By Lucy Roberts
Former Royal Ballet dancer Cindy Jourdain, now a personal trainer and movement coach is renowned for training some of Bollywood’s most well-known names.
Cindy Jourdain
She started out in Paris at 11 years old as a ballet student and now she’s opening up her own bootcamp and launching a workout program – with a lot more in between.
Jourdain reveals what to expect from her new workout program she’s developing with Bollywood star Jacqueline Fernandez and the 41-year-old also spoke about her acting experience, what it was like to organise the ballet section of the 2012 Olympic closing ceremony and how it feels to perform in front of the Queen.
Q) What has been the toughest aspect of your career so far?
A) The toughest aspect of my career was when I decided to pivot away from ballet and enter into the unknown. I didn’t really have a plan B, but knew I needed to fly solo and reinvent myself, and to experience the real world.
Q) How did you get into training Bollywood stars?
A) Funnily enough, it was my osteopath that put me in touch with Katrina Kaif, who he was looking after while she was shooting in London. Following that, Katrina invited me over to Mumbai to train her and the rest is history.
Q) Tell me a bit more about the new She Rox Cardio workout program that you've been developing with Bollywood star Jacqueline Fernandez.
A) The ‘She Rox Cardio’ workout program is available exclusively on fitness and wellness community app, TRUCONNECT by TV.FIT. It features bodyweight workout moves that will challenge the full-body – from lower body blast to upper body and core specific workouts - that can be performed anywhere, at any time, and which are accessible to those at all levels of fitness. It was born out of an idea to do a routine for Jacqueline that she could do without me being there.
Like myself, Jacqueline loves movement as well as time on the mat, and the programme is designed to help you not only get stronger, but also more agile. You can expect lots of variety, from upper body workouts, to core workouts and a classic killer workout that helps hone, tone and strengthen your way to a healthier you.
I think accessibility is so important and the programme is designed with this in mind, but it is also important that the workouts are challenging to achieve progression. One of the hardest things to do is to string movements together, and to repeat the sequences whilst working against the clock. To maximise results, you need to come back to the workouts every week and try to beat your time or the amount of rounds you have previously done. You can really make the workouts as challenging as you like and there are tutorial videos to help guide you through the series. The series is great for anyone leading a busy lifestyle, no matter where you’re at in terms of your fitness journey.
Q) What was it like to coordinate the ballet section at the 2012 Olympic closing ceremony?
A) It was incredibly stressful! I auditioned and ending up looking after over 200 non-professional dancers. As an ex-Royal Ballet dancer, one of my roles was to act as the mediator between the closing ceremony creative director Kim Gavin and Royal Ballet talents such as Darcey Bussell, Jonathan Cope, Christopher Wheeldon and others.
I helped build the choreography for the corps de ballet, to rehearse the principles, and to then piece it all together. I worked on the project for six months and remember having such little rehearsal time before taking it to the Olympic stadium. We created the piece for the corps de ballet without the dancers, just myself and the choreographers.
Believe it or not, the teaching part afterwards somehow felt like an easier challenge. Dancers are renowned for their ability to drill movements over and over and that’s what we did once we got everyone under the same roof. We just had a very limited amount of time and couldn’t access the stadium until the last minute.
Q) What was it like living in Paris at such a young age?
A) At 11-years-old I became a “Petit Rat” de L’Opera. A name given to all the young ballet students who got in the Paris Opera Ballet School. The hardest part was leaving my home in Normandy to get on the train every Sunday back to Paris. My Dad would pick me up from school every Friday night, and would drive long hours each week dedicating his life to beating the suburban Parisian traffic and looking after me. I have very fond memories of the school – I knew I was carving a special future for myself and that’s what drove me. It’s very competitive though, only the top two or three students make it each year. My Dad used to sew the ribbons on my pointed shoes and leave me secret notes under the insole to give me a boost.
Q) Did you feel pressured when you knew the Queen would be watching you perform, or did you not think about who was in the audience and just concentrated on your performance?
A) Great question. The answer is yes and no. Yes, because I was aware that a huge fuss is made around shows in which the royals attend, which often attracts a lot of press too. On the other hand, no, because once the stage becomes your second home, you get used to a dark auditorium and the pressure of being watched by the management and your audience every night.
Q) What was the experience of being in the film 'Love Tomorrow' like?
A) When I left the Royal Ballet, my goal was to open myself to different performing mediums. Acting out a story that was so close to my real life back then on camera was both a privilege and a curse as it was a very emotional time for me to leave ballet behind. I went to a few workshops at the acting centre in Covent Garden and with Christopher Payne, who was my film director too before the shoot. I remember trying to approach it with the same discipline and respect as ballet. It felt both very natural and very alien at times, especially learning lines, using my voice with confidence and being true to my acting choices.
Q) Did you ever feel nervous when performing in Take That's reunion tour, and if so, did it get easier with the more shows that you did?
A) I nearly turned down the gig as I wasn’t sure it was the right career move post Royal Ballet, but I now know I would have been such a fool to do so. It was one of the most exciting and liberating experiences I could ever have asked for as a performer. We toured during the European summer and had 80,000 fans screaming each night. It was electric and all the things I may have once cared about at the Opera House were simply not relevant here anymore. I am so grateful for my classical career path though knowing that without it, I wouldn’t have had the tools to deal with these new professional demands.
Q) You opened up Cindy's Bootcamp in Mumbai, why did you decide to do this and why in India?
A) India was never on my radar, but Katrina invited me back a few times and each time I left London to train her I felt closer to Mumbai. Being a freelance personal trainer is one thing, creating a successful brand and opening a studio in India another, and that’s where I started to make a name for myself and build by business back up from scratch. When I opened up Cindy’s Bootcamp in Mumbai, it taught me so much – I feel that I made people as opposed to breaking them! The more time I spent coaching in India, the more I realised the need for form and technique reinforcement. I made the basics fun again, added variety in my warm-ups and cool downs, and I regressed and progressed individuals during the sessions so everyone always had the opportunity to progress and grow.
Cindy Jourdain and Jacqueline Fernandez’ She Rox Cardio workout program is available exclusively on fitness and wellness community app, TRUCONNECT by TV.FIT. To find out more, visit www.truconnect.fit or @fitness on Instagram.
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