ART & CULTURE


despite the hardship.” It was through a new living arrangement with the grandmother of a fellow dancer that he then found himself in Italy. “She’s half Cuban, half Italian and had moved to Italy and told me to join her there for a bal- let competition.” Montaño missed out on the competition because it took so long to get his visa but ended up winning a schol- arship to study in Turin. Tat’s where the unusual living arrangement came in – he had no choice but to share his friend’s room in a convent. “Tere were three of us sharing her flat in the convent. We would sneak out in the morning and in again in the evening.” He lived like this for several months until he was spotted by a scout from the Royal Ballet. Montaño jumped at the chance to audition and almost immedi- ately relocated to London. Tat was in 2006 and since then he has worked his way up from Artist to First Artist and in 2014, Soloist. He’s now so settled and comfortable here


that Montaño says even when the dancing ends he’ll remain in London. What does he love about life here? “Tea. I love afternoon tea” he laughs, noting that the National Portrait Gallery restaurant with its view over London is his favourite spot for it. “And I love hearing ‘sorry’ when people bump into you.” What does he miss from


home? “I miss fruit! Colombia is the most diverse country with produce. Because of that you have many things that are only available there. I love the smell of a mango that you just don’t get here.” Speaking of people bumping into you,


Montaño remembers how a man stopped him on the street in Covent Garden in 2008 to ask if he was a dancer. It turned out he was working on a project with fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and she asked him to dance in a charity produc- tion she was working on. Over the years, he’s modelled for her and the two enjoy a strong friendship to this day Outside of a career with the Royal Ballet and a side line in modelling, what else is keeping Montaño busy? For a start, he maintains strong links to Colombia as a pa- tron of Children Change Colombia (CCC), a charity that works to alleviate poverty and inequality among children af- fected by the country’s long civil war. With CCC, he visits projects in his home coun- try and fundraises in London to support their work. He’s also heavily involved as a Counsellor with One Young World, a global non-profit forum for young leaders. But perhaps his most visible charity work will be this June for World Ocean Day with his Dance for the Sea project. Te cam- paign, highlighting the impact of plastic in


Francine Bosco is editor of FOCUS magazine. You can reach her at focus.info.editor@gmail.com


12 FOCUS The Magazine May/June 2019


the oceans, will launch on June 8 with striking images and video of Montaño dancing underwater. For this campaign, he has once again collaborated with Vivienne Westwood who designed one of the cos- tumes he wears in the project and worked with local school children creating the floating plastic mass under which he dances. For probably anyone else this would be


more than enough to induce multitasking stress. But not Montaño who somehow has found time in between all this to write his autobiography. In fact, the sabbatical he is currently on is his one concession to mere mortal levels of activity. Te book has al- ready been published in Spanish with a launch in Colombia and should be hitting British bookshops later in the year. “I was using break time in rehearsals to type it up on my phone so I took a sabbatical. It’s the first time in years that I can plan my day,” he notes. “When you’re in the company you can’t actually plan your day because they could call you to step in at any time. Timetables are theoretical.” Montaño will be back in action at the


Royal Ballet this year, which means he’ll be back at home in London after a packed sabbatical. Like many, he notices the slight limbo the life of a long-time expat can place a person. “In Colombia, sometimes people ask me where I’m from. I might sound different from them now.”


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