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“It’s totally understandable,” she says of his decision to quit, but explains, “It wasn’t my case, because I wasn’t that talented, so things didn’t come so easily.”

This may seem unbelievable to those who have seen Rojo dance — a woman who is widely thought of as one of the world’s greatest ballerinas — but she insists: “That’s the truth. I had to fight for it, so for me I did have time to go out. I was in the Corps de Ballet. I worked hard, but I didn’t have to carry the show [at that age].”

For most dancers ballet is “tonnes of fun,” insists Rojo. “We’re not masochists. We don’t do this because we enjoy the pain, we do this because it’s fun. It’s a wonderful job.”

The young members of the Corps de Ballet socialise with one another, go drinking and date one another (“That’s a professional secret. But yes,” Rojo whispers, “they do”).