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Readers of this blog will know that I have a particularly high regard for Sarah Kundi. Although I must have seen her several times when she was with Northern Ballet she first came to my notice through the YouTube video of Depouillage in which she danced with Jade Hale-Christofi. It was that film that led me to Ballet Black (see Ballet Black's Appeal 12 March 2013). When I saw her dance for the first time in "Dopamine (you make my levels go silly)" and War Letters at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre on Saturday 18 May 2013 I was bowled over (see Why Ballet Black is Special 20 May 2013).
When Ballet Black came to Leeds 6 months later, Sarah Kundi had left the company. As I said in Ballet Black is Still Special on 7 Nov 2013, I enjoyed Ballet Black's performance in Leeds at least as much as their show in Tottenham but I did miss Sarah Kundi. I did not have long to wait because I found out that she had joined MurleyDance which performed in Leeds on 1 Dec 2013 (see MurleyDance Triple Bill 2 Dec 2013).
Sarah Kundi did not stay long with MurleyDance and there were reports that she had been offered work with Victor Ulate in Spain (see ByeBye and All the Best 10 June 2014). Happily, English National Ballet offered her an appointment while she was dancing in Romeo and Juliet in the Round (see Saved for the Nation 17 July 2914). She remained with that company for the rest of her career picking up the emerging dancer award and triumphing as Lady Capulet (see Congratulations to Sarah Kundi on 20 June 2018) and Hortensia in Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella (see Cinders in the Round 13 June 2019).
She announced her retirement on Facebook at the end of English National Ballet's latest season in the Royal Albert Hall and I shall miss her greatly. She was blessed with an expressive countenance that made her a remarkable actor as well as a fine dancer and a physique that gave her an aetherial appearance on stage. Those are qualities that not all principals possess and it is why there were many times that I enquired whether she was in the cast before looking up the leading artists.
Although it is unlikely that we shall ever see her on stage again, Sarah Kundi is not lost to dance. I was delighted to see the Royal Ballet School's announcement that she has joined its staff. There she will pass on her skills, knowledge and experience to promising students. I have had the good fortune to meet her at the stage doors of the Palace Theatre in Manchester and the Albert Hall as well as interview her over Zoom for the Stage Door. I can report that she is as graceful and charming to her fans as she is magnificent on the stage.
I have to thank her for the many years of pleasure that she has given me and no doubt countless other balletgoers and wish her well in her new career as a teacher.