Jill Pyrke - (later known as Gillian Lynne) - was born on 20 February, 1926 to Leslie and Barbara Pyrke in Bromley, Kent. Her father, along with his brother George, ran the long-established family business in the town providing removals, decorating, furniture and funeral services. Early days were a happy combination of family life, school, and outings exploring the Kent countryside with seaside visits to Margate and Herne Bay, and summer holidays spent at the family cottage in Birchington-on-Sea.

By the age of eight and suffering what might politely be called an excess of energy, Gillie’s mother sought advice from the doctor who knew Gillie from a variety of childhood illnesses she had contracted. After listening and observing, he put some music on and asked Mrs Pyrke to accompany him outside. Through the glass door but unseen, they watched as Gillie flew around the room dancing to the music, leading the doctor to suggest that there was indeed nothing wrong and saying “she is a natural dancer - take her to dance classes”.

And so began a journey that neither of them knew then the height to which it would reach and the successes she would go on to. The very next day, they both went to Miss Madeleine Sharp’s class at the Bell Hotel in Bromley and watched their first class, where one particular girl stood out - Beryl Groom, later to become an extraordinary ballerina better known later as Dame Beryl Grey - and who would become firm friends from that day on. A programme of twice weekly ballet and tap classes encompassing character work as well as performing in Christmas shows and summer garden parties followed. Madeleine Sharp was a well-regarded disciplined teacher who believed in a solid technical grounding but also encouraged understanding musicality where a dancer reacts intuitively and instinctively.

At the age of ten, Gillie won a Royal Academy of Dance scholarship which meant twice weekly visits accompanied by her mother to London for ballet classes, combining a busy dance schedule with life at Bromley High School. However, in 1939 two major events were to have a lifelong impact on the young Gillian - firstly Barbara Pyrke died in a terrible car crash with three other girlfriends – and war broke out in Europe.

Dealing with the loss of her mother, which also meant stopping dance classes, and then war forcing the school to relocate to Somerset, was a difficult time but help came from an Aunt who had seen an advert for the Cone Ripman Dance School (later to become ArtsEd) based then in London run by the three Cone sisters – Gracie, Valli and Lily – and Olive Ripman. A tough dance programme taught by Gracie and Olive meant that sometimes the academic side suffered, and war forced the school to relocate, firstly to Godalming and then to Loddington Hall in Leicestershire. Numbering fifty-one, the girls were fortunate to have such caring, knowledgeable and encouraging teachers who were prepared to take responsibility during such a turbulent time.

In 1941, the school organised two days of show classes in London, and it was here that Gillie first came to the attention of Molly Lake, teacher and artistic director of the Ballet Guild and her dancer-husband, Travis Kemp. The following year she was invited to train at their St. John’s Wood studio in London, alongside established ballet stars including Gerd Larsen and David Paltenghi, and at the end of 1942 left Loddington Hall to become a full-time member of Molly Lake’s company. Tough rehearsal days covering works such as Les Sylphides, Swan Lake and La Petite Fadette led to Gillie’s first professional performances with the company presenting works throughout England as part of the ENSA Programme.

Through Molly’s determined teaching and belief in her ability, Gillie – now dancing under the name of Gillian Lynne - was soon dancing in all the company’s ballets, playing the lead in several, and when dancing the role of Odette in Swan Lake in a production at the People’s Palace in East London was noticed by Ninette De Valois, founder and director of Sadler’s Wells Ballet. This led to a call to join the famous company which, although initially turned down by her father and aunt because of her age, was joyfully accepted in February 1944.

Gillie nervously walked in to her first morning at the rehearsal rooms at Sadler’s Wells Theatre to be met by Ninette de Valois (‘Madam’) telling her to take up her position at the barre between two of the country’s leading ballerinas, Margot Fonteyn and Pamela May - a daunting prospect quickly alleviated with their big smiles greeting the newcomer who they took under their protective ‘wings’. She re-united with old friends Beryl Grey and David Paltenghi, and began a learning period surrounded by the other great ballet stars including Robert Helpmann, Frederick Ashton, and Moira Shearer, who would become a lifelong friend. She had to learn to adapt from being Molly Lake’s lead dancer doing solo roles to now being in the corps de ballet and playing a supportive role. Within two months, the company embarked on a tour of England but by early summer were back performing at the New Theatre in London right at the height of the flying bomb - ‘doodlebugs’ - attacks. On several occasions the dancers along with the audience would breathe a collective sigh of relief as flying bombs heard directly above very narrowly missed hitting the theatre. It was a demanding time for Gillie learning new roles in the company’s repertoire while at the same time new ballets were also being created, including Helpmann’s Miracle in the Gorbals.

Following the end of the war, the company was invited to move to the Royal Opera House and famously re-opened proceedings there with a Gala Performance on 20 February 1946 performing The Sleeping Beauty in front of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by the Royal Princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret. Margot Fonteyn led the evening in the role of Princess Aurora with Gillie on her birthday performing her first solo playing The Fairy of the Enchanted Garden.

Much to Gillie’s delight, her father married Wilsie Kirby later that year - Wilsie had been a member of the Kirby Flying Ballet family appearing in Peter Pan and many other productions - and helped to fill the void in their lives following her mother’s death.

Amid a constant round of rehearsals, performing and travelling, there was little time for individual work at Covent Garden, so Gillie sought teaching from former Russian ballet stars Vera Volkova in London, and when the opportunity arose from Olga Preobrazhenska in Paris – and they were the source of tremendous support and inspiration for her. Ballet life continued relentlessly with further new ballets including Ashton’s Symphonic Variations and Helpmann’s Adam Zero, tours to Europe and around Britain and many more leading roles for Gillie including Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis in Giselle - and the Black Queen in Checkmate. Two very successful US Tours took place – the first in 1949 and then again over a five-month period in 1950-51. As well as sharing the stage nightly with Fonteyn, Shearer and Grey, she notably performed as the Queen of the Wilis to Alicia Markova’s Giselle on several occasions in 1948. Gillie did find the time in this period to marry barrister Patrick Back - in July 1948.

By the spring of 1951, and frustrated with progressing in the company at De Valois’ pace, when Robert Helpmann came to see her perform in the role of the Black Ballerina in Balanchine’s Ballet Imperial at Covent Garden and asked if she would join him in a new production putting ballet on at the London Palladium, she decided to accept the offer, leaving a stunned De Valois in the process, and pushing her career in a totally new direction.

Leaving Sadler's Wells Ballet in 1951 she was an instant success receiving glowing revues at the London Palladium as the star dancer teaming up with old friend Malcolm Goddard in Val Parnell’s musical variety ‘Peep Show’ alongside the nation’s favourite singer Vera Lynn, Edmundo Ros and his band and a host of other acts. The contrast to Sadler’s Wells could not have been greater. This was immediately followed by playing the Good Fairy in a star-studded Palladium Christmas Pantomime, Humpty Dumpty, with Norman Evans, Terry-Thomas, Peggy Mount and Noele Gordon.

Ballet had traditionally been a part of music hall entertainment and the Palladium successfully in 1952, under the capable hands of choreographer Pauline Grant, re-introduced a series of short dances with a comedic, acrobatic twist into the Variety bill again, with Gillie at the forefront of a group of twenty dancers. Pauline taught Gillie to understand the need to entertain an audience that had not come to only see dance unlike at Covent Garden.

Next up, she was cast opposite Hollywood swashbuckling heart-throb Errol Flynn in the film The Master of Ballantrae as Marianne, a seductive temptress, filmed in Italy. And then came her first opportunity to choreograph and stage when she was asked to help with another Christmas pantomime - again Humpty Dumpty but this time at the Chiswick Empire - where the experiences gained from her time within a large ballet company proved invaluable when dealing and relishing in the challenges a Christmas show would bring.

A busy time as a performer followed - more revues at the New Lindsay Theatre Club, different plays for the Under Thirty Group at the Hythe Summer Festival, a role in Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea, back for the Palladium’s Autumn musical Fun and the Fair with George Formby, and then on to another Christmas pantomime in Windsor. 1954 saw Gillie joining Julie Andrews in the UK tour of Mountain Fire, back with the Under Thirty Group for two plays, a brief return to ballet at Covent Garden dancing in Aida before landing the much-coveted role of Claudine in Can Can which ran for the next year at the London Coliseum.

More theatre, numerous television appearances both as a dancer and an actress including Tin Pan Alley, Joyce Grenfell and Ted Heath Shows, appearing in a live BBC TV Sunday Night Theatre play, several Christmas pantomimes, somewhat ambitiously dancing in Aida at Covent Garden and Samson and Delilah at Sadler’s Wells on the same night necessitating changing in a rapid taxi en-route, and a first chance to experience Shakespeare playing Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream all added to Gillie’s skill and experience but a request in 1960 would completely change the direction of her career from performer to choreographer and director.

Gillian’s name had been suggested as someone capable of choreographing a jazz ballet and this led to meeting Dudley Moore and a surprising and rewarding period collaborating on three projects. Firstly, she choreographed and staged a new revue, England Our England, written by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall with music by Moore starring among its cast Billie Whitelaw and Roy Kinnear. Eventually transferring to London’s Princes Theatre, this show helped to give Gillie the belief and confidence that she had the ability and skills to choreograph and stage a whole production.

Next up for them was the idea to create the first jazz/classical dance company in England and led to the opening in Edinburgh in 1963 to great acclaim of Collages - a company of fourteen dancers choreographed and led by Gillian performing a dance revue with elements of classical ballet, ballroom jazz and musical comedy interwoven within a wonderful score composed by Dudley Moore - these dancers formed the basis of The Gillian Lynne Dancers that would be involved in several productions over the following years. A noted member of the audience one night in Edinburgh was Broadway producer, David Merrick, who was so impressed that he vowed to get Gillie working on Broadway “within a year” and was true to his word.

Gillie and Dudley joined forces again later that year creating a jazz ballet for the BBC - The Owl and The Pussycat - to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Edward Lear’s nonsense poem. The following year her career took another step, choreographing the first of three major films that year - Wonderful Life, starring Cliff Richard and Susan Hampshire, immediately followed by Every Day’s A Holiday with Ron Moody and John Leyton, and Three Hats for Lisa with Sid James and Joe Brown .

David Merrick was true to his word engaging Gillie as choreographer for the Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd which started initially on a UK tour and then transferred to America opening on Broadway in 1965. Written and composed by Tony Newley and Leslie Bricusse, and starring Newley in the lead role, the wonderful score and imaginative numbers met with great success breaking records. This show was followed by another very successful musical on Broadway - Pickwick - and starred an old friend, Harry Secombe. Like Roar of the Greasepaint, Pickwick embarked on a tour of the USA before arriving on Broadway and although not always plain-sailing, both shows were invaluable for the lessons learned and experiences gained.

Returning to England brought another step forward for Gillie with her next role and her first chance to direct as well as choreograph a musical called The Match Girls, written by Bill Owen and Tony Russell, at the Globe Theatre about the 1888 strike by the Bryant & May match-making girls. A very successful show with wonderful reviews, including praise from Noel Coward who had called to congratulate, added to her standing and led to her being asked to direct Offenbach’s Bluebeard for Sadler’s Wells, although the lack of a written score meant a hastily arranged trip for her to Germany and a Checkpoint Charlie border crossing at the height of the cold war into East Berlin to receive a copy that the Komische Oper were prepared to lend.

Interspersed among the stage shows and films in this period were many television specials, plays and musicals but a call then came from director George Sidney, who had been impressed with The Matchgirls, asking Gillie to join the team and choreograph and stage the film of Half A Sixpence starring Tommy Steele. Somehow, despite a hectic schedule, she found the time to dance in one of the show’s iconic numbers - Flash Bang Wallop.

1967 saw her involved in a third Broadway David Merrick production, choreographing and staging the musical How Now Dow Jones, starring Tony Roberts and Brenda Vaccaro, and although running for over 200 performances, the show was beset by problems and had various changes to the creative team.

The next period saw Gillie involved in several prominent TV series including The Harry Secombe Show, Val Doonican, Marty Feldman, and The Two Ronnies but she still found the time to choreograph Phil The Fluter and to direct Walter Greenwood’s Love on The Dole and Noel Coward’s Tonight At 8.

200 Motels - a quirky film written and produced by legendary American musician Frank Zappa starring Ringo Starr and Keith Moon followed and then came two major films in 1972 - Under Milk Wood starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O’Toole – and Man of La Mancha with Peter O’Toole again and Sophia Loren. The following three years saw a return to the stage choreographing The Card with Jim Dale - the first of many collaborations with Cameron Mackintosh; Hans Andersen with old friend Tommy Steele; and Mr Quilp with another old mate Tony Newley. She even found time in 1974 to devise, direct and choreograph a ballet for Australian TV - Fool on the Hill - re-uniting with former Sadler’s Wells stars and colleagues Robert Helpmann, Peggy Van Praagh and Bryan Ashbridge. While in Australia, a call came through which would lead to joining Jim Henson’s team on The Muppet Show, staging many of the shows over the next year four years, including winning the Golden Rose of Montreux for one episode with Rita Moreno, as well as helping to create a show for the Royal Variety Performance at the Palladium.

1976 saw the start of a happy collaboration over the next six years with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and their incredible group of actors including among many Judi Dench, Francesca Annis, Patrick Stewart, Richard Griffiths, Michael Williams, Roger Rees and Nick Grace. Beginning with a musical version of The Comedy of Errors directed by Trevor Nunn with a wonderful set design by John Napier, it proved a great success transferring to the Adelphi Theatre in London. She then went on to direct the company in Won’t You Charleston, a 1920s based musical; staged As You Like It at Stratford and again at the Aldwych Theatre (1977); co-directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream with John Barton; choreographed and staged The Way of The World (1978) and Once in a Lifetime (1979); and co-directed La Ronde (1982) again with John Barton. Both The Comedy of Errors and Once in a Lifetime would receive Olivier Awards for that year’s Best Musical and Best Play respectively.

During this time, she also choreographed Parsifal at Covent Garden, staged Songbook at the Globe Theatre - which would go on to win the 1979 Olivier Award for Best Musical, directed Robin Ray and Cameron Mackintosh’s Tomfoolery - a revue based on Tom Lehrer songs - at the Criterion that ran for over a year, and directed Edward Duke in his one man show Jeeves Takes Charge at the Fortune Theatre, as well as finding time to devise and choreograph Cleo Laine Sings for ITV.

It was also in this period, while starting work in 1977 on My Fair Lady with Anna Neagle and Tony Britton, that she would meet Peter Land who was cast in the role of Freddie Eynsford-Hill in the Mackintosh production that would tour England before successfully transferring to the Adelphi Theatre. Romance blossomed and the following year Gillie married Peter and began a partnership that would last forty years until her passing.

As a direct result of the successes she had with Trevor Nunn at the RSC along with designer John Napier, the three were a natural choice to realise Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical Cats in 1981, based on T.S.Elliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Cats was unique being told completely through music and staged in the round with a revolving stage and required all the dancers to be on stage for virtually the whole of the show, while the orchestra was hidden from view, creating an immersive experience for the audience. It would break records in its 8,949 performances over 21 years at the New London Theatre. The original cast included Sarah Brightman, Wayne Sleep, Brian Blessed, Finola Hughes, Paul Nicholas and Elaine Paige, who had come in at the last minute for Judi Dench who had hurt her foot in rehearsal. With such a dance orientated production, Gillie’s role as the show’s choreographer and associate director was demanding and intense and the show is noted for many memorable scenes including the 13 minute ‘Jellicle Ball’. A proud moment for her came when Dame Ninette De Valois, Founder and Director of the Royal Ballet and Gillie’s former boss during her time as a ballerina, after watching the show praised her work for its wonderful innovation, ingenuity and spectacle.

Cats would go on to break more records opening on Broadway in 1982, running there for 18 years and receiving numerous Olivier and Tony Awards. The show has run continuously in Japan since 1983, and there have been shows throughout the world that continue today. Gillie would direct the Vienna production herself and would visit all first-class productions over the next thirty years to run auditions, oversee rehearsals and conduct periodic visits to ensure the shows met with her critical approval.

Following Cats, Gillie was asked by the BBC to direct a musical murder mystery The Various Ends of Mrs F’s Friends and then the play Easy Money. Next up was choreographing Barbra Streisand’s film, Yentl in 1983, directing Morte D’Arthur for the BBC, which would win the Samuel Engel TV Award, and then choreograph three further films – National Lampoon’s European Vacation with Chevy Chase, the gentle British comedy Mr Love, and the star-studded Alice in Wonderland for US TV.

At this time, the production company Gillie had created to enable her to actively create and manage certain shows was renamed Lean Two Productions and would be involved in various productions throughout the rest of her life.

1986 saw Gillie direct and choreograph a revival of Cabaret at London’s Strand Theatre with Wayne Sleep taking on the role of the Emcee, made famous by Joel Grey in the original Broadway production but a successful run was unfortunately brought to a premature halt by a musicians’ strike.

Then came the start of another stage phenomenon, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, which began its record-breaking run of 33 years at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London and followed with a 35-year run in New York. Initially with Michael Crawford as the Phantom and Sarah Brightman as Christine, Gillian choregraphed and staged this successful musical with director Hal Prince. The show won multiple awards including Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Musical and became the longest running show in Broadway history. Shows have been produced throughout the world, including a special production for Las Vegas and a 25th anniversary stage performance at the Albert Hall that was screened worldwide, and as she did with Cats, Gillie travelled worldwide for the next thirty years overseeing new productions, auditions and rehearsals.

Following Phantom in 1987 came a project very close to Gillie’s heart - A Simple Man. A ballet created and directed by her to celebrate the centenary of the life of artist L.S.Lowry. This was a collaboration with the BBC and the Northern Ballet with music by Carl Davis and starred Moira Shearer and Christopher Gable along with Albert Finney and won the BAFTA for Best Director. Gillie returned briefly to dancing herself when she took over the role of Lowry’s mother, played by Moira Shearer in the TV production, for the UK tour as well as for an excerpt that was performed for the 1989 Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium. That same year, she teamed up with photographer Barry Lategan to produce their take on the iconic Pirelli calendar.

Early in 1989, on a visit to Her Majesty’s Theatre, Gillie was surprised to be greeted by a new Phantom - in fact Michael Aspel in disguise in his role as host of ITV’s This Is Your Life - for an edition of the iconic show telling the story of Gillie’s life with many family and friends present including Dame Beryl Grey, Moira Shearer, Sir Harry Secombe, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Dudley Moore.

Later that year, Gillian choreographed Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love starring Michael Ball, firstly in London where it ran for over 1300 performances in its three-year run and then on Broadway for two years. She choreographed Lippizaner for the Northern Ballet Theatre, and Faust at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and 1991 saw her produce and direct the Dance for Life Charity Gala - a star studded benefit event in the presence of Princess Diana at Her Majesty’s Theatre organised for World AIDS Day and raising funds and awareness for those affected by HIV and AIDS. The same year, she choreographed Big Bird’s Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake, a PBS TV film involving characters from TV’s Sesame Street. Gillian directed Benny Green and Dennis King’s adaptation of Valentine’s Day starring Edward Petherbridge, which successfully opened in Chichester before transferring to the Globe Theatre in London in 1992.

1993 saw her re-uniting with old friends Harry Secombe and Roy Castle as Pickwick began at Chichester before transferring to Sadler’s Wells, and would then tour the UK three years later. A variety of projects over the next period included her directing The Brontës with the Northern Ballet Theatre, directing Avow at the George Street Theatre in New Jersey, directing and choreographing Anyone Who Had A Heart at the Roundabout Theatre in New York, directing the V.E Day Gala at the Coliseum, choreographing and staging Cats, The Video starring Elaine Paige and John Mills, choregraphing Journey for the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, directing Gigi for the Vienna Volks Oper, and choreographing Some You Win, a jazz ballet starring Irek Mukhamedov at Sadler’s Wells. This period also saw her receive the CBE, presented to her at Buckingham Palace by His Royal Highness, Charles, Prince of Wales.

She returned to Sadler’s Wells in 1999 to direct and choreograph Dick Whittington with Nick Grace and Peter Polycarpou, and then joined up with director Adrian Noble for the RSC’s production of The Secret Garden which opened in Stratford before successfully transferring to London’s Aldwych Theatre. They would join forces again in 2002 for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang starring Michael Ball, Brian Blessed, Richard O’Brien and Nichola Mcauliffe, which opened at the London Palladium and broke records in its three and a half year run before opening on Broadway in 2005.

In 2001 The Royal Academy of Dance awarded Gillian it’s highest honour - The Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award. Presented annually, this Award was instituted in 1953, the year of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and is in recognition of outstanding services to the art of ballet. Gillian joined a very select group including Dame Ninette De Valois, Sir Frederick Ashton, Rudolf Nureyev and Dame Beryl Grey who have been similarly honoured.

Despite passing her eightieth birthday, her enthusiasm and zest for theatre and the arts remained as strong as ever, and in 2008 she staged and choreographed Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid at the Washington Theatre, starring René Auberjonois and Nancy Robinette; in the same year directed and staged I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing at the Haymarket Theatre - a star-studded tribute to world-leading vocal coach, Ian Adam; directed Judith Paris in her one-woman show about Madame Tussaud - Waxing Lyrical - in 2011 at the New Diorama Theatre; directed Jerry Herman’s Dear World in 2013, with Betty Buckley and Paul Nicholas, at the Charing Cross Theatre; and directed and choregraphed a reworking of Robert Helpmann’s ballet Miracle in the Gorbals in 2014, which had not been performed since 1958, for Birmingham Royal Ballet at Sadler’s Wells.

In 2011, Gillie wrote about her life growing up, her early passion for dancing and her time as a young ballerina with Sadler’s Wells Ballet during the second world war in her memoir entitled A Dancer In Wartime - covering the period up to 1946 when Sadler’s Wells Ballet moved into the Royal Opera House and established a permanent base there.

The Olivier Awards honoured her in 2013 with their Lifetime Achievement Award - presented to her at the Royal Opera House by two long standing friends and actors she had worked with - Michael Crawford and David Suchet.

2014 saw another visit to Buckingham Palace, this time to receive the Dame Commander of the British Empire award for services to dance and musical theatre from Her Royal Highness, the Princess Anne, becoming the first person to be honoured for Musical Theatre.

With the help of her husband in the same year, she devised and produced her own exercise DVD - Longevity Through Exercise - aimed at all ages. Long believing in the importance of exercise and staying flexible, she demonstrated the exercises herself on camera, a natural extension of the daily workouts she had practised throughout all her life.

In 2018 she made a return visit to the theatre that held so many memories for her - the New London Theatre - for a presentation before a specially invited audience where Andrew Lloyd Webber officially renamed the theatre in her honour - it is now known as The Gillian Lynne Theatre.

Supporting young and emerging talent had always been important to Gillie, as she had always felt fortunate to have had certain people lend a helping hand to her as she progressed through the various stages of her own career. Before her passing she and her husband had discussed creating a foundation and in 2019 the Lynne and Land Foundation was born. Aimed at supporting aspiring young and talented performers, the Foundation helps students of the choreographic arts, drama and musical theatre to achieve their full potential by providing Scholarships and Grants to selected schools and organisations for the performing arts.