest fear is that the elitist world will be able to say ‘Told you so, it didn’t work’. What if it is a tragedy? What if it all goes wrong? EMMA That’s Harrods with the flags there. CHRISTINE Oh look at those dresses in there, did you see that dress with the queen? VOICEOVER Before the curtain rises Wayne’s testing the waters with his former college from the Royal Ballet Derek Deane, now the creator of this sell out Swan Lake. DEREK DEANE It is the iconic ballet, it’s the ballet everybody knows, but also physically it is one of the hardest. You know fat, cellulite, bums and large breasts I mean they just, that doesn’t – I’m sorry but it doesn’t lend itself to the – the pure form of classical ballet. Because it’s the art form that demands perfect bodies in a way. I’m not convinced because do you think people want to go into another world? Because they are transfixed with these exquisite shapes and I personally think it’s important that’s why – I don’t know how you’re going to do it. I’m not sure it can be done. WAYNE SLEEP It’s part of me that’s doing this it’s not just to say ‘Oh let’s make big people be able to dance Swan Lake’ it’s more than that. If I hadn’t’ve become a classical dancer I wouldn’t be on the map. And I was told to stop so often, so now that push, that drive that’s inside me I am going to give everything I can and nobody can stop me now. WAYNE SLEEP Oh here we are. Everybody can dance and everybody can have music in their lives. It’s here for everybody not just stick insects. I want you to absolutely observe like blotting paper everything they do on stage. Look for the precision, look to see how they stand, away from each other but with the same gap. Make sure that you see that every arm that they have will be held identically as the one next to them, as the one next to them, as the one next to them. They will be absolutely placed and that’s what I want you to ascertain. Welcome to our box, come, in you come. WAYNE SLEEP You gotta be inspired by it you know and just love it. VOICEOVER It’s the first time many of the troupe have seen a professional ballet. The first time Wayne saw his, it changed his life forever. WAYNE SLEEP I used to have a peep show when I was a baby boy and I used to have a box and I used to get the wrapper, the cellophane from a wrapper of a sweet in red or something like that and I’d cut out all these little characters and stick them in and put cotton wool all around like a fantasy world and I’d shine my torch through the top of it. And look through the hole with the cellophane picture and I was just in another world. And that’s exactly what the ballet did to me the first night I saw it on stage when the curtain went up. I just gasped from the colour, the intensity of it. And it was like having that peep show come alive. EMMA Absolutely fantastic. HANNAH Completely in awe of them all. Every single person on that stage. -EMMA: Yes. WAYNE SLEEP It got more exciting didn’t it. MEL Yeah. WAYNE SLEEP Did you see raise in? MEL Yeah, yeah. WAYNE SLEEP Raise in the pitch it got better and better. MEL The more she sort of bewitching him. WAYNE SLEEP With all of them it made it more exciting and suddenly there was a mood on stage. MEL Yeah. EMMA It’s very daunting now what we’ve got to do. HANNAH I’m quite scared- EMMA Oh I’m terrified. HANNAH uh but I’m really excited to start it now. EMMA Yeah. HANNAH After seeing it oh I just wanna do it. WAYNE SLEEP To see all their eyes with the tears today, the welling up to the music, all their hearts are in it and if your hearts are in it you – and you’re determined you’ll make it. NICOLA Cos I’ve never seen a ballet before, so to go there today to see that, it sort of, it’s a bit more real how much training goes into these things. HANNAH I hope it’s good just because I think, if it’s not good people will laugh at us. I think it’s going to be interesting to see what happens. – When we watched Swan Lake everyone was the same and say if they were to put someone like me in the middle of them I’d stand out like a sore thumb. When it’s ballet and you’ve got a tutu on there’s no sort of hiding anything. But I just think I can do it, I know I could do it. – We should’ve so stopped at this one they’ve got a KFC.