Nelson performing arts luminary Gillian Francis is well rehearsed to take her final bow as a production director at Theatre Royal after nearly five decades.
Enamoured with the choreography the artform commands since her early years as a professional classical ballet dancer, Gillian’s curtain-raiser to calling the shots was in the late 70s at her eponymous Nelson Academy of Dance.
The studio is currently staged in the historic Collingwood St building, the Masonic Temple.
Opportunities for her dance students, predominantly ballet, to flaunt at the “beautiful” theatre were the clincher for her first steps to producing theatre shows.
“It gives students a chance to attack different roles and different characters,” she says.
“We’ve done many traditional ballets, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Peter and the Wolf, Giselle, I could go on for years.
“The best parts are seeing it come to fruition and the enjoyment on all the faces of the students who love doing it.
“It’s hard work sometimes, but they pull their weight, and it’s a good education, particularly for students going into music and dance.”
Gillian says her favourite performances, which have featured casts aged three to their 70s, were the ones she was involved in at that time, and a production of the ghost-filled ballet Giselle in 1996 was the most strenuous, all while navigating the Theatre Royal’s then degrading interior.
“There were floorboards missing… there was a trap door in the middle of the floor where you could trip over on the stage, and the dressing rooms were little hovels,” she says.
“It was great to have it refurbished in 2010 - that’s for real. Giselle is a very hard ballet. It’s got very strong acting, and lots of parts, but I did have help with that from another professional dancer from Australia who was living here at the time.
“Everybody knew it was a big production, but everybody knuckled down and worked hard.”
Gillian’s Beauty and the Beast production takes the Theatre Royal stage on 21 June and, like the traditional tale, should have a happy ending to the 80-year-old’s career.
She says her orchids will be her next production while her successors Lily Sinclair and Aleisha Johnson develop talent.
