Benazir_Hussain

Benazir Hussain

Benazir Hussain

British-Indian retired ballerina (born 1972)


Benazir Surtees (born 1 July 1972; née Hussain) is a British-Indian retired ballerina who was a soloist at the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden.

Quick Facts

Early life

Surtees was born in Madras and raised in London.[1][2]

Career

Surtees was made soloist in 1994 at the Royal Ballet, where she took over roles such as the Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty. She is particularly known for her appearance in the recorded performance of Sleeping Beauty in winter 1994. Her other appearances include Frederick Ashton's Illuminations.[3]

After her final appearance as Gamzatti in La Bayadere she left the Royal Ballet and moved to Australia in 1997.[4] Surtees' first husband was her Royal Ballet colleague Errol Pickford whom she had married in August 1996 and whose new contract with the West Australian Ballet had in fact triggered this transfer.[5][6] After a year working at the Australian Ballet she continued her career at the West Australian Ballet in Perth from 1998 until her retirement in 2005.[7] Her notable work during that time include Ted Bransen's production of Carmen (1999, studio-recorded in 2002) which she performed together with Daryl Brandwood and her appearances in her final year included 'La Bohème - The Ballet.'[8][9][10]

Personal life

She is the younger sister of the cricketer Nasser Hussain.[11]

In 2004, she married Craig Surtees, and their daughter was born in 2006.[12][13]


References

  1. "Benazir bowls over dance fans as brother aims to bowl us out - smh.com.au". The Sydney Morning Herald. 6 November 2002. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  2. "Ballet stars quit for Blitz 'Cinderella'". The Independent. 15 June 1997. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  3. "Why I flew the coop". Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 26 February 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  4. "Benazir Surtees". dancetours.org. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  5. Tattersall, Malcolm (29 September 2007). "West Australian Ballet in Shchedrin's 'Carmen', reviewed by Malcolm Tattersall. '... colourful and energetic ...'". www.mvdaily.com. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  6. "Stateline Western Australia". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  7. "Perth Confidential". PerthNow. Retrieved 16 November 2016.

Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Benazir_Hussain, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.