Voices of British Ballet

Dianne Richards talks about skipping her dancing life, especially the start of London Festival (now English National) Ballet. Names from the world of Serge Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes, such as Alexandra Danilova, as well as Tamara Toumanova, Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin, weave through her very special company story and still cast a shimmering magic spell whenever mentioned.In conversation with Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet, Dianne explains how, at the age of 14, she danced in a performance in her native Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), in which Markova and Dolin were appearing as guest artists. When she was 16, Dianne came to England with her mother. Dolin remembered her and asked her to join London Festival Ballet (LFB), with whom she worked for 18 years. Dianne was soon dancing solos and was coached in the role of The Nutcracker’s Sugar Plum Fairy by Markova herself. With LFB Dianne toured the world, including long tours of North America where the company had their own train. A highlight was performing in Monte Carlo in 1956 for the wedding of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier; another was Igor Stravinsky conducting Petrushka in Chicago and disagreeing with Dolin over tempi. She also recalls Charlie Chaplin pursuing Nathalie Krassovska in Paris. The interview is introduced by Deborah Weiss.Born in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in 1934, Dianne Richards studied under Majorie Sterman. She joined London Festival Ballet in 1951, becoming a soloist in 1955 and a principal in 1959. In a very full career with the company, she toured the world and worked with many famous dancers, including Alicia Markova, John Gilpin, Anton Dolin, Erik Bruhn, Serge Lifar, Alexandra Danilova, Tamara Karsavina, Irina Baronova and Tamara Toumanova. She also appeared as a guest artist with American Ballet Theatre from 1963 to 1964. Richards danced with Galina Samsova and Andre Prokovsky’s New London Ballet in 1972 and then with Scottish Theatre Ballet until 1974, when, at the age of 40, she retired from the stage. She then went to live in South Africa, and in her retirement taught from time to time, including at a newly opened academy in Hong Kong and, at the invitation of Robert de Warren, for Northern Ballet Theatre in England. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The distinguished choreographer and director Richard Alston explains to Alastair Macaulay, how, as a teenager, he was entranced by watching ballet. After studying fine art, he began working on the Martha Graham technique with what became the London Contemporary Dance Theatre. He eventually found this too restricting and embraced the freer, less floor fixated approach of contemporary dance associated with Merce Cunningham. Alston goes on to discuss how his own choreography began, and how it developed in line with this expansion of his aesthetic. He speaks about his dealings with Cunningham and with the composer John Cage and also about his long and immensely fruitful creative partnership with Sue (Siobhan) Davies. The interview is also introduced by Alastair Macaulay.Richard Alston was born in October 1948 in Sussex. He is a British choreographer as well as having been artistic director for several dance companies. His education began at Eton College, followed by two years at Croydon School of Art. His passion for ballet was first sparked after attending performances by the Bolshoi Ballet and The Royal Ballet Touring Company, and also by Merce Cunningham and the Martha Graham Dance Company, which excited an interest in modern dance. As a result, he started attending classes with the Rambert School of Ballet, and in 1968 he became one of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre’s original students. After only three months there, he created his first work, Transit. In his third year at the School he organised a group of students to tour schools, colleges and universities demonstrating the Graham technique. After choreographing for London Contemporary Dance Theatre, he created an independent dance company, Strider, in 1972.In 1975, Alston travelled to New York to study primarily with Merce Cunningham at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio. He returned to Europe two years later, working as an independent choreographer and teacher. In 1980, he was appointed resident choreographer for Ballet Rambert. He founded Second Stride with Siobhan Davies and Ian Spink in 1982, and in 1986 was appointed artistic director of Ballet Rambert, a post he held until 1992. To reflect the changing nature of the company and its work, in 1987 Ballet Rambert changed its name to become Rambert Dance Company. During his years with Rambert, Alston created 25 works for the company, as well as pieces for the Royal Danish Ballet and The Royal Ballet.After working in France and at the Aldeburgh Festival, in 1994 Alston became artistic director of The Place and he also formed Richard Alston Dance Company. A steady stream of over 50 dance works created by Alston over the next decades was interspersed with collaborations with the London Sinfonietta and Harrison Birtwistle in 1996, and several television productions, including The Rite of Spring, commissioned by the BBC for their Masterworks series in 2002. The Richard Alston Dance Company celebrated its tenth year with its first appearance in New York in 2004. In 2006 the company made its first full tour of North America, followed by further tours in 2009 and 2010. Alston created a new ballet, En Pointe, A Rugged Flourish, for New York Theatre Ballet in 2011. In March 2020, the Richard Alston Dance Company was wound up after a quarter of a century of critical acclaim., giving its last performance at Sadler’s Wells. Richard Alston received the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards in 2009. He was appointed a CBE for services to dance in 2001, and was knighted in 2019. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over a long career, Edward Watson became one of The Royal Ballet’s greatest male principals, in the footsteps of Anthony Dowell and David Wall. He is particularly noted for his work in the ballets of Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan, and for creating many roles with contemporary choreographers. Here, in a conversation with Jane Burn recorded for Voices of British Ballet in 2007, he speaks disarmingly about his early days in The Royal Ballet before sharing some insights about portraying Crown Prince Rudolf in MacMillan’s Mayerling, a role for which he is particularly associated. The interview is introduced by Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp.Edward Watson was born in South London in 1976, and trained at The Royal Ballet School, first at the Lower School at White Lodge, and then at the Upper School in Barons Court. He graduated into The Royal Ballet in 1994 and was promoted to the rank of principal dancer in 2005. Watson’s pure classical technique, combined with a fine dramatic flair and sensitivity served him well in the works of Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan and Ninette de Valois herself, choreographers at the heart of the British tradition. He has himself been a major force in the continuation of that tradition. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is introduced by Dame Monica Mason. Violetta Elvin was one of Frederick Ashton’s favourite ballerinas. She was born Violetta Prokhorova in Russia. Here, in this interview with Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet, Violetta traces her evacuation to Tashkent at the start of World War II and how she returned, via Kuibyshev, to Moscow to join the Bolshoi Ballet. Despite being warned by the authorities not to talk to foreigners, she married the British diplomat Harold Elvin and managed to come to London in 1946. Only weeks after her arrival she joined the Sadler’s Wells Ballet at Covent Garden and danced the “Blue Bird” pas de deux on the second night of their opening production of The Sleeping Beauty. The interview is introduced by Monica Mason.A dancer of rare beauty, Violetta Prokhorova was born in 1923. She trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow and joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1942, following her graduation performance, for which she was coached by Galina Ulanova. When Moscow was evacuated and the Bolshoi was scattered, she danced as a ballerina with the State Theatre of Tashkent. In 1944 she re-joined the Bolshoi in Kuibyshev, on the Volga, where she fell in love with a young Englishman, Harold Elvin. The Bolshoi returned to Moscow in early 1945. She danced with the Stanislavsky Ballet for a year, then married Elvin and obtained permission from Joseph Stalin to leave Russia.Once in London Violetta started training with Vera Volkova, where she was seen by Ninette de Valois and immediately offered a place in the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. She adored and was true to her Russian training, but with her intelligence and sensitivity she was able to fit in beautifully with the British repertoire. From the Black Queen in de Valois’ Checkmate, through all the classical ballerina roles to Roland Petit’s Ballabile in 1950, Violetta Elvin as she was now known, danced with exquisite vivacity, a hint of exoticism and always impeccable port de bras. Frederick Ashton created several roles for her, notably the Summer Fairy in Cinderella (1948), Lykanion in Daphnis and Chlöe (1951), and one of the seven ballerinas in Birthday Offering (1956). For a decade Violetta Elvin was a unique and irreplaceable member of the developing Sadler’s Wells Ballet. She went to live in Italy in 1956, and although she guested with several companies, including La Scala, Milan (where she performed alongside soprano Maria Callas) in 1952 and 1953, and briefly directed the Ballet of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1985, she retired from ballet when her heart called her elsewhere. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Vaughan – unparalleled writer on the choreography of Frederick Ashton – catches moments and movements from The Royal Ballet’s history. In this interview for Voices of British Ballet, which was recorded in New York, he talks to his friend and fellow dance writer Alastair Macaulay. The episode is also introduced by Alastair Macaulay.The archivist, historian and critic David Vaughan was born in London in 1924. He studied at Oxford University and only began dance training after that, in 1947. In 1950 he won a scholarship to study at the School of American Ballet, where he met Merce Cunningham, who was teaching there. Vaughan began studying with Cunningham from the mid 1950s. Later, in 1959, when Cunningham opened his own studio, Vaughan began performing various tasks for Cunningham and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, including co-ordinating the company’s six-month tour of Europe (with John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg) in 1964. Vaughan became the company’s official archivist in 1976, a post he held until 2012, when the company was disbanded following Cunningham’s death.In addition to writing and working for and with Cunningham, Vaughan was active in the theatre, film and dance worlds. He acted in off-Broadway productions, devised the choreography for Stanley Kubrick’s film Killer Kiss, and worked on the scripts for films about Cunningham and Cage, and about the choreographer Antony Tudor. Vaughan also appeared in several dance productions, including The Royal Ballet’s revival of Frederick Ashton’s A Wedding Bouquet. In 1988 he wrote an influential op-ed piece in The New York Times, criticising traditional ballet companies for not offering dancers of colour enough opportunities to perform.David Vaughan was a prolific and well-regarded writer on ballet and dance. His books included The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden (1976), Frederick Ashton and His Ballets (1977, revised edition 1999) and Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years (1996). He contributed frequently to the Dancing Times magazine, and with Mary Clarke he also edited and contributed to The Encyclopaedia of Ballet and Dance (1980). In 2015 David Vaughan received a Dance Magazine award. He died in New York City in 2017. Photograph courtesy of The Merce Cunningham Foundation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this no-nonsense, down-to-earth account of writing music for Northern Ballet Theatre’s production of Aladdin, choreographed by Laverne Meyer in 1974, composer Ernest Tomlinson talks to Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet. The interview is introduced by Stephen Johnson.Ernest Tomlinson was a British composer, well known for his contributions to light music and for founding The Library of Light Orchestral Music (which prevented the loss of 50,000 works released from the BBC’s archive and other collections). He wrote the music for the ballet Aladdin for Northern Ballet Theatre in 1974.Tomlinson was born in 1924, in Rawtenstall, Lancashire. His parents were musical, and he sang as a chorister at Manchester Cathedral. After a grammar school education, he studied at Manchester University and the Royal Manchester School of Music, with a break for war service in the RAF. He moved to London after graduation in 1947, working first for music publishers. In 1955, after some of his compositions had been performed by the BBC, he formed his own orchestra – the Ernest Tomlinson Light Orchestra – and set out on a highly successful freelance career as a prolific composer, conductor and director of choirs and orchestras. He was particularly concerned to counter the notion of a strict division between art music and popular music. His own Sinfonia 62 was written for jazz band and symphony orchestra, while his Symphony 65 was performed at festivals in London and Munich and in the Soviet Union in 1966, where it was the first symphonic jazz to be heard there. In 1975, Tomlinson won his second Ivor Novello Award for his ballet, Aladdin. Among many other professional appointments, he was the chairman of the Light Music Society from 1966 until 2009. Ernest Tomlinson was appointed an MBE for his services to music in 2012. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here is Patrick Harding-Irmer proving that it is never too late to start dancing. He says, in this interview with Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet, he only began to take dance classes at the age of 24 but was soon working in dance commercially. In 1972, inspired by a visit to Australia by Nederlands Dans Theater, he came to Europe, where he fell under the spell of the Martha Graham technique and the teaching of Robert Cohan at London Contemporary Dance Theatre (LCDT). After nine months performing with the X Group, he joined the main LCDT, going on the be voted Best Contemporary Dancer in Europe in 1985. This interview was recorded in Sydney, Australia, in 2006 and is introduced by Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp.Patrick Harding-Irmer was born in Munich in 1945, where his Australian mother had been working in dance and choreography. After World War Two, she and he returned to Australia. In 1964 he represented Australia in the World Surfing Championships, and then began to study arts at Sydney University. At the age of 24 he began to take dance classes and to dance commercially. In 1972, inspired by a performance by Nederlands Dans Theater on tour in Australia, he travelled to Europe and began studying at London Contemporary Dance School, specialising in Martha Graham technique. That same year he joined the X Group of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre (LCDT), which included five dancers who toured the UK and abroad, demonstrating and teaching Graham technique. In 1973, after nine months with the X Group, Harding-Irmer joined the main company of LCDT. In 1985 he was voted Best Contemporary Dancer in Europe. He returned to Australia in 1990, and has subsequently taught, and also worked with Australian Dance Artists, a group of mature performers dancing their own creations in different settings. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In April 2017, Marcia Haydée was in Stuttgart for a week to celebrate her 80th birthday. Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet, knew this was her only opportunity to see Haydée in Europe, so she telephoned Stuttgart Ballet to see if she could interview her. Patricia takes up the story in her own words: “They listened to my request, and, in perfect English, said they would ask Miss Haydée. With a full schedule of rehearsals all week, Marcia said she was free on Thursday from 3.30pm to 4.30pm. She didn’t know me at all, but it was enough for her to know how much I loved Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet, Song of the Earth. So, I jumped on a plane…This is the extraordinary Marcia Haydée…”In the interview Haydée explains how she was aware of both John Cranko and Kenneth MacMillan as a student at the Sadler’s Wells (now Royal) Ballet School, without suspecting her later close involvement with both men. In working with them, Cranko came to appreciate her melding of a Russian and a British approach to dancing; MacMillan was demanding and uncompromising, but she always strove to fulfil his requirements. She speaks revealingly about working in Stuttgart with Cranko on Onegin and with MacMillan on Song of the Earth and suggests that in those days and in those works, dancers took things at a speed and with risks that today’s dancers, for all their qualities, do not attempt to emulate. The interview is introduced by Dame Monica Mason.Marcia Haydée is a Brazilian-born ballerina, choreographer and company director. She was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1937, and after studying in Brazil, came to the Sadler’s Wells (now Royal) Ballet School in London in 1954, joining the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas in Monaco in 1957. Haydée joined the Stuttgart Ballet in 1961 and was named prima ballerina the following year by the company’s director and choreographer, John Cranko. Their relationship – her dancing, his choreography – was to become the foundation of Stuttgart Ballet’s international reputation in works such as Onegin, Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew, among many others. She also worked closely withKenneth MacMillan on works such as Las Hermanas, Miss Julie and, above all, his Song of the Earth and Requiem. In 1976, she became director of the Stuttgart Ballet, a position she held until 1996. During her dancing career she performed as a guest artist for notable ballet companies throughout the world. From 1992 until 1996 Haydée directed the Ballet de Santiago de Chile, and again from 2003 until 2004. Since retiring from performing she has pursued a career as a choreographer, teacher and coach, and she also stages many ballets.The episode photograph shows John Cranko in rehearsal with Marcia Haydée and Bernd Berg, 1962.
Photo: Hannes Kilian, courtesy Stuttgart Ballet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Deborah MacMillan, who talks to former Royal Ballet principal Bruce Sansom, is not afraid to speak her mind. Here she variously both endorses and explodes myths. Apart from anything else, these ten minutes should give hope to anyone who suffers from depression – nothing is impossible. Through the gloom of life, both within and without, her husband, the choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, went on creating ballets that have given thousands of dancers around the world endless challenges and insights, let alone audiences. For all his breaking of moulds and pushing at frontiers, MacMillan’s absolute belief in the traditions of classical ballet is never far away. As well as being a choreographer, MacMillan was also director of The Royal Ballet from 1970 until 1977.The interview is introduced by Jennifer Jackson.Deborah MacMillan is the custodian of the ballets choreographed by her late husband, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, supervising productions of his works all over the world. Deborah Williams, as she then was, was born in Queensland, Australia, in 1944, and educated in Sydney. She studied paining and sculpture at the National Art School before moving to London in 1970, marrying Kenneth in 1974. She has designed ballets for both stage and television, as well as making numerous contributions to Royal Ballet productions, including the production realisation for the major revival of Anastasia in 1996, production and setting for a condensed version of Isadora in 2009 and costume designer for a revival of Triad in 2001. In 1984, Deborah returned to painting full-time and her work is represented in private collections both in the UK and the USA.From 1993 until 1996, Deborah was a member of the Royal Opera House Board, and in 1996 was chair of The Friends of Covent Garden. She has served as a member of the Arts Council of England from 1996 until 1998, when she chaired the dance panel. She has also been a trustee of American Ballet Theatre and a member of the National Committee of Houston Ballet. She became Lady MacMillan when her husband was knighted for his services to dance in 1983 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Romayne Grigorova has had a long, distinguished career in ballet and the theatre. Here, in conversation with Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet, she focuses on her early years, much of which was coloured by World War Two. In 1943, after training at the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School, she worked with the Sadler’s Wells Opera on The Bartered Bride in London during the Blitz and on tour. In 1945 she travelled to Germany with the opera under the auspices of ENSA. She then joined Ballet Rambert, and went to Germany again, to Berlin, where she delivered food parcels to a German singer and her family in the Russian zone, and scissors to Lotte Reiniger, a famous German film director and pioneer of silhouette animation. Romayne Grigorova also speaks of her dealings with Marie Rambert and Andrée Howard, joining Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet in 1951 and touring to North America.The interview was recorded in 2003, and is introduced by Monica Mason who spoke to Natalie Steed before Romayne's death in July 2025.Romayne Grigorova was born in Sandwich, Kent, in 1927. She studied under Vera Volkova, Ninette de Valois, George Goncharov and Ailne Philips. Her first appearance on the professional stage was in 1942. In 1943, after training at the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School for a further year, she danced in ballets with the Sadler’s Wells Opera in this country and, in 1945, on tour in Germany under ENSA. She joined Ballet Rambert in 1946 and then danced with the Anglo-Polish and Metropolitan Ballets until 1947, when the latter folded.Grigorova then worked in the commercial theatre until 1951, including performing in three pantomimes, before joining Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, where she remained until 1955. She was ballet mistress for the stage musical Can-Can in 1955, and for the St Gallen Ballet in 1956. In 1957 she became ballet mistress for the Opera Ballet at the Royal Opera House, for whom she choreographed many ballets. She retired from this post in 1992 but continued to teach on a freelance basis. She performed small character roles with The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, many of which had been created for her, such as Lady Montague in Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet and The Housekeeper in Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker. Romayne Grigorova was appointed an MBE for her services to dance in 2017. She died in July 2025.Photo by Donald Southern courtesy of The Royal Ballet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Cassa Pancho decided to interview Black female ballet dancers in the UK for her degree dissertation in 1999, she could not find any. So she seized the moment, setting out on the path that was to lead, in 2001, to the company known as Ballet Black and its associated schools. Here, the indomitable Cassa talks to Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet, about the early days of her career, her expectations for the company and the schools, the misunderstandings she has had to overcome and, above all, her insistence that at all levels the now highly acclaimed Ballet Black is a balletic enterprise, with all that entails in terms of standards. The interview, was recorded in 2010 and is introduced by Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp.Cassa Pancho was born in London in 1978, to Trinidadian and British parents. Her original ambition was to become a ballerina. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dance and in 1999 gained her degree from Durham University.In 2001, at the age of 21, she founded Ballet Black in order to promote diversity in ballet and to increase the number of Black and Asian dancers in mainstream ballet companies.She has built a distinct and unique repertoire for her company from a wide range of distinguished choreographers. Ballet Black tours extensively, both in the UK and abroad, with regular London seasons at venues such as the Barbican Theatre and the Linbury Theatre of the Royal Ballet and Opera. Cassa realised from the start the importance of building for the future, and in 2002 set up the Ballet Black Junior School in Shepherd’s Bush, as well as an associate programme for younger pupils. She oversees the programme for young dancers, and teaches regularly herself.In 2009 Cassa Pancho graduated from the National Theatre Leadership programme. Also in 2009 Ballet Black won the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Company, and the award for the Best Independent Company in 2012. She was appointed an MBE in 2013 for services to the Arts and was given the Freedom of the City of London in 2018. She is a Patron of Central School of Ballet and a Vice President of the London Ballet Circle.Photo: Ballet Black rehearsals Cassa Pancho [Artistic Director]; at the Fonteyn Studio, Royal Opera House, London, UK; 19 November 2006; Credit: Bill Cooper / ArenaPAL Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen Johnson and Patricia Linton spoke to Yvonne Minton in 2017 about her role as a young member of The Royal Opera, singing Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde for The Royal Ballet in 1966. Her memories about that, and about the questions which were raised at the time, were crystal clear. She also has some wonderful reminiscences of life in the Royal Opera House at the time, including a bird’s-eye view of the great Maestro Georg Solti. At the end there is a gentle reminder that change is not always easy – in any profession. The interview is introduced by Stephen Johnson.The singer Yvonne Minton was born in Sydney, Australia in 1938. Having studied and performed in Australia, she came to London in 1961 to pursue her studies and career. By 1966, having become a regular member of the company of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, she sang in Gustav Mahler’s Song of the Earth for The Royal Ballet. She created the role of Thea in Michael Tippett’s opera The Knot Garden in 1970. She appeared in a variety of roles in most of the major opera houses in Europe, including Bayreuth, Salzburg and Paris, and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She made concert appearances with many of the best orchestras in the world and was particularly noted for her work with Georg Solti, with whom she made many recordings. In 1980, after a decade or more of prestigious international work, she was appointed CBE for services to music. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1969, Peter Darrell choreographed Beauty and the Beast for Scottish Theatre Ballet. Here Thea Musgrave discusses with Stephen Johnson the challenges and idiosyncrasies she found when creating the music. She was amused to discover that she wasn’t the first composer to have to succumb to balletic demands! Deep, observant and fiercely straightforward, it is fascinating to hear Musgrave describe so poetically another work she created for dance, Orfeo. The interview is introduced by Stephen Johnson.Thea Musgrave is one of the United Kingdom’s most important and prolific contemporary composers, pursuing her own idiom and musical sensibility throughout a long and distinguished career. She was born in Barnton, in Edinburgh, and went to school in Shropshire. After study at the University of Edinburgh, from 1950 until 1954 she studied in Paris, working under the direction of the redoubtable and influential Nadia Boulanger. She attended the Tanglewood Festival (in Massachusetts) in 1958, studying under Aaron Copeland.In the late 1950s and 1960s she established herself in London as a notable figure in British musical life. In 1970 she was a guest professor at the University of California (Santa Barbara). In 1972 she married the American musician Peter Mark and has lived in the United States of America ever since, where she has held many notable positions, including a distinguished professorship at City University, New York, from 1987 until 2002.Musgrave’s style has been described as a synthesis of expression and abstraction, noted for its drama and complexity, often with a strong romantic undercurrent. Her many works include several operas, including ones devoted to Mary Queen of Scots, the abolitionist and social activist Harriet Tubman and the statesman Simón Bolívar, as well as many concerti and orchestral works, often inspired by poetic and pictorial themes. As well as working in America, she has made frequent visits to the United Kingdom and Europe, including taking part in the BBC’s ‘total immersion’ weekend devoted to her works in London in 2014. She composed the scores for two ballets, Beauty and the Beast in 1969 and Orfeo in 1975. Thea Musgrave has received many honours, including two Guggenheim Fellowships and many honorary degrees. She was awarded a CBE for services to music in 2002. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This ‘voice’ of British Ballet is that of Pamela May. She was born in 1917 and after retiring as a ballerina with The Royal Ballet became the teacher par excellence for generations of Royal Ballet School dancers. May, interviewed by Patricia Linton, starts this clip by describing being a student herself in 1932 and watching Adeline Genée, the great Danish ballerina, and also the first President of the Royal Academy of Dance, perform a minuet with Anton Dolin on tour in Copenhagen. The interview is introduced by the writer and critic Alastair Macaulay who gives a wonderful context and explains how Ninette de Valois became known as "Madam."Pamela (Doris) May was born in San Fernando, Trinidad in 1917, where her father was an oil engineer. The family returned to England in 1921. She first studied ballet with Freda Grant, and later in Paris with Olga Preobrajenska, Lubov Egorova and Mathilde Kschessinska. She joined the Vic-Wells Ballet School in 1933 and made her debut with the Vic-Wells Ballet in the pas de trois from Swan Lake in 1934.May became a principal with company and danced the whole gamut of the repertoire, including creating many roles, until she retired from dancing ballerina roles in 1952. She then became a leading mime and character artist and stayed with what became known as The Royal Ballet in this capacity until 1982. All this happened alongside her teaching at The Royal Ballet School from 1954 until 1977. Pamela May was appointed OBE for services to dance in 1977. She died in 2005. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A conversation Mary Clarke, former editor of Dancing Times. It is thanks to her godson, Jerome Monahan, that we have this evocative and informative interview with Mary Clarke. Writer extraordinaire on all aspects of ballet, she hated the sound of her own voice and even more the look of her transcript. In these few minutes, however, she manages to convey the feeling of several eras, and of many people and happenings. She also explains, in her low-key erudite way, how the word ‘balletomane’ entered the English language. Mary is interviewed by her friend, the former Royal Ballet soloist Meryl Chappell, and the interview is introduced by Jonathan Gray, former editor of Dancing Times, who worked closely with Mary during her later years.Mary Clarke was the dance historian and writer par excellence. Her two books on the birth of British ballet in the 20th Century - The Sadler’s Wells Ballet: A History and Appreciation (London, 1955) and Dancers of Mercury: The Story of Ballet Rambert (London, 1962) - remain the starting point for all future historians of ballet in the UK.Mary Clarke was born in London in 1923. After her schooling at Mary Datchelor School, she worked as a typist at Reuter’s Press Agency. She was a youthful enthusiast for ballet and all things theatrical, and her career as a ballet critic and journalist began in 1943 with her first published article (prophetically for Dancing Times) and with her appointment in the same year as London correspondent for the American Dance Magazine. After the end of the war Clarke wrote for the London-based Ballet Today magazine. From the mid-1950s until 1970 she was also the London correspondent for Dance News, another American publication, which was then run by the distinguished critic and writer Anatole Chujoy. In 1954 Clarke became the assistant editor of Dancing Times, first under Philip Richardson and then for Arthur Franks. On Franks’ sudden death in 1963, Clarke became editor of Dancing Times, a post she held until her retirement in 2010. For over half a century she chronicled the changing trends in ballet and dance worldwide and their effects with impeccable judgement and an encyclopaedic knowledge.Clarke was dance critic for The Guardian newspaper from 1977 to 1994 and associate editor (with Arnold L Haskell) for many years of the Ballet Annual. She co-authored a range of books with the ballet critic and writer, Clement Crisp, notably Ballet: An Illustrated History (London, 1973) and The Encyclopaedia of Dance and Ballet (London, 1977) with David Vaughan. Her quiet demeanour and straightforward style belied deep thought and high ambition for the art. Her contributions to A Dictionary of Modern Ballet (London, 1959) are awe-inspiring in their clarity and humanity, qualities rare in a critic. She was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award of the Royal Academy of Dance in 1990, Poland’s Nijinsky Medal in 1996, and she was made a Knight of the Order of Dannebrog in 1992. Mary Clarke died in 2015.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast, the dancer and teacher Leo Kersley discusses his formative years in London in the 1930s and the many different companies he eventually worked with during the Second World War, including a stint at the Windmill Theatre. Talking to Patricia Linton, director of Voices of British Ballet, he also mentions how, as a conscientious objector, he was briefly imprisoned at the start of the war. The interview is introduced by Jane Pritchard.Leo Kersley was born in poverty in Hertfordshire in 1920. His family having moved to London, he studied dance under a number of teachers, including Marie Rambert at the Mercury Theatre in 1934, dancing professionally from time to time. He was a soloist in Ballet Rambert from 1936 to 1939, and in 1939 worked for the Ballet Trois Arts.On the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, he registered as a conscientious objector and was briefly imprisoned. On his release, during 1940 and 1941 he combined his work in a hospital with dancing for Rambert in the evenings alongside his first wife, Celia Franca. He was a member of Sadler’s Wells Ballet from 1941-1942, and then the International Ballet. He was a member of the Anglo-Polish Ballet from 1942-1943. From 1945 until 1951 Kersley performed with Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet. In 1952, Kersley went to teach in Denver, Colorado, and in 1953 to Rotterdam in The Netherlands. Whilst there he danced with a number of companies but returned to England in 1959 to set up his own school in Harlow, which he ran until his second wife, Janet Sinclair. With Sinclair, who died in 1999, he published the well-regarded Dictionary of Ballet Terms in 1952.   PhotoAnne Heaton (as A Serving maid), Leo Kersley (as A Shepherd) in THE GODS GO A'BEGGING; Sadler's Wells Opera Ballet; at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London UK 1946;Credit : Frank Sharman / Royal Opera House / ArenaPAL.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can hear in her voice how much Lucette Aldous appreciated and revelled in every step of her way from Ballet Rambert to Festival Ballet and The Royal Ballet. There’s a fascinating glimpse of the young Kenneth MacMillan and later the mindfulness of the much older John Field. In conversation with Patricia Linton, Lucette speaks about joining – and then leaving – Ballet Rambert; about working in Festival Ballet with John Gilpin and being taken under Anton Dolin’s wing, especially for Giselle; about how, when she went to The Royal Ballet, Field ‘wrapped his ballerinas in cotton wool’; and about how MacMillan’s earlier approach to choreography differed in his later ballets. The interview is introduced by Deborah Weiss.Lucette Aldous was born in New Zealand in 1939, but lived in Sydney, Australia, from the age of three months. After studying in Sydney, she won a scholarship to study at The Royal Ballet School in 1955. She joined Ballet Rambert in 1957, being promoted to ballerina in 1958. She went to Festival Ballet in 1963, dancing with John Gilpin, and then in 1967, at the behest of John Field, to The Royal Ballet.Aldous returned to Australia in 1970 and joined The Australian Ballet. When there she was invited to work with the Kirov Ballet, one of the first Australian dancers to be so honoured. Acclaimed in many ballerina roles of all parts of the repertoire, her partnerships with Rudolf Nureyev in The Nutcracker for The Royal Ballet and in Don Quixote for The Australian Ballet were noteworthy. She retired from dancing in 1976, subsequently teaching in Perth, Western Australia. In 2018 Lucette Aldous was made a Companion of the Order of Australia. She died in 2021. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In conversation with Alastair Macaulay in 2019, Kenneth Tharp conveys a multitude of observations, along with historical content, and both personal and professional insights. He paints a picture of a vibrant moment in the unfolding of dance history in this country and all the key people of this moment are there. The interview is introduced by Alastair Macaulay.Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp, a key figure in UK arts and culture, was born in Croydon in 1960, with a Nigerian father and an English mother. He attended the Perse School, Cambridge, and the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology, before training at the London Contemporary Dance School, graduating in 1981. When the LCDS began offering degrees he returned to study whilst a member of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre and gained a first-class degree in 1987.He performed professionally as a dancer for 25 years, first with the London Contemporary Dance Theatre (from 1981 until 1994) and then with Arc Dance Company (from 1994 to 2005). He was co-director of Artyfartyarts, a multidisciplinary arts group, and he has choreographed over 45 dances. He was chief executive of The Place from 2007 until 2016, and director of The Africa Centre, London from 2018 to 2020. He has worked with The Royal Ballet School’s Dance Partnership and Access Programme as a choreographer, teacher, director and advisor, and taught for many years at The Royal Ballet School’s Summer School at White Lodge. Among many other roles in the arts, he has served on the board of the Royal Opera House, and as a trustee of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Company and the Chineke! Foundation and Orchestra. Kenneth Olumuyima Tharp was appointed an OBE in 2003 and a CBE in 2017, both for services to dance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keith Money is a pioneering photographer of ballet. He moved from loving and photographing horses to loving and photographing dancers. He decided he wanted to see the nuts and bolts of a dancer’s life, so he developed an entirely different approach to ballet photography. In this podcast he explains to Patricia Linton how it was watching Margot Fonteyn and her artistry that first inspired him to work with dancers. The interview is introduced by Tobias Round who is the son of dance photographer, Roy Round.Keith Money was born in New Zealand in 1927 and educated there. He received a Fine Art degree from the Elem School of Fine Art before setting off for the country of his English forbears. Gifted in four disciplines, writing, photography, and painting in oil and watercolour, he has written, painted and travelled extensively.Initially a contributor and illustrator for a variety of equestrian publications, Money also wrote for national newspapers and journals. He then authored books of his own and published collections of his own extraordinary photographs, as well as painting in oils and watercolour. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s he had both solo exhibitions and was included in many others. His work has given lasting pleasure. The nub of it all is his wonderful eye, whatever his subject, whether it is horses, dancers or skies; and it is this that will hold true for posterity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joseph Horowitz is the composer of16 ballets scores, two one-act operas, five string quartets, nine concertos, and many works for wind and brass, as well as music for television. He made his Royal Ballet debut in 1990, revising Adolphe Adam’s score for Peter Wright’s production of Giselle. Other ballets include Alice in Wonderland, composed for Festival Ballet in 1953. In this episode he explains to Patricia Linton that his early enthusiasm was for the visual arts, and that it was only from about the age of 19 that he turned seriously to music. After a degree at Oxford University, he attended the Royal College of Music and then went to Paris for revelatory study with the legendary Nadia Boulanger. While there he went to Boris Kochno’s ballet class, saw Yvette Chauviré dance (which greatly inspired him), and was given sage advice on writing for the ballet by Roland Petit. After that, in 1951 he conducted for Colonel de Basil’s Ballet Russe, at the end of their existence. Colin Davis, a contemporary as a student, was co-conductor, and the ballet master was Serge Grigoriev, whose musical understanding turned out to be somewhat idiosyncratic. The episode is introduced by Stephen Johnson.Joseph Horowitz, the British composer and conductor, was born to a Jewish family in Vienna in 1926. His father was the co-founder of Phaidon Press, which he founded in 1923. In 1938, the family emigrated from Austria, to escape the Nazi threat, and to seek a safer life in England. Horovitz read music and modern languages at New College, in Oxford, while simultaneously giving piano recitals for army camps during the war. This progressed to studying composition at the Royal College of Music in London under Gordon Jacob, where he won the Farrar prize. He then went to Paris to continue his studies under Nadia Boulanger.In 1950, Horovitz became the music director of the Bristol Old Vic. During the Festival of Britain in 1951 he conducted ballet and concerts at the Festival Amphitheatre in London. He then conducted for Colonel de Basil’s Ballet Russe. During the 1950s, a number of his compositions were broadcast on the BBC, and in 1961 he became Professor of Composition at the Royal College of Music where he was later awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music.As well as the Commonwealth Medal in 1959, Jospeh Horowitz won many awards for his music, both in this country and abroad. He died in 2022.Image: © Wolfgang Jud Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.