Report of an
interview of Dame Beryl Grey by David
Bain
Cloe Studio, Royal Opera Housel, London
4 October 2006
David Bain, Chairman of the Association,
welcomed our very special guest, Dame
Beryl Grey, as part of the Association’s
celebrations for the 75th Anniversary
of The Royal Ballet.
When asked how her connection started
with the Royal Ballet, Dame Beryl Grey
said she had auditioned for Dame Ninette
de Valois (Madam) aged nine, joining the
school aged ten. Classes would start at
4pm, and finish at 7pm. The school was
shut for a short time during the war,
but after a few months, they moved to
the Royal Academy of Dance. Dame Ninette
invited Dame Beryl to dance at the Albery
Theatre in the corps de ballet of Giselle
when she was 14. Dame Beryl referred to
the fact she had never learned how to
apply make-up, so she initially copied
the others. On her first visit, the ballet
mistress, Joy Newton, came into the dressing
room 15 minutes before curtain-up, took
a horrified look at her, and wiped her
make-up off. This meant that she had about
five minutes to re-apply something else.
The lights at that time meant the dancers
wore very heavy stage make up. She commented
that dancers wore less make up now, owing
to there being better lighting.
The season at the Albery was four weeks,
and the initial intention was for Dame
Beryl to complete the season during the
holidays, and then return to school. Within
one or two weeks though, the telegram
came through to join the Company in Burnley.
Her parents put her on the train at Rugby.
She expected to be met, but ended up making
her own way to the theatre. When she got
there, she had to climb the wooden staircase
outside the theatre to get backstage.
Dame Beryl said as her first digs involved
sharing a bed, a bolster was put down
the middle after her colleague complained
about her kicking in her sleep! She earned
£4 a week, with about half of this
going on digs.
When asked about Dame Ninette, Dame Beryl
described her as “Great, but terrifying.”
She would rage, stamp and shout in class
and could be very demanding, but it was
because she had high standards. Sergeyev,
who also took class, brought the classics
in for Dame Ninette. Dame Beryl described
him as a very hard taskmaster with his
cane. Dame Beryl also referred to Dame
Ninette’s admiration of Chechetti
as a teacher, with the emphasis on epaulment,
arm movement, and footwork. They did one
Chechetti class a week, although she didn’t
receive any pas des deux training.
The initial plan had been for Dame Beryl
to alternate between the school and the
Company every 3 months, but this never
happened. She danced one of the four couples
in Les Patineurs, which she described
as “an important role.” Her
first opportunity to perform a solo came
three months on when Moyra Fraser hurt
her foot in performance, so Dame Beryl
stepped in to replace her in The Nutcracker.
Dame Beryl’s next opportunity came
in Oxford. She arrived at the theatre
for class, where the stage door keeper
told her Dame Ninette wished to see her.
Dame Ninette informed her she was to learn
Swan Lake after class, to which she replied
“Oh, which side swan Madam?”
thinking she meant one of the two big
swans in Act two, to which Dame Ninette
replied “Oh, don’t be silly!
You’re dancing Odette!” Robert
Helpman partnered her, and Dame Beryl
remarked that “Bobby got me through
it.”
When the Company moved on to Bath, Dame
Beryl talked about the Baedeker Raids
and bombings that occurred. Although no-one
had been injured, Constant Lambert and
a stage manager had stayed at the theatre
as their digs had been bombed but the
theatre was fire bombed and they helped
save it burning down. Dame Beryl mentioned
that while the dancers were staying at
their digs, the musicians got to stay
in hotels on better pay. One player lost
his false teeth one night, much to the
amusement of the dancers.
Dame Beryl said she was unable to go on
the international tour in 1944, as you
had to be 18, and she was still only 17.
She was able to join the Company to entertain
the troops in autumn of 1945 in Berlin,
Hamburg, Hanover and Dusseldorf. The devastation
was immense; “shattered buildings
and lives.” The Company then came
back to London to prepare for The Sleeping
Beauty in 1946.
The Company rehearsed for Sleeping Beauty
in the studios at Sadler’s Wells,
as well as in a variety of other locations,
including army and church halls. Dame
Beryl said that the Company only got into
the Royal Opera House about a week before
opening night. Once they were in the theatre,
they realised why Dame Ninette had been
so insistent on them all dancing ‘big,’
because of the size of the stage and theatre.
Dame Beryl talked about seeing the theatre
being prepared, with the stalls seats
being put back, and carpenters everywhere,
as the theatre had been used as a dance
hall during the war. She described Oliver
Messel’s costumes as “just
extraordinarily beautiful,” and
commented on how much there had been to
do, “as it is the biggest classical
ballet.” She had watched Sleeping
Beauty aged 11, and had longed to be in
it, even as a page, and for Margot to
be ill, so she could replace her as Aurora.
Now the Company was in the bigger theatre,
it increased from 33 to 64 dancers. Dame
Beryl described the first night as being
“very exciting,” with the
Royal Family watching. Margot, Bobby and
Beryl were taken up to meet them in the
second interval. Dame Beryl talked about
the stiff protocol in place, including
having to leave the room backwards. It
was “such an honour” to dance
the Lilac Fairy opposite Margot Fonteyn
and Robert Helpman in the Royal Opera
House. Entering the stage door at the
Royal Opera House was “like going
into church,” She remembered queuing
up as a young student to watch shows there
with fellow students in the school.
Dame Beryl commented that it had been
interesting to see English National Ballet
perform Sir Kenneth Macmillan’s
production of the ballet recently, as
there were so many similarities with her
own production for the Royal Swedish Ballet,
both clearly based on the Sergeyev version.
During the war the male dancers were called
up. Dame Ninette was insistent on them
going, as she was very patriotic. Ashton
was given three months leave to choreograph
a new ballet called The Quest.
After the war, the Company performed every
night at the Royal Opera House at first,
as there was no opera at that time. Constant
Lambert staged The Fairy Queen, providing
the first glimpse of opera. After that
Dame Beryl performed the part of a solo
gypsy in Carmen, which was the first full
Opera to be performed in the Theatre,
and in which she had a triumph. This made
her a great fan of opera, and she commented
that she would like to come back in another
life as a singer.
Dame Beryl then talked about performing
at the Old Met in New York in 1949. When
travelling across America, the dancers
were smartly dressed. Victor Steel created
her going away outfit and a full length
dress. Your rank as a dancer determined
how smart your outfit was. The British
government was determined to show off
Brittish fashions as well as their dancers.
When on tour, Dame Ninette would put a
list on the wall of who was to attend
the various receptions held throughout
the tour. Dame Beryl described these receptions
as “tiring, but exhilarating.”
She also described Margot’s performance
on the opening night as “just remarkable,”
given that it must have been such a nervous
moment for her. Having been told by Madam
she herself wasn’t right for the
role of Aurora, Dame Beryl said she was
determined to prove her wrong, so learned
it by watching and practising on her own.
When three other ballerinas were off,
she got her chance, performing three shows
in a row,Thursday, Friday and Saturday,
that first season in 1946. Dame Beryl
said she later told her own dancers in
London Festival Ballet “go and learn,
watch and be prepared.”
Dame Beryl said the second tour was more
tiring, partly owing to the busy schedule
of performing, receptions and travelling.
On one occasion, Dame Beryl and Violetta
Elvin, who were sharing a room, having
packed their suitcases ready to leave
early in the morning, did not know that
the lift was faulty, making them late
meeting the other dancers, which Dame
Ninette reprimanded them for. After the
first night in New York, the Company were
bussed to a reception held by the mayor
of New York with police escort sirens.
They then toured to Washington, Detroit,
San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Dame Beryl met her husband, who is now
99, in Chicago. Dame Beryl then stayed
with her husband’s cousin when in
Chicago on the Company’s next tour
in 1950, and described the Americans as
very hospitable. She and Alexander Grant
came down with jaundice at the end of
the tour. George Balanchine came to stage
Ballet Imperial with the Company, very
soon after she had been ill, and Dame
Beryl said it had taken its toll on her.
Dame Beryl left the Royal Ballet in 1957.
She said there were seven principals,
and felt she was lucky to dance once every
six weeks, “not enough in a short
career.” She had thought about giving
up dancing, but her husband talked her
out of it. Her agent arranged a ten week
tour to South America and also South Africa,
Stockholm and Belgium. Dame Beryl commented
that in Mexico, they sold every one of
18,000 seats. Dame Beryl danced with Oleg
Briansky with various companies.
In Mexico, oxygen masks were required
owing to the altitude. After two weeks
in London, she went on to South Africa,
where she received an invitation to dance
with the Bolshoi, which she delightedly
accepted. Dame Beryl said she was the
first guest artist to appear with a Russian
company. She danced Swan Lak’ in
Moscow and Giselle in Leningrad. The Russian
dancer Chaboukiani was meant to partner
her, but he hurt his knee, so she was
partnered by Kondratov. Dame Beryl’s
husband had been filming their time in
Russia, but his camera was confiscated
on a plane, as the authorities were concerned
they could be spying. This meant all their
footage of that time was lost. Dame Beryl
talked about Ulanova and Plitsetskaya
seeing her perform and how they helped
her. She was amazed at the size and sound
of the orchestra, and how the dancers
worked. Dame Beryl felt that the highlight
of her time in Russia was in Moscow, where
she “learned so much” especially
when working on the last act with Messerer.
She also talked about her performances
in St Petersburg, Tbilisi and Kiev.
When she went to China in 1966, the Company
had nine full length classics in their
repertoire. Dame Beryl helped them stage
a production of The Sleeping Beauty. She
gave classes and lectures as well as performing
with them. She found that she only had
to say something once when teaching even
though working through interpreters. The
Company lived and worked in the same building.
In Shanghai, the Company would give performances
on the back of lorries. In Canton, they
tried to persuade her to stay and give
more performances, but she had commitments
back home. Dame Beryl said it had been
very sad to go back with London Festival
Ballet 14 years later, and see the situation
then. She also talked about the similarities
and differences between Chinese Classical
Dance and Western Classical Dance in 1964.
For instance, there was the superb elevation
and brilliant turns of the male dancers,
which were a part of Chinese Classical
Dance, but while the girls were good dancers,
they were also more inhibited.
Dame Beryl became director of London Festival
Ballet in 1968, which she said she “enjoyed
enormously,” She found it to be
“a chaotic company” at the
time she joined, having been used to the
opposite situation at the Royal Ballet,
which was very organised. There was a
lot to sort out, but they were “a
very mature company.” She also talked
about the challenge in encouraging young
dancers.
As a dancer, she had been more scared
of Dame Ninette than the bombs, but described
her as “an extraordinary woman,”
and commented that she mellowed in later
years. When asked if things had worked
out by chance, or whether she had had
a plan, Dame Beryl replied that whilst
Dame Ninette had known what she wanted,
Dame Beryl felt things had worked out
for her by fate. She had always wanted
to go on stage, and had had acting, piano,
and dance lessons when young. Her dance
teacher had taken her to Sadler’s
Wells when 9, spent four years at the
school, performed in the Royal Ballet
for 16 years, had toured, and had experience
of running a company. Dame Beryl said
that she found planning repertory exciting,
and emphasised the importance of having
a good music director, whose understanding
and knowledge is invaluable.
Dame Beryl said that having become a governor
of The Royal Opera House, The Royal Ballet,
and The Royal Ballet School, as well as
being President of English National Ballet.
Life had come full circle. Now she was
able to indulge her love of opera, and
the dance more fully. Finally, Dame Beryl
reflected that “it has all been
a great pleasure.”
© The Ballet Association 2006
Rachel Holland
Report checked and corrected by Dame Beryl
Grey and David Bain
January 2007
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