Precious Adams likens being a dancer to having fibre optic cables running through her body. “Our mind-body connection is on another level,” she says. “Even after all these years you’ll become suddenly aware of some new muscle and fire it up, like, I didn’t know I could switch my deep rotators on so intensely!” A few years ago, a coach told Adams to think about pressing her big toenail down to the floor for stability, “And suddenly it gave me the most control over my whole body; the magic answer. Was I totally unaware of my big toe this whole time?!”
Adams, originally from Detroit, did her first dancing around the living room to a Vengaboys CD, but went on to train in Canada, Monaco and Moscow before joining English National Ballet in 2014. She’s been regularly singled out by critics, whether for her Russian-schooled lyricism, charismatic American zing or getting under the skin of contemporary choreography, and she’s about to appear in a triple bill including Mats Ek’s new Rite of Spring and a William Forsythe work set to the electronic music of James Blake.
