VIDEOS & INTERVIEWS
Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Half-a-Sixpence, Oliviers…
Dancing, creating and rehearsing
CATS
The Phantom of the Opera
Covent Garden prepares to open after the war in 1946
Sadler’s Wells Ballet, under Ninette de Valois, was invited to become the resident ballet company at the Royal Opera House in 1946.
The Sadler’s Wells Company - later in 1956 to become The Royal Ballet - can be seen rehearsing in this British Pathé clip, getting ready for their first performance on 20 February 1946 - a Gala Performance of The Sleeping Beauty with Margot Fonteyn as Aurora in front of a full house including the King and Queen and the Royal Princesses.
Gillian can be seen several times - firstly she is on the left kneeling down with her hand on her right leg at 0.39s, again at 0.45s tying her shoes, and then walking across in front of the camera at 0.51s
Dancing in the Blitz - BBC TV
How World War II Made British Ballet
Presented by David Bintley, Artistic Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet and a former dancer, the documentary explores how the Sadler’s Wells Ballet Company led by Ninette de Valois - widely regarded as the founder of British ballet - and featuring a star-studded generation of British dancers and choreographers including Margot Fonteyn and Frederick Ashton took ballet to a new audience. From Dante Sonata to Symphonic Variations, ballet footage in rehearsal and performance gives a snapshot of the conditions the dancers faced, at home and on tour.
The film documents how circumstances during the war forced the Sadler’s Wells Ballet Company to tour more and how Britain, who had not previously had the opportunity and despite the falling bombs, the rationing and the call-up, now fell in love with ballet.
With rare footage and interviews with dance icons such as Dame Gillian Lynne and Dame Beryl Grey, David Bintley shows how the Sadler's Wells Ballet company survived an encounter with Nazi forces in Holland, dancing whilst the bombs were falling in the Blitz, rationing and a punishing touring schedule to bring ballet to the British people as an antidote to the austerity the country faced to emerge, postwar, as the Royal Ballet.
Voices of British Ballet
An interview with Gillian Lynne talking to Lynn Wallis, with an introduction by former Royal Ballet Principal Dancer Adam Cooper in conversation with Natalie Steed.
BBC RADIO 3 - PRIVATE PASSIONS
Gillian in conversation with Michael Berkeley in 2013 discussing her musical passions and the influence that music has had on her life. Music choices include Fauré, Walton, Vaughan Williams, Tippett and Errol Garner.