A Life Unhurried With Royal Ballet Dancers -
Steven McRae & Elizabeth Harrod
We spend a third of our lives in bed. It’s where we sleep every day. It’s also where we relax, wind down and spend time with our loved ones – whether it’s quiet reading time or Sunday mornings with the kids, how we spend our downtime is entirely individual. Our bed is our little piece of sanctuary, away from the stresses of the modern world. If we get it right, a bed will not only last for many years to come, it also has the power to transform how we sleep and impact our physical and mental well-being.
This autumn, Savoir has launched a new advertising campaign called ‘A Life Unhurried’. Celebrating the simple pleasure of being in bed, it features recognisable faces engaged in a variety of ‘switch off’ activities.
The couple selected for the new campaign are world-class ballet dancers from The Royal Ballet in London. Principal dancer, Steven McRae and soloist, Elizabeth Harrod are a real couple with successful careers and a young family. They value their sleep and downtime, which often doesn’t come until the end of a busy day. Shown in a Savoir bed wearing evening dress, it’s as if they have just come back from a late performance – a natural captured moment of the couple enjoying breakfast in bed.
As professional ballet dancers, the physical nature of what they do means well-being is a high priority. Sleep is an essential part of their mental and physical recovery. Its importance lies in its ability to improve performance during the day by assisting with memory consolidation and motor-sequencing, which occurs during sleep. This is necessary for dancers when learning new choreography or technique. It also has a marked impact of physical well-being, enabling muscles to rest and repair. Dancers often have classes and rehearsals on back to back days. With dancers needing to be at their peak before a performance, ensuring that appropriate recovery – and most notably sleep – is imperative for success on stage.
The couple were photographed in The Royal Suite at The Savoy Hotel in London. With Savoir’s heritage rooted in The Savoy and the couple enjoying their honeymoon at this iconic location, it was a natural choice. Savoir has once again returned to where it all began.
The bed featured in the photograph is called The Lenoir. Named after Richard D’Oyly Carte’s second wife, Helen Lenoir. D’Oyly Carte was the visionary behind the Savoy Hotel in 1889 and commissioned the first Savoir bed.