Although Constance Devernay was born in Amiens and started her formal ballet training at the Rosella Hightower School in Cannes, and despite her 17-year career as a ballet dancer, at the time of our interview, she had never performed professionally in France, although that absence was soon to be remedied!
After rejections from the schools at Paris Opera and The Royal Ballet, Devernay—known as Coco to friends and family—crossed the Channel, aged 15, to join English National Ballet School. “That was when I realised that I really wanted this to be my career,” she recalled. Ashley Page—then director of Scottish Ballet—came to watch class at the ENB School and offered her a temporary contract to appear in The Sleeping Beauty. That contract was extended for her to join a tour to China before ...
