Coronavirus: Duchess of Cornwall Camilla reveals ballet practice as part of lockdown exercise regime
"We've all got to keep active" or "we'll seize up and won't be able to get out of bed", she says on a call with Darcy Bussell.
Wednesday 29 April 2020 08:24, UK
The Duchess of Cornwall has revealed she took up ballet to build discipline and is practising to keep fit during the coronavirus lockdown.
Camilla told how she is working on her poses and positions from home during these "very peculiar" times after joining Silver Swan classes 18 months ago with four friends.
She combines the training, which is aimed at improving mobility, posture and energy levels for older learners, with pilates and walking to keep up an exercise routine during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We've all got to keep active," the duchess told a video call with former Strictly judge Dame Darcey Bussell and broadcaster Angela Rippon.
"If we don't we'll seize up and won't be able to get out of bed in the morning."
Camilla, who was announced as the new vice-patron of the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) on Wednesday, confessed she had always loved dancing, but never tried ballet.
"Sarah, the wonderful teacher, said to me 'would you ever consider having a lesson?', so I got a group of ancient friends together and the four of us sort of clatter around, and when we're in London, we do it once a week and it makes all the difference," the 72-year-old said recalling a visit in 2018.
"I thought it was going to be very funny and I was going to laugh at everybody toppling over next door to me, but I think we concentrate so hard we don't even know what our friend next door is doing.
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"When I stand there I think to myself, 'drop your shoulders, breathe deeply, don't hunch'.
"It's those sort of things which you have ingrained in your memory."
She joked about her future potential as a ballerina, saying: "I'm very, very much a beginner and probably will always remain a beginner, but I do feel after a year, or 18 months, of doing it that maybe I've improved a tiny bit.
"But I'm certainly not going to be taking to the stage.
"I shall keep it in my own home very privately."
It is not known whether the duchess has been participating in online classes while in lockdown at her and the Prince of Wales' Birkhall residence in Scotland.
But Camilla said her "workaholic" husband Charles, who has recovered after testing positive for coronavirus, was carrying on being busy.
"He will work wherever he is, so he's sitting at his desk now working away," she said.
The Queen has been patron of the RAD since 1953.