Jonathan Ollivier. Photo: The Matthew Bourne Company/PA WireA dancer was killed in a motorbike accident hours before he was due to perform a lead role in the final show of Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in the London Borough of Islington.
Jonathan Ollivier, 38, was killed as he rode his motorbike through Clerkenwell in central London on Sunday morning, Scotland Yard said.
The dancer, from Northampton, had been due to play the role of Luca in the evening performance of Bourne’s show which was due to finish on Sunday after a run of nearly four weeks at the famous venue.
Ollivier was on his motorbike when he was involved in a collision with a black Mercedes saloon car in Farringdon Road. Police, paramedics and an air ambulance tried to save his life, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver stopped and was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.
Ollivier’s fellow cast were said to be ‘shaken’ after they heard about the accident and Bourne’s dance company New Adventures cancelled Sunday’s show.
Theatregoers were turned away at the door and told by staff that the production had been cancelled “due to a tragic accident”.
The Car Man is loosely based on Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen and set in 1960s America.
Ollivier’s performance had been praised by critics, with The Telegraph’s Rachel Ward writing that he brought “brooding power and danger of a matador” to the role.
He had previously won plaudits for playing The Swan in Bourne’s all-male Swan Lake.