Camilla Parker Bowles Injured Herself During Her "Silver Swans" Ballet Class

Camilla Parker Bowles is a big fan of ballet, and takes "Silver Swans" classes with her friends. She revealed that she injured her back during a recent class.

gloucester, england june 16 camilla, duchess of cornwall arrives at gloucestershire royal hospital to meet front line key workers who who have responded to the covid 19 pandemic during a visit to gloucestershire royal hospital on june 16, 2020 in gloucester, england photo by wpa pool ben birchallgetty images
(Image credit: WPA Pool)
  • Camilla Parker Bowles is a big fan of ballet, and takes "Silver Swans" classes with her friends.
  • The Duchess of Cornwall revealed that she injured her back during a recent class, forcing her to take a break from dancing.
  • "I managed to obviously do something wrong, did something to my back so I've laid off it for a bit, but I can't wait to get back to it again—you feel so well afterwards," she said during an appearance on a British radio show last week. 

Camilla Parker Bowles is a longterm ballet aficionado—and recently, she took up dancing herself, as HELLO! reports. Appearing on the Emma Barnett Show on British station BBC Radio 5 Live, she revealed her inspiration: the (excellent) "Silver Swans" initiative for older dancers, launched by the Royal Academy of Dance. The Duchess of Cornwall saw a class in action during a 2018 visit to the Academy, accompanied by initiative ambassador Angela Rippon; despite her initial misgivings upon learning about the scheme, she discovered that the senior dancers were "completely brilliant." As a result, the Duchess of Cornwall founded a dance cohort of her own.

"I gathered together a group of likely candidates in the form of friends, same age as me, and I said, "Look, you know, we're going to be Silver Swans,'" Camilla recalled. "They all howled with laughter and said, 'You must be joking.'"

"We all arrived in our black leggings and T-shirts ready for the dance," she said. "We did think we'd be getting complete hysterics but we all had to concentrate, we concentrated so hard you don't dare look to the left or right."

Alas, Camilla's enthusiasm resulted in injury, though that hasn't dissuaded her : "I managed to obviously do something wrong, did something to my back so I've laid off it for a bit," she explained. "But I can't wait to get back to it again—you feel so well afterwards."

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Emily Dixon
Morning Editor

Emily Dixon is a British journalist who’s contributed to CNN, Teen Vogue, Time, Glamour, The Guardian, Wonderland, The Big Roundtable, Bust, and more, on everything from mental health to fashion to political activism to feminist zine collectives. She’s also a committed Beyoncé, Kacey Musgraves, and Tracee Ellis Ross fan, an enthusiastic but terrible ballet dancer, and a proud Geordie lass.