On Tuesday night, I had the pleasure of attending the premiere of the London run of Northern Ballet’s The Great Gatsby.
And the following morning, I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with one of the principal dancers in the ballet, Gavin McCaig.
To put it simply, McCaig is a man on a mission – one that is both exacting and exciting.
While our conversation kicked off with a reflection on the previous night’s performance, it quickly drifted into his work in – the way he puts it – “the dance ecology.”
Read on to learn about how McCaig, a junior soloist with Northern Ballet, is shaping the future of dance.
Interview with Gavin McCaig
‣ To start off, I’d love to talk with you about The Great Gatsby. In the show, you play Tom Buchanan who is in general not a very likable character. Talk to me about how you prepared for the role.
I am, in general, a massive Fitzgerald fan and have read the book many times. I’ve been in the company for about nine years, and this is the fifth or sixth time I’ve done this ballet. Even when I was performing roles like butler, Myrtle’s friend, or Charleston man early in my career, I was referring to the book. The characters have always fascinated me.
In the last few years, I’ve had the opportunity to dance more principal roles, like Tom. Portraying these characters takes it to a whole other level because you’re able to sort of carry a story through all the way from the start to the end.
Last night [May 16, 2023], it felt quite special to be able to live out a character and a novel that I’ve adored since I was young.
‣ What were some of the challenges in portraying a character like Tom?
I think he is quite a complex guy and that there is more to him than the toxic masculinity that people more often associate with him. David Nixon worked a lot with us (the four of us who play Tom) over the last year on bringing out the other sides of the character – the bravado side, the happy-go-lucky side, and the caring side.
I’ve enjoyed trying to find and convey those sides of Tom. Finding those more subtle nuances in the character has, and continues, to challenge me. It’s been great fun playing him and getting to know his character a bit more.
‣ With four casts of Toms, what do you think sets your Tom apart from the others?
Everyone who is cast as Tom portrays him so differently.
I’ll be honest that personally I find Tom to sit quite naturally on me. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve got a rough Scottish upbringing and can easily relate to the darker, manipulative side of him, but what I can say is that – as someone who loves literature and is passionate about Fitzgerald as an author – I believe that I bring a real authenticity to it.
What I have had to work quite hard on is the height difference between myself and my Gatsby, Joseph [Taylor], who is much taller. Because of that, we’ve had to find a way to portray the tension between the characters in an innovative way. A lot of that has to do with staging, such as how you hold yourself and the distance you keep between yourself and the taller character.
‣ On the topic of narrative, as a dancer with Northern Ballet, dancing story ballets would be nothing new to you. I saw from your bio, though, that you’ve created several yourself, more recently Snow White. What inspired you to create a ballet adaptation of this story?
There was a lot that went into this decision, and I’ll be honest that it was not my first choice. In the end, though, I was extremely proud to have been a part of this production.
What I ended up doing was, while keeping the title, changing the story a bit. While it would have been easy to take the original scenario and just do it all over again, I felt that there were better and more appropriate ways of doing things.
For example, I didn’t have dwarfs in mine. Instead, I had huntspeople. Rather than having the prince walk up at the end for the final scene and save the day, I had the more working-class huntsman who has known Snow White since she was young eventually fall in love with her and become her savior at the end.
I wanted the story to be a little less ‘white savior’ and a little more modern. I was really proud of how those changes manifested and came through to the audience.
I wanted the story to be a little less "white savior" and a little more modern. I was really proud of how those changes manifested and came through to the audience.
‣ What were some of the challenges you faced in imagining this new version?
In the beginning, there was quite a lot of concern from everyone about how it was going to work, if it would come across on stage, and how people would react when they found out that we didn’t have dwarfs or meet other expectations.
In the end, we did have quite positive reviews of the show. Having the clarification from audiences that the changes were assimilating with them was very exciting.
‣ Apart from the obvious differences in age and experience, what did you find to be the main differences between rehearsing a children’s ballet versus one with professionals?
Both are challenging, but in different ways. I’ll begin by saying that it is quite incredible to see the level of talent from such young dancers.
But I will also say that as a creator you are challenged in presenting young people with choreography and staging that they can achieve.
That is not to say that they don’t surprise you with their actual ability because believe me I was constantly amazed with their abilities and ended up throwing out at them quite mature choreography and themes. They rose to every challenge very well.
When you work with professionals, it’s just a different ball game. When you work with professionals, it sort of has the element of “this is their job.”
When you’re working with young people, they’re very eager to push and prove themselves. Certainly, I get such a kick with working with both ends of the scale.
‣ Aside from Snow White, what other projects have you worked on recently?
Recently, I worked on a pretty large-scale project with Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham who is celebrating 100 years this year.
As part of their centenary celebrations, they’re hosting performances in the summer and are also putting on a ballet for the entire lower school which I had the opportunity to create.
It’s an original scenario that I’ve written, and the piece is called Journey. Elmhurst initially approached me last year to create a piece that likened themes that the students might be dealing with in their personal lives with their work in the ballet studio.
After much thought, I decided to write a scenario about a young dancer who has a passion for dance and eventually decides to go toward a vocational training. I wanted to show what that trajectory might look like and what happens when you’re actually at vocational school.
While it is a narrative piece that follows the journey of a character, I wanted to make it more conceptual. I leaned on real-world scenarios such as injury and success and tied in themes such as adversity and bullying, which I went through myself as a young boy who wanted to become a dancer.
I was really keen to take a story that I know quite well, put that on stage, and ultimately hand it over to the young people that are actually living the story.
‣ Being both an incredible dancer as well as an award-winning choreographer, how do you balance between the two?
With a lot a coffee and not much sleep… just kidding!
I’m really passionate about what our sector can do.
Dance can be very transformative, and I think that when you’ve got that fuel behind you working so hard doesn’t feel like you’re working so hard.
While I feel that I can make change as both a choreographer and a dancer, I’m also looking to shape the ballet world from the governance and strategic sides by sitting on boards of charities and arts organizations.
I’m particularly passionate about my recent appointment at Yorkshire Dance, which is an Arts Council-funded non-profit organization that delivers an unbelievable range of programs and positively impacts communities all over Europe with dance.
I’ve only been doing governance work for about four years, so I’m really just at the start of this journey. But I feel galvanized by what I’ve been able to do and am excited to continue looking for ways to move this sector forward and develop our art form in ways that climatize it to the 21st century.
Featured Image of Gavin McCaig in Northern Ballet‘s The Great Gatsby by Emily Nuttall.
