Jaimie Tapper in Conversation

Jaimie Tapper ‘In Conversation’ with Maggie Foyer

July 8th, 2025

Susan Dalgetty-Ezra, chair of the London Ballet Circle, welcomed Jaimie Tapper to the evening’s conversation. Jaimie is Head of Performance Coaching and Development at the Royal Ballet (RB), providing leadership of the psychological health provision for the company. She also works as a Coaching Psychologist with the Royal Ballet School and other ballet schools. Susan also welcomed writer and critic Maggie Foyer who would lead the evening’s conversation.

Maggie started by exploring Jaimie’s background, and the fact that she had commenced her career as a dancer. Born and trained in Canada, Jaimie had joined the National Ballet of Canada in 1994, having been offered a contract by the Artistic Director, Reid Anderson. After a while dancing with the company she felt the need to challenge herself, to ‘strike out’ and look for an environment in which there might be lots of people from whom she could learn. Sir Anthony Dowell was Artistic Director of the RB at the time; Jaimie was fortunate in that she had already worked with him in Canada when he set A Month in the Country for the national company. Accordingly she came to London and knocked on his door asking whether he might be able to offer her a job. Fortunately he could and she was offered a contract with the company, joining as a Soloist in 1999.

Jaimie danced with the RB until 2007, by which time she had been promoted to Principal. Happy times, she said, performing great roles and meeting many interesting people. However, she always suspected that deep down she wanted to do something else, to return to academic study. So she took the somewhat unusual step of retiring earlier than most dancers, in order to allow her sufficient time to retrain. In fact, she took her first research-based degree while still a Principal in the RB. Questioned as to how she found the time, Jaimie responded that as a Principal you were not on stage every night, and there was some time to spare. Had she still been, for instance, in the corps, then the pressures of being on stage in every production might well have prevented any sort of ‘external’ studies.

After leaving the RB she went on to read for a BSc in Psychology, followed by an MSc in Organisational Psychology, explaining that her field of study was the structure and function of the organisation itself. Examining the world of work to try to make it more effective, to help workers to be healthy, happy and productive. It’s an interesting field, she said, as it involves working in a number of ways, sometimes one to one with individuals and at other times at a more systemic level studying the organisation as a whole.

After graduation Jaimie worked in London with a charitable health trust (Shoreditch Trust) for over a decade. As a relatively small organisation, she had the opportunity to get fully involved in many different organisational issues, helping workers to deal with vulnerable people while at the same time maintaining their own health and wellbeing.

Alongside this job she was slowly building a private practice working with dancers and dance organisations. Her starting point will always be to listen – to dancers, to administrators, to technical staff – and thus try to identify common themes which will enable her to build a picture of the organisation itself and the way it operates.

In due course it occurred to her that she could use all of her knowledge and experience solely within the dance industry, and that she might find such a role very satisfying. Accordingly she discussed with Kevin O’Hare, Artistic Director of the RB, the possibility of developing a role, using her skill and experience, to look in depth at what he saw as the needs and wellbeing of the company. That role eventually developed into her present position as Head of Performance Coaching and Development for the company.

Maggie went on to consider vulnerability – is there anything special about dancers? They must be very conscious of their bodies; they must also develop the emotions necessary for acting. Do they suffer mental stress; they certainly have physical problems. Jaimie first response was that human beings are the same all over. However, she went on to say that in the main she had found dancers to be relatively well-balanced individuals with straightforward personalities. Maybe that was because they had spent many years preparing themselves for their professional careers; developing strategies to deal with day-to-day problems such as stage fright, as well as the inevitable disappointments and knock-backs due, for instance, to injuries. However, added Jaimie, in relation to specific psychological disorders, for example, eating disorders, it may also be important to involve others with more specialised knowledge and skills.

Pretty well every dancer will suffer injury at some stage in their performing career, in that respect being very much akin to elite athletes. And injuries can be tough on an individual. There are some personality elements of extreme importance to a dancer. The sense that you are a competent artist, but here you are, you’ve been injured, what does that say about your competence? Autonomy, the power to guide your own life, to control your own body – well, that’s no longer there, at least for the time being. And your sense of belonging to the group – also gone. Even though they come to expect injuries, no wonder dancers find it tough.

Some of Jaimie’s work is with dance students, mainly late teenagers, and this she finds both most satisfying and useful. School can also give rise to problems, said Maggie, thinking, for instance, of current controversies about intimate physical contact between dancers. But pas de deux training inevitably involves very close physical contact. Jaimie explained that schools try very hard – usually successfully! – to implant feelings of mutual respect and consent between individuals, so that the primary concern is to help and support the partner. She believes such training can be very beneficial to the developing teenager. Dance is a social activity; it fosters communication between individuals. And physical contact, if managed respectfully, can be enjoyable and prepare young dancers well for the expectations of the profession.

Serious dance training is usually pursued through boarding schools, and leaving home at a young age can present problems. Young students must develop and mature with less direct input from their parents, at least for much of the year. The adults in schools provide a useful form of support but should never interfere in the crucial relationship between parents and children but rather be an addition. The very structured nature of the training may help, and these days youngsters can maintain contact with ‘home’ much more easily than in years past.

Relationships between peers nurtured at school may be fractured at graduation when dancers often disperse to take up contracts all over the world, but again are easier to manage with technology. As well as working with students, Jaimie will work with their teachers and also with parents should that seem advisable.

Another issue, again of current concern, is body shape. Here, said Jaimie, we lack basic data on the prevalence of disordered eating, although a dance career is quite like that of an elite athlete and much the same criteria apply. Aesthetics play a part - it is accepted that line can be better shown on a slim body, and lightness is good when partnering. Maintaining a low weight may thus be beneficial for a female dancer, a situation which may also be preferable for certain track athletes. The more masculine (usually!) ‘support’ roles may necessitate greater body strength and mass.

One can be continually surprised at the amount of food eaten by active dancers, said Jaimie. Performing consumes a lot of calories, and the dancer taking part in a production may well be active until late in the evening. Adequate fuelling is important! However, discovering more about disordered eating presents an ongoing challenge, one taken very seriously by the RB, the School and these days, the industry as a whole.

There must be many similarities with athletes, said Maggie, although for dancers there will be the artistic urge to pull together for a successful show, not to let the rest of the performers down. That might differ from an individual performing, for example, a gymnastic routine? There is definite and very real pleasure in giving a successful show, making a communal effort, which you can observe from quite a young age, responded Jaimie. Although there may also be a less psychologically adaptive side. There are time pressures, sometimes severe; all must be ready for ‘curtain up’, problems must be hidden from the audience. In that respect, both individuals and companies must develop a degree of flexibility in their approach.

Online activity and social media – everyone takes part these days, said Jaimie, and it can be supportive but also quite destructive. Disappointments, for instance – friends and colleagues can provide valuable support; those who may want to be unpleasant can certainly exacerbate the situation. Social media traffic was not all about body shape, even though that was often assumed to be the case. Jaimie believed there were differences in the way boys and girls use social media, female use being essentially socially based, while male use tended to be more associated with activities. However, she had not experienced displays of aggressive jealousy among dancers (citing the film Black Swan as a fictional example). There were usually bigger challenges associated with self-criticality. And, added Jaimie, there were distinct advantages in dancing being such an intensely physical activity; it constrained the amount of time youngsters could spend looking at their phones!

As a consultant, Jaimie works through Dancers Career Development, providing help and support for any and all the various genres of dance. You were originally a ballet dancer, said Maggie, so do you find that ballet dancers need more help? Do the often rather formal constraints of classical ballet techniques give rise to more stress? It all depends on the individual, responded Jaimie, for instance, those practising contemporary dance are perhaps less likely to have experienced the intense training regime provided in a ballet school. Many contemporary dancers start at a later age and may not have had this boarding school experience. Accordingly they may have had more time and opportunity to advance their own personal development. And freelance dancers may be less secure, often existing in more difficult financial situations. Jaimie tries to understand and provide appropriate support for dancers whatever their background or stage of development.

She was then asked whether any specific incident had suggested to her that dancers might need a greater level of psychological support. Not really, replied Jaimie, although she agreed that she always had outside interests and for her moving to a new career seemed almost inevitable. A dancer’s career is short, maybe around 20 years, and often necessitates a high degree of single-mindedness. Accordingly, in her opinion dancers should not lose sight of their other interests because all will need something to do, something to provide a salary, after retirement from the stage. Jaimie recognised, however, the difficulty of maintaining other interests while concentrating on some elite role, or indeed while performing – often almost every day – in the corps.

And what about motherhood, wondered Maggie. Jaimie responded that although companies were now much more flexible, having children still presented a challenge. Having just one child might take around two years out of a short professional career, and while the new mother might return to the stage re-invigorated, there was always the challenge of divided loyalties, of needing – and wanting – to be in two places at once. Many women had done it successfully, but none should pretend it’s easy!

In concluding the evening, Susan, chair of the London Ballet Circle, responded enthusiastically that it had been another fascinating and very insightful discussion. She thanked both Jaimie and Maggie most sincerely for exploring so many aspects of the profession of dance, resulting in a wonderful evening’s conversation.

Trevor Rothwell 10-07-25