Ballerina who swapped Royal Ballet for Great Ormond Street Hospital makes ‘children’s faces light up’ through dance

A ballerina who danced with the Royal Ballet for over two decades now performs for sick children at Great Ormond Street Hospital through GOSH Charity, which she said is a “beautiful opportunity to take them away, for that brief moment, from everything they’re going through”.

Tara-Brigitte Bhavnani, 42, began dancing when she was just two years old. Growing up in Ontario, Canada, she “loved” to dance, and from a young age began working towards making it her career.

After graduating from the prestigious Canada’s National Ballet school in Toronto, where she was a resident student from the age of 10, she earned a place in the Royal Ballet Company in London.

For 20 years, Tara performed with the Royal Ballet and Opera in “mostly every production, and that adds up to probably a few thousand performances on the Royal Opera House stage”.

However, in 2022, she decided to step back from the intense life of a Royal Ballet dancer, and applied for a role performing for children being cared for at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals.

Now, she puts on bespoke, personal performances for sick children in their hospital rooms, “bringing joy” to patients and their families.

Beginning in March 2002, when she was just 18 years old, Tara’s 20-year career with the Royal Ballet saw her perform thousands of times on the Royal Opera House stage, as well as touring around the world with the company.

She found the work thrilling and exciting, and loved how it challenged her, but the long days of rehearsals before performing in the evenings could be “mentally and physically draining at times”.

In 2022, Tara decided it was time to move on. After having two children in 2017 and 2021, she realised “it was going to be tricky to balance a full-time career as a dancer as well as taking care of my children and seeing them”.

She was keen not to say goodbye to the Royal Ballet for good though and still occasionally dances with the company as a guest artist, taking on the more challenging, acting-focused roles.

As she wondered what might be next for her, she saw an Instagram post from GOSH Arts, advertising resident artist positions at the hospital funded by GOSH Charity.

“I thought: ‘Wow, this could be perfect timing’,” Tara told PA Real Life.

“It was something that was so different to performing on the Royal Opera House stage, but I felt like it could be equally rewarding.”

Now, Tara visits various wards of the hospital to offer performances – or, if they are interested and able to, a ballet lesson – to the patients, bringing a smile to children’s faces while they battle the unimaginable.

Wearing ballet shoes and a leotard, and sometimes even a tutu, she’ll play a piano version of the child’s favourite song on her speaker and create a bespoke performance for them to enjoy from their hospital bed.

“It’s very much improvised, which was a big change I had to adapt to,” Tara explained.

“At the Royal Ballet, there’s very little improvisation, the dances are choreographed and everything has to be done a certain way…

“Whereas here in the beginning, I came in with set routines and specific music – everything was quite planned. But I couldn’t always connect with the patient in the way I do now. Over time, I realised it worked much better when I loosened up, became more responsive, and really met the children where they were – talking to them about what they enjoy and the kind of music they like.”

She says the work is “very freeing”, and each performance is tailored to the child – “I’m always keeping an eye on them when I’m performing for them, and if they like when I do a certain turn or move, I’ll try and incorporate that more,” she said.

Of course, performing in a hospital ward brings some practical challenges.

“There’s very little space. They’ve got the beds and the equipment that they need for their health, plus there’s chairs and their suitcases and a bed for the parent or carer. There’s often nurses and other staff coming to check on them too, so it can be quite busy in a room and I need to make sure I’m also not in anyone’s way,” Tara said.

However, her decades of training and performance experience means she, like other ballet dancers, has “very good spatial awareness, and very good peripheral vision”.

“I know when I lift my leg to the back, that I’m not going to hit the IV stand behind me, or another piece of equipment,” she said.

“And that’s from being in line with dancers for many years, and having to be precise with my movement so that no one gets out of place or hit or hurt.”

As for the work itself, Tara – who is supporting the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity’s fundraising for a world-leading Children’s Cancer Centre through the Omaze Cornwall House Draw – believes “it’s the least anyone can do”.

“No child should be going through what these kids are going through.

“When you’re watching a ballet performance, it’s kind of like when you watch a good film and you’re taken away. You forget about life, you forget about the shopping list, you forget about work. You just get taken away.

“I feel like I can still do that but it’s on a much closer level, a much more intimate level, because I’m with the person, I can see the person, I can see their reaction, and it’s so beautiful because I am taking them away for that brief moment from everything they’re going through.”

“It’s going back to why I started dancing,” she added.

“It’s to really bring joy to people, and it’s so rewarding in that way for me… You can just see how much dance can help people, how much the arts can affect people and move people and bring people closer, and I think that’s what it’s all about.”

Mary Foo-Caballero, matron in GOSH’s cancer wards, said Tara’s dancing makes a huge difference to the children’s stay at the hospital.

“When children are seriously ill with cancer they need treatment and tender loving care. They also need distractions from the unpleasantness and side effects of chemotherapy or painful procedures, and plenty of fun and laughter whilst in hospital,” she said.

“When Tara dances onto the wards, the children’s faces completely light up. It is something magical that children might only see in the movies, and for some it might give them hope that one day they might become a ballerina. It can also distract them momentarily from what they are going through.

“When we have our new Children’s Cancer Centre, it will have cutting-edge facilities, a welcoming new front entrance and a rooftop garden but it will also become a new stage of sorts for Tara.

“Supported by GOSH Charity, we are so grateful to all our amazing performers who give up time to support children in hospital and they make such a difference because joy, hope and inspiration can be the best medicine.”

The Omaze Cornwall House Draw draw, which is helping to fund a world-leading Children’s Cancer Centre at Great Ormond Street Hospital, is open until Sunday February 22 at omaze.co.uk.