Kate reveals Charlotte is a budding ballerina on backstage tour of Royal Opera House

  • Royal
The Duchess of Cambridge watches a Royal Ballet dancer during her visit to the Royal Opera House in London Credit: Heathcliff O’Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA

The Duchess of Cambridge revealed her daughter Charlotte is a budding ballerina after being introduced to it by a member of the Royal Opera House.

Kate revealed her three-year-old's love of ballet as she was given a backstage tour of the Opera House.

She thanked the member of the Royal Ballet who had given Charlotte "a little introduction" saying she had been “so keen ever since”.

Princess Charlotte has had “a little introduction” to ballet Credit: Steve Parsons/PA

Dressed in a magenta £2,700 Oscar de la Renta jacket and skirt with a black Aspinal of London bag, Kate spent two hours at the costume department on Wednesday.

According to royal staff, the duchess is passionate about learning more on textiles and costume design due to her family history – Kate’s great-great grandfather ran the family’s successful textile manufacturing company, Francis Martineau Lupton, in Leeds.

Her visit is expected to be the first of many relating to the industry.

Kate chatted with dancers at the Royal Opera House Credit: Heathcliff O’Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA

Principal dancers from The Royal Ballet, Lauren Cuthbertson, Laura Morera, Vadim Muntagirov and Thomas Mock, met the duchess to explain how their costumes work as they perform, before she watched a rehearsal of The Two Pigeons ballet, which premieres on Friday.

Ms Morera shared a laugh with Kate as she explained her excitement at fitting into a costume she had first worn when she graduated from the Royal Ballet School in 1995.

Later, the duchess asked the dancers if they "like having the feeling of structure" in their costumes, to which Ms Cuthbertson quipped: "I like to have as much stretch as possible!

The Duchess of Cambridge with Morag Beaton, stock room supervisor. Credit: PA

Artists from The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera House use up to 10,000 costumes each year.

The costumes department is responsible for storing and refurbishing opera and ballet costumes, some dating back to 1861. Many of these are used time and time again, with the entire refurbishment of a costume taking the workroom around 1,500 hours.

The Duchess of Cambridge with Catriona Paterson, head of ladies' workroom. Credit: Heathcliff O’Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA

During her visit the duchess also visited the pattern room, where she was shown the process of working and creating costumes for a new production with designers, including sourcing fabrics and samples.

The duchess was then shown the dye shop, where staff showcased different techniques including dyeing, hand-painting, staining garments and digital printing which allows the team to reproduce historic fabrics no longer available.

As designers explained the process of creating each costume, Kate said: “It’s wonderful to see the detail and the skill set involved.”

She added the team were “so talented” and the costumes were “amazing”.