Practising ballet moves on the day you're due to give birth sounds like hard work. English National Ballet star Simone Clarke tells ANDREW WHITE the whole thing was a breeze...

HAVING a baby may be a joyful experience, but it can also be a draining one.

Not for English National Ballet star Simone Clarke, though. The 32-year-old dancer from Leeds was still attending classes the day daughter Olivia was born - and was back at the barre just two weeks later.

"I wasn't expecting it to be that easy," admits Simone, one of the senior soloists who will be dancing the part of Swanilda in Coppelia at The Mayflower this week.

"Everybody was telling me I would feel really rough, but it gave me energy. I didn't have an agonising birth, either. It was over in a flash."

Simone's partner, Yat-Sen Chang, is also a member of the ENB and can be seen dancing in the same production - although, unfortunately, not with Simone.

The couple met when Simone joined the company about five years ago.

"We always liked each other really. We finally got it together about a year ago," she says.

"Yat-Sen was a little concerned about me dancing so close to the birth, but he trusted me to be careful.

"My mum and dad have been great. They have been with Olivia since the day she was born. You do need help when a baby is born, especially if it's your first child. It doesn't matter how many books you read - it doesn't prepare you."

Simone's parents are now looking after Olivia in Leeds while Simone and Yat-Sen are on tour.

Simone describes the part of Swanilda - the girl who has to vie for the attentions of her fiance Franz with a wooden doll in Delibes' peculiar but charming ballet - as "difficult, with an awful lot of dancing".

"It's quite a character role and it's quite technically challenging. It's certainly something to get your teeth stuck into."

Simone has been dancing since she was three. She won a place at the Royal Ballet School - famously featured in Billy Elliot - at the age of 11 and joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1988. She finally made it to the ENB ten years later, becoming a senior soloist in 2000.

"I'm not really sure where the desire to dance came from. My parents used to take me to the theatre a lot when I was a child and my mother took me to ballet lessons, which I loved.

"I think I just liked the thought of being on stage in nice clothes and feeling glamorous."

She thinks the qualities you need to be a great dancer are something you are "born with".

"I don't think you can produce it. It's that little extra 'something'.

"When someone gets on stage it doesn't matter how technically accurate they are or how much they smile, it's that little extra-special thing that so few people have that makes you want to look at them."

With relatively few ballet dancers continuing to dance professionally into their 40s, doesn't it sadden Simone that she may only have another ten or so years to go?

"Yes, but by the time that arrives, I'll be ready to give up.

"I always said that I would have a baby and come back to dancing. I didn't want that to be the reason for me stopping dancing.

"I shall go on for as long as I can. If I feel as I good as I do now I'll probably do at least another six years.

"But I don't want to end up looking a complete old lady on stage."

The English National Ballet's Coppelia is at The Mayflower, Southampton from Tuesday until Saturday March 15. Box office: 023 8071 1811.