The moment Birmingham Royal Ballet principal dancer Robert Parker began talking about cartwheels, everything seemed to change.
By then the formal stage of this year's first-ever Japanese auditions for the world-renowned Elmhurst School for Dance in England's second city of Birmingham had concluded. Next, it was time for Parker — who takes over as the school's artistic director in September — to conduct all-important workshops for its 13 aspiring young students — 12 female and one male — who had come to try out.
The music was Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana," and Parker, 36, was teaching the sole male attendee the role of the "second seminarian," who, in a dramatic flourish, casts off his life of piety in favor of one of, well, mad debauchery.