Not many babes can keep you on their toes like Brooke McAuley. The Aussie Ballet Dancer spends her days on stage with The Australian Ballet and her nights with me in the shower. We had a quickie recently and managed to do more than just body talk.

How do you take your coffee?

Double espresso please!

What attracted you to ballet?

A career performing live to an audience is something that definitely attracted me to Ballet. Being on stage is such an special feeling, the endorphins and energy that are created from this are just so fulfilling, I will never get sick of that.

Another aspect that attracts me so much to Ballet, is simply the movement you can create through dancing, it is an amazing way to self express. I think when your job doesn’t feel like ‘work’ then you’re in the right place!

Tell me something that’s gone wrong on stage or behind it that the audience hasn’t been aware of.

Funny you ask that, just recently while touring with The Australian Ballet in Sleeping Beauty, I was performing the wicked fairy ‘Carabosse’.

I had a huge stack and slipped right onto my booty in the middle of the stage! However, I managed to turn my marvellous stack into some form of choreography, as if it was totally supposed to happen. I like to think that the audience weren’t aware…. But let’s be frank, it was a pretty obvious stack!

Talk me through your morning routine.

Rise and shine at 7am and straight to the coffee machine. There’s nothing worse than feeling rushed in the mornings, so I always leave enough time to eat my brekkie which is homemade muesli with berries, cuddle my doggies Shiloh & Trevor and follow up some emails, before heading off to Ballet at 9am.

I know what’s on your Insta , but what’s in your bathroom?

Lots of bobby pins and traces of Franks coffee scrub in the shower…

What are the most common misconceptions about the ballet industry?

Something that people always ask me is “do you have to follow really strict diets at Ballet?” And “is there pressure to be super skinny?”

Of course a Ballet dancer needs to keep in shape and maintain a lean body type, however, I think an outsider would be quite surprised coming into a professional Ballet company and seeing the many different body types all in the one studio! There are no strict diets that are forced upon us, other than making sure we are getting enough nutrients into our diet to support such heavy work loads of exercise.   

Tell me somewhere, something and someone you would love to dance with one day.

I would love to dance in America one day! I am fascinated by the way American dancers move, no matter how tall or how small those dancers are they can all move so quickly and have an amazing knack for musicality, I find them really cool to watch.

Something I would love to dance is William Forsythe’s ‘In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated’. This one has always been on my dance bucket list, something a little different and it looks like a HUGE physical challenge to dance.

Someone I would love to dance with is my best friend Madeline from New York, who I danced with in our first European Ballet company in Germany; Dresden SemperOper. We had so much fun together on stage that year and I would love to perform with her again someday.

Toutous or leotards?

Tutus will always win my heart! Although not as comfortable and stretchy as a trusty leotard, the feeling of putting on a tutu before a show is something that will never get old for me. It really transforms and brings to life the role i’m dancing, and it makes me feel pretty too. 🙂

I can imagine dancing full time is draining on a babe’s feet and mind. What do you do to unwind and what’s your advice for other babes struggling to do the same.

The feet get used to the full time workload, but I definitely have those mentally challenging days. To unwind, I will stick my feet in an ice bucket, get some of Franks Glow Mask on my face and relax with a glass of red.

That’s my advice!.. The ice bucket part is optional ha ha, can’t say it’s my favourite thing to do (like getting dirty with Frank) but it sure does make my feet feel better.

Last question. Who should I get dirty with next?  

Ouch Frank, I thought we had something special? Although, I do think you’d have fun getting dirty with Aussie babe Emily Nash! I’ll pass on her number 😉