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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance. I'm joined in the studio by the first Western prima ballerina to perform with the Parham State Ballet in Russia, ballet dancer and teacher Monica Lachman, here for What Made Me.
Chapter 2: What challenges did Monica face after being hit by a car in Russia?
Before we talk about that, you limped into the studio, God help you. What's happened?
Well, after I got hit by a car in Russia, now that was many years ago, like I'm much older now, but like it leaves, you know, damage afterwards. Yes. So... I've got one leg now shorter than the other.
It's the irony of this.
Chapter 3: What does Monica attribute to her success as a ballet dancer?
This has nothing to do with the ballet. It's got to do with being hit by a ladder. Yeah, admire the ladder. Good job. When I ask you, Monica, what made you, I think I can answer that question. Blood, sweat and tears. Would I be right?
Yeah. And as my current part would say, stubbornness. I was just not going to back down.
Chapter 4: How did Monica's early experiences in ballet shape her career?
And is it true that you danced in this very building that we're sitting in today?
Yes.
What was that?
What happened? So here, this is Diggs Lane. Yes. So Diggs Lane, like a lot of the boy bands of the 90s, sorry, I'm going to stop rustling, were made here and Riverdance was made here and I was made here.
So you were doing your classes here in this building. Yes. And then what happened? You were plucked from obscurity and sent to Russia from this place.
Yes.
Who came here?
So a lady called Ludmilla Sakharova came to Ireland and picked a group of girls and one or two boys and just, you know, saw potential there.
And brought you to Russia.
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Chapter 5: What was it like for Monica to move to Russia at a young age?
Like, it's different now.
But when you look back on it, and your parents obviously made a decision at that time that you were, you know, off you go there.
Well, my father was in the Air Corps and he was in the Air Corps from the age of 14. So they had a different perspective. They were of a different era. You know, they thought, you know, send them out to work. And when I found that I'd gotten the job, which was so unique because the company I got into was the third best in Russia. Like it was after the Mariinsky, you know, it was huge.
Big deal.
It was a big deal. But I remember walking the dog around the block in Sanitary and I had to break the news. I was 60 and I had to break the news to him that I'd started work. And he just looked at me and he was like, well, that's a big decision. I was like, well, I've been on my own for so long. It was a decision I had to make.
Was it tough, you know, those early years, 14 to, or was it always tough, the whole 16 years of it?
The whole thing was tough. Yeah, I loved it, though. I've met so many amazing teachers and people. And like last night, I had people calling me from Spain.
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Chapter 6: How did Monica cope with homesickness while training in Russia?
You know, they, you know, lifelong friends. Yeah, lifelong friends where we just went through the same thing at the same time together.
But the other side of that is that you're, you know, a really young teenager away from home at such an early age. That was tough because I assume you were homesick, right?
Yes, yes. All the Irish children would fall asleep and I would sit in the corridor and cry so as not to wake them. And I had an ovena that I used to say. So because it's kind of like meditative.
There's the repetition.
Yeah. So I'd say the novena and then I could calm down enough and get back into bed and go asleep.
Did you tell your family that you were feeling like that? No. You never said? No. Well, what's the impact of all that on you then as an adult? Do you sort of develop an iron, a steel exterior?
I do. You do. But, you know, there's things in your life then afterwards, like after having my my son and after building my school, you kind of there's there is there is an impact. But like you also have to acknowledge the good that went with that. You know. I can't I can't really. There was times when over there I was beaten. like severely beaten by teachers. And that had an impact.
But it also... In hindsight, I think that's how they were taught and that's what they were teaching me. Do I forgive them? I do, because that's who I am.
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Chapter 7: What impact did Monica's upbringing and adoption have on her life?
Would that be my way now? Absolutely not. I think what we should do to every artist, every person, is elevate them. But we were taught the other way. We were like... You know, the amount of times I was called a cow and stupid and all the names, but names don't hurt you. It's when they come and beat you, that hurts you. My God, Monica.
But my father was beaten by, you know, certain people, you know, not his family members, but, you know,
When he was in his early training as a child as well, as you've explained to us. The other thing that you haven't spoken about much is your family background, which is complicated.
It is. Yes. I'm sorry about this.
Go on. Tell us. What is the story? You were adopted, essentially.
I am adopted. Yes. I'm adopted. I love both of my parents very much. I was thinking about this this morning. How do you describe adoption? There's kind of two ways. And I can only speak from myself. And... It can be dark and it can be very light. For me, for the first 20 years, 23 years, it was very light. I felt like a Disney princess.
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Chapter 8: How did Monica's relationship with her adoptive mother influence her?
You knew you were adopted, did you?
Always, yeah. But you feel like you're chosen. You know, somebody didn't just... Like back then, that would happen, you know.
Your family wanted you.
They picked me. I was chosen. But then subsequently, I found out that I wasn't picked. I was made. So my father had an affair with the woman. I was born in England in a very fancy hospital because she was fancy. And then I was put in an orphanage in Blackrock.
So your adoptive father was your father?
Yeah, but I only found out when I was 24.
That he was your biological father?
Yeah.
That's extraordinary. Yeah. And how did that settle with you?
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