Voices of British Ballet
Voices of British Ballet
82 episodes
Voices of British Ballet tells the story of dance in Britain through conversations with the people that built its history. Choreographers, dancers, designers, producers and composers describe their part in the development of the artform from the beginning of the twentieth century. We publish every two weeks.
More about the show
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Episodes page 2 of 2
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Joseph Horowitz
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,…
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Donald MacLeary
In this podcast featuring Donald MacLeary, the ballerina Darcey Bussell makes a fascinating and full introduction to her friend and mentor. She stresses the importance of a coach who is both knowledgeable and…
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Barbara Fewster
Here Barbara Fewster tells us about working at The Royal Ballet School. Her voice has a mixture of authority and kindness which will be remembered by literally thousands of students over the 40-odd years she both…
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Anita Landa
From a start in Flamenco, Greek dancing and a bit of ballet, Anita Landa describes here not only how her dancing life took off, but how Festival Ballet started. The Cone Ripman School, Alicia Markova, Anton Dolin, a…
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Pineapple Poll
Gerald Dowler hosts a special episode about the comic ballet Pineapple Poll created for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and its creators John Cranko and Charles Mackerras. Pineapple Poll, was the first major success…
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Julia Farron
Julia Farron was born in London in 1922 and was part of the vanguard of extraordinary talent that helped shape ballet in 20th Century Britain. In 1931 she was the first scholarship pupil to join the Vic-Wells Ballet…
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Rowena Fayre
Born in 1921 Rowena Fayre combined a career in ballet with a very different sort of life. After boarding school in Hertfordshire, and daily lessons at Sadler’s Wells SchoolSadler’s Wells School with Ninette de Valois,…
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Peter Wright
Darcey Bussell introduces this interview with Peter Wright. A man of the theatre through and through, in this conversation Peter Wright shows us that fulfilling one’s destiny can be fraught with difficulties and that…
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Lilian Hochhauser
For decades the Hochhauser name has been synonymous with the visits to London of the greatest Russian ballet companies and musicians. In conversation with Hilary Condron, Lilian Hochhauser explains how she and her…
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Lynn Seymour
In any history of The Royal Ballet, a special place must be reserved for Lynn Seymour, as the dance actress par excellence. Here she tells Alastair Macaulay about her initial inspiration in her native Canada, and…
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Jock MacFadyen
Patricia Linton talks to the artist Jock McFadyen about his work on the designs for Kenneth MacMillan’s The Judas Tree. We hear about Jock’s own rebellious days as a student and about how, as a complete newcomer to…
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Pauline Clayden
Pauline Clayden was born in 1922. Here she talks to Patricia Linton, the founder of Voices of British Ballet, about her student days, and moves on to her dancing life up until joining the Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1942.…
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James MacMillan
James MacMillan is one of the world’s most prolific and widely respected composers. To date, two of his works have been used in ballets, both choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. The first of these is his Tryst, an…
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Gillian Lynne
The great choreographer and director Gillian Lynne tells Lynn Wallis how it was a giant, but ultimately rewarding step, to leave the Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1951. We have a ten minute trip from the bright lights of…
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Siobhan Davies
Siobhan Davies explains to the dance critic Alastair Macaulay her initial engagement with dance in the 1960s. She talks about how she began as an art student, fascinated by the act of drawing, particularly in charcoal,…
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Clement Crisp on Constant Lambert
Critic and writer Clement Crisp gives a succinct and vivid summing up of the debt British ballet owes to Constant Lambert, not just as the conductor for the Vic-Wells and then the Sadler’s Wells Ballet, but as what…
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Dudley Simpson
This self-effacing, straightforward man with a twinkle in his eye is known for his compositions for many TV dramas in the 1960s and 70s, including Doctor Who. Perhaps surprisingly, this career started in ballet! Dudley…
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Beryl Grey
Darcey Bussell introduces this episode featuring the dancer Beryl Grey. Beryl Grey is in conversation with Frank Freeman, who sadly died in 2011, about her early training, first with Madeleine Sharp and then with…
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Brenda Hamlyn
Brenda Hamlyn-Bencini talks about training under Marie Rambert, the post-war dance scene and touring Germany with ENSA in the immediate aftermath of WWII. At 92, Brenda Hamlyn-Bencini describes events and people from…
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Joan Seaman
Joan Seaman gives us a wonderful bird's eye view of VE Day which she spent seeing Sadler's Wells Ballet stars Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann dance Coppélia and her interview is full of the amazing good humoured…
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David Wall
David Wall was one of the greatest male dancers of his era, with an extraordinary stage charisma, range, theatricality and honesty. In this interview he talks to Frank Freeman, a former colleague, about his early…
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The Braunsweg Years
The story of Festival Ballet and the impressario Julian Braunsweg is told by a panel who danced with the company. The dance writer, and former dancer, Deborah Weiss is joined in the studio for a special Voices of…
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Noel Bronley
Noel Bronley was a member of International Ballet from 1946 until it closed in 1953. Little remembered now, at the time International Ballet was a very large undertaking of over 100 people. It toured extensively, both…
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John Craxton
For over half a century, John Craxton was a major force in the visual arts of this country. From the late 1940s on, his main source of inspiration had been the landscape and people of Greece. Choosing Craxton for the…
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John Tooley
If ever a job needed diplomacy it must be as General Director of the Royal Opera House, a post Sir John Tooley held from 1970 until 1988. He was also Assistant to the General Administrator from 1955 to 1960, followed…
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Violette Verdy
Violette Verdy’s laughter and intelligence endlessly shine through in this discussion with Clement Crisp. She explains how, as dancer and actress, music was the core of her existence. She talks about working with…
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Antoinette Sibley
Dame Antoinette Sibley talks with Alastair Macaulay. Her wonderful mix of enthusiasm, appreciation and practicality typify the glorious mercurial talent that has beguiled a generation of dancers and public alike.…
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After Diaghilev
The ballet writer Gerald Dowler is joined in a special episode of Voices of British Ballet by Monica Mason (former Royal Ballet student, principal dancer and director), Jane Pritchard (curator of dance, theatre and…
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Christopher Wheeldon
Dame Darcey Bussell talks to Natalie Steed to introduce an interview with the dancer and choregrapher, Christopher Wheeldon. Christopher Wheeldon talks in 2003 with his former classmate and Royal Ballet First Soloist…
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Wendy Toye
Adam Cooper talks to Natalie Steed to introduce this inteview with the dancer, director and choreographer Wendy Toye. It begins with Wendy Toye’s memory of chatting to Sergei Diaghilev at the age of 9, giving her…
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Mark Morris
American dancer, choreographer and director Mark Morris is one of the most successful and influential of contemporary modern choreographers. Interviewed by Gerald Dowler, he talks frankly about the role of…
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Monica Ratcliffe
In this first episode of our new podcast about the history of British ballet Patricia Linton, the founder of Voices of British Ballet, tells Natalie Steed about her project and introduces a recording she made with…
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