Just Different, Wayne Sleep
Just Different, Wayne Sleep
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
Club: $15.99

Just Different
A Memoir

Author: Wayne Sleep

Narrator: Wayne Sleep

Unabridged: 9 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/31/2024


Synopsis

'This is a terrific and very entertaining book considering Wayne once told me that he had never read past page seven of any book.' David Hockney

Wayne Sleep has danced with ballet legends Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, partied with Freddie Mercury and performed with Princess Diana, becoming her close friend.

Behind the glitz and glamour, Wayne has always felt like an outsider. Sleep reveals the difficulties for a working-class, gay man in handling the prejudices of his generation and living through the Aids epidemic. Wayne was also the shortest principal dancer in the Royal Ballet - he had to spin twice as fast and jump twice as high to succeed.

In this moving - but also laugh-out-loud and gossip filled - memoir, Wayne Sleep shows how he danced his way to success, fulfilment and love, and how he overcame obstacles and prejudice along the way.

About Wayne Sleep

Wayne Sleep won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in 1961 and joined the Royal Ballet Company in 1966, becoming a Senior Principal Dancer. He has also worked as an actor, including in musical theatre, and as a choreographer he created, directed and appeared in DASH, which for the first time incorporated all genres (including ballet, jazz, tap, and contemporary). He was appointed OBE in 1998 and is the patron of a number of charities. He lives in London and has two entries in the Guinness Book of Records.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mark on November 16, 2024

A fascinating trip through the life of ballet dancer, actor and entertainer Wayne Sleep. From his working-class childhood, he tells how he started out as a classical ballet dancer before going in different directions, from contemporary dance and musicals to Shakespeare and reality TV. With such a fu......more

Goodreads review by Linda on May 11, 2025

Thoroughly enjoyed this memoir from beginning to end about Wayne’s life. He is open and honest from beginning to end. Starting from his working class background, informing us of the prejudices he came across in the dance world and being gay. His tenacity, grit and professionalism shines through. I l......more

Goodreads review by Ronald on December 04, 2024

A charismatic dancer, driven to succeed. There is a deeper more personal story to be told. But unfortunately here the reader/listener is allowed all too, quick flashes behind a curtain, which is royal blue and fixated with his friend Princess Diana, so much so that the title of the book, should have......more