FORMER Scottish Ballet principal Jerome Barnes joined Cape Town City Ballet earlier this year for its summer season, dancing in three productions: Giselle, Requiem and Raymonda. This month he is dancing the role of Prince Siegfried in the much-loved Swan Lake, opposite Hannah Ward, with whom he partnered for Giselle.
For the first time in almost 30 years, South Africa’s leading ballet companies – Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB) and Joburg Ballet – are joining forces to present one of the most iconic and beloved works in the classical ballet repertoire. The collaborative season begins 4 July 2025 at the Joburg Theatre in Johannesburg before opening on 25 July at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), a venue that has never before been used for a full-length ballet production, marking another dynamic milestone in the Mother City.
Barnes, who also danced with Northern Ballet, trained at The Royal Ballet School before advancing to White Lodge. During his tenure at Scottish Ballet, he performed iconic roles in Mayerling, The Nutcracker, Coppélia andThe Snow Queen, earning numerous accolades including the Rising Star prize at the One Dance Awards in 2021. He took up ballet as a child: “I was a runner at the time. My sports teacher saw I had a grace about me so she put me into ballet and said ‘if you do ballet you can stretch out your limbs ready for the running’.
“I went along with it and I found myself finding some peace in it. I knew there weren’t many men in society that were going to be doing this sort of craft and it really drew me. I wanted to prove to my family and those around me that it was worth doing. It’s paid off and I love my craft now. I saw the challenge and I took it.”
Still a keen runner, Barnes took part in the London Marathon in April, and since he’s been spending time in Cape Town, he’s been up Table Mountain, and Lion’s Head, and stayed in Claremont where he got to see Newlands and the “other side” of the mountain. “Cape Town is such a beautiful place,” he says. “As soon as I came here on my first visit and I set eyes on it, I was wowed from the very beginning. I’ve done vineyards and the dancers have really looked after me including Tracy [Li, CTCB artistic manager] taking me out for dinners and showing me where’s best to go. I love staying here. It’s like my second home. I can’t wait to be back.”
Described as an emotive, expressive dancer, and a good actor who has a beautiful effervescence on stage which draws your eyes to him, Barnes says that’s exactly what he will bring to the role of Prince Siegfried, throughout the whole ballet: emotion and expression. “I really want to portray what’s happening in Act 1, with his birthday party celebration, right through to the end where Von Rothbart deceives Prince Siegfried into believing the Black Swan Odile is actually Odette,” he says. “I want to find all those story-telling bits because I don’t want the audience just to think that it’s steps. Obviously the score is beautiful, so we need to add the story element and carry it.”
Barnes will dance Siegfried to Ward’s Odette/Odile just three times during this run. “Hannah and I have been on a journey since I first got here,” says Barnes. “When we did Giselle it was only two acts and we really found our flow and relationship then. But now we’re going into a little bit of a challenging time doing Swan Lake with four acts. We’ve had to communicate and find our voices with each other and express our wants and needs. We’re always open minded to each other and our relationship is beautiful. We’re very easy together and we love dancing with each other every day. I feel like it’s getting easier every time we dance now.”
Swan Lake being Swan Lake, it has so much weight and meaning for different reasons, for the audience and the dancers. It’s hard to believe it was kind of a failure when it was first performed in 1877, with everybody fighting with everybody and the critics being utterly foul. Even so, that staging survived six years and 41 performances – many more than several other ballets from the repertoire of this theatre: The Bolshoi in Moscow.
For Barnes, the impact of Swan Lake in his life is tied to the film Billy Elliot which is about a young boy who loves to dance and has hopes of becoming a professional ballet dancer. “At the end becomes the main swan – not quite what I wanted to be; I wanted to be the prince, obviously, but it’s relatable because of my background and everything, and how he got into dance was quite weird as well, so Swan Lake has always been a role I’ve wanted to embody. And I can’t wait, because the score is just beautiful, and the story telling is amazing. Everything about it is from the centre of the heart.”
Working with Cape Town City Ballet has been like family for Barnes. “They’ve all been so warm and welcoming. Straight from the get-go with Giselle, we hit it off, we have a chemistry. Then we worked out how we would do our performances of Requiem and Raymonda on top Giselle. We had to work so closely to figure out how to make those three productions work and now we’re going into Swan Lake and it’s so easy to get around each other and communicate our wants and needs. I love the relationship between me, and the company and Tracy,” says Barnes. “I hope to be back.”
South African choreographer Veronica Paeper will oversee the re-staging of this glorious version of Swan Lake that was originally staged in Cape Town in 1971 by French dancer Attilio Labis. Close on 150 years after its first performance, this saga of love and betrayal remains at the pinnacle of classical ballet, performed by ballet companies around the world with its leading role danced by great ballerinas of every generation.
The Gauteng season of Swan Lake opens 4 July at the Joburg Theatre, and on 25 July at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) where there will be four performances only, on Friday 25 July at 7pm, Saturday 26 July at 2pm and 7pm, and Sunday 27 July at 2pm. Ward as Odette/Odile and Barnes as Prince Siegfried will perform at the Joburg Theatre on Sunday 6 July at 2pm and Saturday 12 July at 7pm. At CTICC their performance is on Saturday 26 July at 7pm.
The season is already heavily sold and advance booking is advised, with seats at both venues available through Webtickets: Cape Town here, Joburg here.
