Sadler’s Wells Ballet Days

1944-51

Gillian joined Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1944 at the age of 17 and continued on to 1951, dancing initially at the New Theatre and Princes Theatre before the Company moved to it’s new home at the Royal Opera House in 1946. Along the way, there were various UK Tours, tours to Europe, and two prestigious tours to the USA. In all, Gillian danced in over 100+ performances before the Ballet moved to Covent Garden where there are a further 200+ separate performances/programmes documented across more than 35 different ballets - adding in various tours, the total would have been well in excess of 400.

From the first day being asked in rehearsals to stand in between Margot Fonteyn and Pamela May at the barre, she found it an inspiring and exciting environment, challenging her to develop new skills while learning from some of the best dancers and teachers in the world. For the first two years, the company performed in the midst of wartime Britain, often performing while hearing the bombs overhead. Dancing her first solo in front of the King and Queen in 1946 on her twentieth birthday was daunting but led to many more major solo roles in some of the most iconic ballets including Swan Lake, Cinderella, Giselle, Symphonic Variations, Checkmate and Ballet Imperial.

On 20th February 1996, Gillian returned to perform at the Royal Opera House, making a guest appearance along with several of her ballet contemporaries including Beryl Grey, Violetta Elvin, Pamela May, Nadia Nerina, and Gerd Larsen, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the 1946 performance of the Royal Ballet's Sleeping Beauty with a gala performance starring Darcy Bussell and Anthony Dowell in front of Queen Elizabeth II and Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet.

A STAR STUDDED LINE-UP

Pictured below are just a few of the incredible Company members at Sadler’s Wells during the period Gillian was there between 1946-51 and who were instrumental in raising the level of British ballet after the war to world class:

DANCERS

Dancers in this period included Margot Fonteyn, Beryl Grey, Moira Shearer, Julia Farron, Pamela May, Violetta Elvin, Pauline Clayden, Nadia Nerina, Gerd Larsen, June Brae, Palma Nye, Robert Helpmann, Michael Somes, Alexis Rassine, David Paltenghi, Henry Danton - with guest artists including Alicia Markova, Anton Dolin - and many many more…….

ARTISTIC TEAM

Key members of Sadler’s Wells Ballet at this time included Dame Ninette de Valois, Director of Sadler’s Wells Ballet whose driving force led eventually to the ballet company being awarded the Royal Charter in 1956; Sir Frederick Ashton, Principal Choreographer and widely credited with the creation of an English genre of ballet with works including Façade, Symphonic Variations and Cinderella; Constant Lambert, Musical Director, Composer and Conductor; Oliver Messel, Designer; and Peggy Van Praagh, Teacher and Choreographer.

Also shown are two Russian former ballerinas - Vera Volkova in London and Olga Preobrazhenska in Paris - who became wonderful teachers and who both helped Gillian develop into a much more accomplished dancer and performer.

SPECIAL GUESTS AND A SPECIAL PERFORMANCE

February 1946

The Gala Performance of The Sleeping Beauty on the evening of 20 February 1946 heralding the re-opening of the Royal Opera House after the war was attended by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, along with Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.

It was also a very special occasion for Gillie - she had been chosen to do her first solo performance for Sadler’s Wells Ballet. It was also her 20th birthday and the whole company led by Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann sang ‘Happy Birthday’

Margot Fonteyn led the performance in the role of Princess Aurora, with Gillian playing the part of The Fairy of the Enchanted Garden. All the main dancers at Sadler’s Wells performed that evening and included Beryl Grey, Moira Shearer, Pauline Clayden, Robert Helpmann, and Alexis Rassine.

The programme for the evening’s performance can be seen below.

FAVOURITE ROLES

Gillie danced in over 35 different ballets for Sadler’s Wells, each requiring different aspects of dance and movement and physical intensity, as well as distinct interpretative skills. Here are some of the roles that she enjoyed:

CHECKMATE - THE BLACK QUEEN

Checkmate is a one act ballet that was originally commissioned for Sadler’s Wells Ballet’s visit to Paris in 1937. Sir Arthur Bliss chose the game of Chess as the subject for the ballet and wrote the music with choreography by Ninette de Valois. The ballet is based on the theme of a game of chess and the struggle between the opposing forces of Love and Death - this was perhaps Gillie’s favourite ballet role.

GISELLE - MYRTHA, QUEEN OF THE WILIS

Giselle is summoned from her grave into the Wilis’ deadly sisterhood of the ghosts of unmarried women who died after being betrayed by their lovers. Led by Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, they take revenge by dancing men to death by exhaustion and they target Albrecht when he comes to mourn at Giselle's grave, but her great love frees him from their grasp. As well as sharing the stage with Fonteyn, Shearer and Grey, Gillie notably performed as Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis to Alicia Markova’s Giselle on several occasions in 1948.

SYMPHONIC VARIATIONS

Created by Frederick Ashton and premiering in 1946, this ballet for three men and three women was noted for it’s great spectacle and beauty but was very demanding physically. On numerous occasions, Gillie partnered Margot Fonteyn and Pamela May alongside Michael Somes, Brian Shaw and John Hart.

ADAM ZERO - THE DAUGHTER

Two pictures taken by Gordon Anthony from his book ‘Studies of Sadler’s Wells Ballet Company’ showing Gillie in the role of The Daughter in Adam Zero, a ballet choregraphed by Robert Helpmann with music by Sir Arthur Bliss. The first performance was on 6 April 1946 at Covent Garden with Constant Lambert conducting and dancers on that first night in addition to Gillie included David Paltenghi, Robert Helpmann, Jean Bedells, Julia Farron, June Brae and Palma Nye.

USA TOURS

1ST TOUR : OCTOBER - DECEMBER 1949

Sadler’s Wells Ballet’s first USA Tour had been many years in planning, eventually leaving for America at the beginning of October 1949. They flew to New York and opened at the Metropolitan Opera House where they stayed for one month before moving on to Washington in early November. Thereafter, on a whirlwind tour, they visited Richmond, Philadelphia, Chicago and East Lansing before heading up to Canada and the cities of Toronto and Ottawa.

The tour was a tremendous challenge as British ballet had never been seen in America before and they needed to make their mark. It had even been decided that the Company would be Ambassadors for the British Fashion Industry and would have day and evening clothes made by top British couturiers including Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies and everyone wore their clothes with great pride.

The Tour attracted enormous attention and much anticipation for the opening night in New York - Margot Fonteyn and the company performing The Sleeping Beauty to rapturous applause and copious curtain calls. It was a busy month during their time at the Opera House - they also performed Le Lac des Cygnes, The Rake’s Progress, Symphonic Variations, Façade, Hamlet, Miracle in the Gorbals, A Wedding Bouquet, Checkmate, Job and Cinderella.

Many memories lingered for Gillie - the beauty of the old Metropolitan Opera House; seeing for the first time the fast paced life and buzz of New York life and the lights of Broadway; being taken by Robert (Bobby) Helpmann to Walgreens for her first banana split; the special Pulman trains that were organised to transport the dancers and all the paraphernalia that must accompany a touring company; President Trueman coming to opening night in Washington, where the floor of Constitution Hall had not been dewaxed causing obvious problems for the dancers.

2ND TOUR : SEPTEMBER 1950 - JANUARY 1951

The second tour was much more ambitious and far longer than the first one - 20 weeks in total - starting, as in the 1949 Tour, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York for three weeks opening with a performance of Le Lac des Cygnes (Swan Lake) before going onto perform in a total of 32 cities and towns journeying over 15,000 miles.

Travel again was on the ‘Ballet Special‘ Pullman train consisting of six Pulman sleeping-cars with double-decker berths and four scenery wagons as they journeyed firstly to Philadelphia, and then on to Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Birmingham, New Orleans, Houston and then across the desert to El Paso before arriving for ten days in Los Angeles. Then two weeks in San Francisco, and further stops in Denver and Chicago before heading to Canada with stops including Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal before finally finishing the tour in Quebec.

As with the previous tour, there were some incredible memories to take home - Ninette de Valois (‘Madam’ as she was known by the company) discovering that Gillie had danced every performance while in New York and arranging a night off for her - which meant an enthralling visit to the Majestic Theatre (where Phantom of the Opera would play 38 years later) to see her first ever musical - South Pacific starring Mary Martin - and opening her eyes to the wonderful spectacle and artistry of a full-blown Broadway production.

Other highlights including meeting Charlie Chaplin, who came to the first night in New York and again in Los Angeles, as well as a plethora of stars including Clark Gable, Gene Kelly, Ronald Colman, Doris Day, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh; touring the Hollywood film studios; sailing down the Mississippi in a paddleboat; and tobogganing down the slopes of the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec.

The tour was also notable for the last performance as a permanent member of Sadler’s Wells by Robert Helpmann, when performing Sleeping Beauty in San Francisco with Margot Fonteyn, with the whole company watching from the wings in tears.

PROGRAMMES

Below are pictures from programmes of just three of the 400+ ballets Gillie performed in:

- the first is a performance from June 1948 at Covent Garden featuring Giselle, where she performs as ‘Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis’ with Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin; and Scenes De Ballet with Moira Shearer and Michael Somes -

- the second is a performance from May 1950 featuring Ballet Imperial, where she dances the ‘Black Ballerina’ with Margot Fonteyn, The Three Cornered Hat, and Miracle in the Gorbals where she performs with Alexis Rassine in the role of ‘The Lovers’, along with Robert Helpmann and Pauline Clayden as ‘The Stranger’ and ‘The Suicide’ -

The third programme is from the USA Tour of November 1949 and features: Miracle in the Gorbals; Sleeping Beauty; Symphonic Variations; Façade: