Lynn Seymour

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's Archive. For rights' reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy six, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:31

Our castaway this week is one of Britain's most celebrated dancers, Lynne Seymour.

Presenter0:36

How well could you endure solitude?

Lynn Seymour0:40

I don't know how good I'd be at solitude. I mean, there's times when, of course, one is practically rabid for it. One seems to be surrounded so much by so many people.

Lynn Seymour0:50

But um I could handle it, I think, for quite a long time.

Presenter0:52

Thank you.

Presenter0:55

Obviously music plays an important part in your life. Do you play discs a lot?

Lynn Seymour0:59

I do. I've got a lot of records.

Presenter1:00

How did you set about choosing just eight to last this long time?

Lynn Seymour1:05

Yeah, I just chose things that really w came out of the top of my head, as it were.

Presenter1:09

Mm-hmm.

Lynn Seymour1:09

And then I didn't go too seriously into it because I thought I'd get into a terrible state about it.

Presenter1:14

On that pile you have there, what's the first one?

Lynn Seymour1:17

The first one I've chosen is um a Beethoven string quartet. It's number thirteen in B flat major, opus one hundred and thirty.

Presenter1:24

Opus

Lynn Seymour1:26

And it's the sixth movement.

Lynn Seymour1:28

I love the quartets so very dearly because they epitomize to me what music making is all about four people sitting down, making music together.

Lynn Seymour1:38

uh without a conductor, without any stress except a wish to make music, and um bouncing off each other, and just in the really sort of true spirit of what music is.

Presenter2:54

The opening of the last movement of Beethoven's string quartet number thirteen in B flat major, played by the Italian quartet.

Presenter3:02

What's your second record?

Lynn Seymour3:04

My second uh

Lynn Seymour3:06

Is a Bartock

Lynn Seymour3:08

a piece. It's called a sonato for two pianos and percussion.

Lynn Seymour3:13

It's uh the music.

Lynn Seymour3:15

which we've used for the most recent ballet at the Royal Opera House, choreographed by Kenneth Macmillan. And as usual, the the latest thing that one has done it becomes a sort of favourite, you know you get to know it very well.

Presenter4:31

Part of the third movement of Bartock's sonata for two pianos and percussion.

Presenter4:35

A Hungarian recording

Presenter4:37

Lynn, you are from Canada. Whereabouts in the Dominion were you born?

Lynn Seymour4:40

I was born on the prairies in Alberta.

Lynn Seymour4:44

We moved to the west coast at a very

Lynn Seymour4:47

early stage in my life, to Vancouver.

Presenter4:49

When you were a child did you have opportunities to see a lot of professional dancing?

Lynn Seymour4:54

No uh very little, in fact.

Presenter4:57

How did you get hooked?

Lynn Seymour4:58

It's the old story. I mean, I saw a film called The Red Shoes, I'm sure. Yes, Michael Powell's story. Yes, all that. And um then I saw some some some of your actual dancers added. Uh I think it was somebody No of Nolis

Presenter5:02

Yes, Michael Powell story.

Lynn Seymour5:16

stature than Alexander Danilova.

Speaker 45:19

Hmm.

Lynn Seymour5:20

who just bowled me over, and then, of course, the royal bowe sort of whizzed through, and that was me just lost.

Presenter5:25

So you agitated to study.

Lynn Seymour5:28

Yes, I was studying already, but I mean sort of a

Lynn Seymour5:32

Uh, merely on weekends and uh I was only excited to be able to sort of do the splits and rather stupendous back bends. I wasn't I wasn't into dancing as such.

Presenter5:41

Yeah.

Presenter5:43

Yes. You were only fourteen, I believe, when you won a scholarship to come to England to study at the Royal Ballet School. How did that happen?

Lynn Seymour5:51

That came about by a very kindly teacher.

Lynn Seymour5:54

in Vancouver who wrote

Lynn Seymour5:57

to the company or to the school, I'm not sure which, and asked them if they would mind having a look and w on their way through.

Presenter6:04

Here's

Lynn Seymour6:04

So they said yes, and they did.

Presenter6:04

Yeah.

Presenter6:07

How did your parents react?

Lynn Seymour6:09

I think they th they were surprised.

Lynn Seymour6:11

and also dismayed at a rather premature departure from home.

Presenter6:16

Yes, at fourteen you came to London. Who looked after you?

Lynn Seymour6:17

You

Lynn Seymour6:20

I lived with a very dear family. They they took in some people from the French Lysee, and there was another girl from the Royal Ballet School there as well, mister and misses Fisher.

Lynn Seymour6:30

And they were sweet they were absolutely angelic to me.

Presenter6:33

How long did you study at the school?

Lynn Seymour6:35

Um I was at the school for properly for two years.

Lynn Seymour6:39

And I then I spent a year with the Southers Wells Opera Ballet, which was really fun. Yeah.

Presenter6:44

Was your grant enough, or did you have to do a spare time job sometimes?

Lynn Seymour6:47

In the summer I took a spare time job. I worked in a cafe.

Lynn Seymour6:52

serving coffees and salads and things like that. I thought it was quite good.

Presenter6:56

What was your very first professional appearance?

Lynn Seymour6:59

I was an angel.

Lynn Seymour7:02

in The Opera Hanselm Gretel.

Lynn Seymour7:05

At the South Is Wells Theatre.

Presenter7:08

That's the point where we'll break for your third record. What's that?

Lynn Seymour7:11

It's um an album by a group called The Spooky Tooth. And it's an old Beatles song, well it's not that old, called I Am a Walrus. I love the Beatles terribly, but I find that this uh this group has done a rendition of this song that's so today.

Speaker 47:35

And we're all together.

Speaker 47:42

See how they run from a gun. See how they run

Speaker 47:49

I'm cracking.

Speaker 47:53

Setting on a calm plate

Presenter7:57

Spokey Tooth, I'm a walrus.

Presenter7:59

So, Lynn, you made your first appearance as an angel in Hansel and Gretel. They changed your name, didn't they?

Lynn Seymour8:06

Well, they didn't.

Presenter8:08

Who did?

Lynn Seymour8:09

Um, well, I did. I mean, th th I nobody twisted my arm.

Presenter8:10

I mean

Lynn Seymour8:13

We are about to perform at the Opera House.

Lynn Seymour8:16

And um

Lynn Seymour8:18

Kenneth Macmillan had created a

Lynn Seymour8:20

A rule for me in a new ballet of his.

Lynn Seymour8:23

and we were putting on, I think, four new ballets altogether, in which I was appearing

Lynn Seymour8:28

In all of them. My

Lynn Seymour8:32

Father's name, and my rightful name, I suppose, was Springbet.

Lynn Seymour8:36

And um everybody decided that it really wasn't.

Lynn Seymour8:40

Exactly suitable.

Lynn Seymour8:42

for a young dancer. I'm not sure why.

Lynn Seymour8:46

I thought, well, why can't people accept me as I am at the time?

Lynn Seymour8:50

But um

Lynn Seymour8:52

I latched on to Seymour just as quickly as could be, and now I feel as if I was born there.

Lynn Seymour8:57

Um, it didn't cause me any heartache.

Presenter9:00

Yes. As a young dancer, who was your heroine?

Lynn Seymour9:04

Oh, the usual. I mean, Margot Fontaine, of course.

Presenter9:06

Yeah.

Lynn Seymour9:08

And yeah.

Lynn Seymour9:09

Ulanova, without doubt.

Presenter9:12

You toured overseas when you were with the touring company.

Lynn Seymour9:15

Yes, we we did a great deal of touring. Uh

Lynn Seymour9:18

Not to mention the provinces.

Presenter9:20

Hmm.

Lynn Seymour9:20

Um

Presenter9:21

You were just twenty, and you made a great success as Odette O'Deal in in Swan Lake. You were very young to be trusted with such a major role.

Lynn Seymour9:30

Well it

Lynn Seymour9:31

Uh Madame Devalois was there.

Lynn Seymour9:34

director of the company at the time, and she was all for um

Lynn Seymour9:39

pushing young dancers ahead.

Presenter9:41

Yes.

Lynn Seymour9:42

I think in this instance she more or less had to, because we were on tour in Australia.

Lynn Seymour9:46

and they were shipping sort of the great ballerinas back and forth, and they were terrified that one of them wouldn't make it one day, so they had to have a spare swan in the basket, you know.

Lynn Seymour9:57

So they sort of got me together and got me on.

Lynn Seymour10:01

And uh

Lynn Seymour10:02

So I was there ready to do it in case the sort of

Lynn Seymour10:06

All the stars didn't get there on time.

Presenter10:08

And that worked. At that time, so far as you were concerned, were the classical roles more important?

Lynn Seymour10:14

Only insofar as they're a test. Um

Presenter10:17

Um

Lynn Seymour10:18

They're still important to me. They've never been unimportant.

Lynn Seymour10:22

But uh they don't let your imagination run riot. It's a a very physical, very demanding thing to do.

Lynn Seymour10:30

Yeah.

Lynn Seymour10:32

totally necessary to become an old

Lynn Seymour10:35

a sort of all rounded out type of dancer.

Presenter10:38

What was the the first ballad to be created for you?

Lynn Seymour10:42

The first one was a ballet of Kenneth Macmillan's called The Barrow.

Presenter10:46

Yes.

Speaker 410:46

Yeah.

Lynn Seymour10:46

to music by Frank Martin. It was based on uh The Diary of Anne Frank, and I played a sort of similar figure to Anne Frank.

Presenter10:54

What was the first full length ballet?

Lynn Seymour10:56

The two pigeons

Presenter10:57

That was Sir Frederick Ashton.

Lynn Seymour10:59

That was Sir Frederick Ashton, yes. Quite early on.

Presenter11:02

Kenneth MacMillan created a role for you in a full-length ballet, but you weren't the first to dance it.

Lynn Seymour11:07

No, that's right. He he um created uh Romeo and Juliet.

Lynn Seymour11:12

For myself.

Lynn Seymour11:13

But most right and fitting, the first performance was danced by Margot Fontaine and Rudolph Neraev.

Presenter11:19

Yes, to Prokofier's music. How many times have you danced, Juliet, now?

Lynn Seymour11:24

Oh, I don't know how many times.

Presenter11:27

You're still the only Juliet I've ever seen in any version of the story who really looks and acts as if she's fourteen.

Lynn Seymour11:35

Well, I'm very pleased to hear it. I I very often don't feel it.

Presenter11:39

What's record number four?

Lynn Seymour11:40

I've chosen a bit of Mozart.

Lynn Seymour11:44

Concerto number twenty one in C, and it's the beginning of the second movement.

Lynn Seymour11:49

I love Mozart, but if I was on

Lynn Seymour11:52

A desert island, I'd like to be reminded.

Lynn Seymour11:56

of society.

Lynn Seymour11:58

And

Lynn Seymour12:00

all that goes with it. And for me Mozart was essentially a sort of social composer.

Presenter13:04

The beginning of the second movement of Mozart's piano concerto number twenty one in C, Geyser Ande with the Salzburg Mozartium.

Presenter13:14

After five years of upleading roles with the Royal Ballet, you decided to quit.

Lynn Seymour13:19

Yes, I guess I did.

Presenter13:21

Why?

Lynn Seymour13:22

I wasn't as good as I wanted to be, and I didn't know how to to achieve where I wanted to get as a dancer. I was in a bad state, so I thought it was best to give it a rest.

Presenter13:33

So you went off to the Deutsche Ope of West Berlin, who stayed there several years.

Lynn Seymour13:38

I thought that I would have more chance to create roles in new guys.

Presenter13:42

Did it work out that way? It wasn't altogether a satisfying time for you. You were ill part of the time, weren't you? Yes.

Lynn Seymour13:47

Yes, I had a great deal of misfortune before and uh during that.

Lynn Seymour13:51

Period, but um it's not a time that I would have missed on looking back when

Presenter13:54

Mm-hmm.

Lynn Seymour13:56

happily in one's life does forget so many of the bad times and the good ones.

Presenter14:01

It added to your stature as a dancer.

Lynn Seymour14:03

I think so. I I mean, everything adds to one's stature. I mean, just living.

Lynn Seymour14:08

keeping going, uh all these things. They

Lynn Seymour14:13

They can only help you somehow develop.

Presenter14:15

And then you came back to Cavern Gutton.

Presenter14:18

What have been the highlights since your return? Anastasio, of course, another of Kenneth Macmillan's ballets.

Lynn Seymour14:23

Yes, that was uh certainly a great highlight. Um

Lynn Seymour14:27

It was a a piece which he had done in one act in Berlin and decided to extend into a three actor.

Presenter14:35

Had you danced it in Berlin in the original version?

Lynn Seymour14:37

Yes, I had.

Presenter14:38

Ahead.

Lynn Seymour14:38

Uh it was a particularly fabulous role in insofar as it was it was not to do with airy fairy creatures, it was to do with a woman who is in fact still alive, Anne Anderson. One could relate a great deal to the woman and uh it was uh quite a fabulous sort of gift, really, to be given such a role.

Presenter15:00

Is there any role in the repertoire which you would like to dance, but for which you haven't yet had the opportunity?

Lynn Seymour15:06

In fact, there's no ballets existing.

Lynn Seymour15:09

As such,

Lynn Seymour15:10

that I've been yearning after, I don't think.

Lynn Seymour15:13

But there are roles that exist in in plays and operas and so on that I if they were made into a ballet I'd like to get my teeth into.

Speaker 415:20

Yeah.

Presenter15:20

Mm-hmm.

Lynn Seymour15:21

I I think streetcar named Desire would be Heaven.

Presenter15:24

Well, you have been doing some choreography yourself, haven't you?

Lynn Seymour15:28

Yes, I've been dabbling.

Presenter15:30

So maybe a a a ballet of streetcar in Bazaar.

Lynn Seymour15:33

Well, uh if I did it, I wouldn't do it for myself. I'd have to do it for somebody else, because I'm not fond of, um

Lynn Seymour15:40

putting myself in a role, because you you can't be objective enough, uh, creating the choreography and also dancing it.

Presenter15:47

A dancer's life is is is cruelly gruelling. You've got class every morning, rehearsal problem in the afternoon, performances at night. You've got the added strain of bringing up three young children. This must take a great deal of organizing.

Lynn Seymour16:02

Yes, it's it's something one can't think about too much because um

Lynn Seymour16:07

It I think w it would bog you down. It's um not nearly as difficult as it appears to the the eye or when you say it. Largely because the children are so wonderful. They're not difficult people to look after.

Lynn Seymour16:21

There.

Lynn Seymour16:22

Lovely to live with.

Presenter16:24

Right, let's go on to record now.

Lynn Seymour16:26

Yeah.

Lynn Seymour16:27

Number five.

Lynn Seymour16:29

I've I've got the Beatles back.

Speaker 416:31

Mm.

Lynn Seymour16:32

At least another one of their songs, Eleanor Rigby.

Lynn Seymour16:35

I thought it would be good on my desert island to have

Lynn Seymour16:40

This very descriptive song of how even if one was.

Lynn Seymour16:45

in the middle of London or the middle of a huge population.

Lynn Seymour16:49

One could be lonely surrounded by people.

Lynn Seymour16:52

You don't have to be alone on a desert island.

Lynn Seymour16:55

To feel as bad.

Speaker 416:56

Eleanor Rigby exoplarizes in the church where a wedding is being

Speaker 417:03

Liz in a dream, waits at the window Wearing the face that she keeps in her jar by the door

Speaker 417:12

Who is it for all the lovely people?

Speaker 417:17

Where do they all come from?

Speaker 417:21

All the merry people I do not

Presenter17:27

Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles. Let's go straight on to the next disc.

Lynn Seymour17:31

Well this is Janice Joplin. I've chosen Cosmic Blues. It's one of her famous songs and

Lynn Seymour17:38

one which I think she sings to perfection.

Lynn Seymour17:41

I got to know her because I did a ballet that was created largely upon a figure like herself.

Presenter17:48

Which was that?

Lynn Seymour17:49

It was called Flowers. It was created by Alvin Ailey and his dance company in New York.

Presenter17:52

Yeah.

Lynn Seymour17:56

And uh it was a fabulous working time with this it was it's a modern company.

Lynn Seymour18:02

They'd never asked a a sort of ballet orientated person to dance with them before.

Lynn Seymour18:08

And um

Lynn Seymour18:09

So I had a lot to learn, a very great deal, and it was the first time in fact that I'd danced to pop music.

Speaker 418:20

Small.

Speaker 418:25

Three

Speaker 418:26

In Say Journal.

Speaker 418:33

I keep moving on.

Speaker 418:36

An ungrapped.

Speaker 418:40

Keep pushing to the hole, the leave I keep trying to make it right too.

Presenter18:47

Janice Joplin singing Cosmic Blues.

Presenter18:50

Are you a resourceful person? Could you look after yourself on this island?

Lynn Seymour18:54

Maybe my Blackfoot Indian blood would suddenly come to the fore and I would be able to cope.

Presenter19:00

Have you some Blackfoot Indian blood?

Lynn Seymour19:01

Um, there's rumour of it.

Presenter19:03

Not that's exciting.

Presenter19:06

Do you know anything about cultivation?

Lynn Seymour19:08

I've got a garden.

Presenter19:09

Mm, good. Could you build a well, a teepee, obviously.

Lynn Seymour19:10

Could you?

Lynn Seymour19:13

Maybe a lean to. A teepee. Yes, I think I could manage a teepee.

Presenter19:17

Would you try to escape?

Lynn Seymour19:20

It de would depend on how warm the ocean was.

Presenter19:25

I'd advise a certain amount of caution.

Presenter19:28

Let's have record number seven.

Lynn Seymour19:28

Let's have a rig.

Lynn Seymour19:30

This is Eric Clapton, and a beautiful ballady song, Let It Grow, and I've chosen it because uh it's a particular favourite of mine because when my last baby was born, Damien, it was I used to dance into sleep to this particular piece of music. He loved it, and also grew to recognise it very quickly. It was a sort of signal for sleepy time.

Speaker 419:56

Trying to read the song

Speaker 420:00

Tell me which way I should go to find the answer.

Speaker 420:06

And all the time I know.

Speaker 420:10

Your loving lady

Speaker 420:16

Let it crow, let it crow.

Lynn Seymour20:23

Yeah.

Speaker 420:23

Let it blossom

Lynn Seymour20:24

Uh

Presenter20:24

Eric Clapton. Which brings us to your last disc. What's that?

Lynn Seymour20:28

Well, I've chosen Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, Song of the Earth. I've chosen it.

Lynn Seymour20:37

Also because I've danced to it.

Lynn Seymour20:39

which made me

Lynn Seymour20:41

know the music much better, made me look into the words and uh oh, grow to love it every detail of it.

Presenter21:52

Marla's The Song of the Earth.

Presenter21:54

The voice of Krista Ludwig. If you could take just one disc of your eight, which would it be?

Lynn Seymour22:00

Well, it's a mean question.

Lynn Seymour22:03

But uh

Lynn Seymour22:04

Probably. It would be

Lynn Seymour22:06

Song of the Earth

Presenter22:08

And one luxury to take to the island with you?

Lynn Seymour22:11

Well, I've been tossing this around in my mind.

Lynn Seymour22:14

A lot.

Lynn Seymour22:16

And I've decided that once all my work was done during the day and uh

Lynn Seymour22:22

The cares of the day were cast aside, and I could play my eight records at my leisure, and the moonlight was shining on the water.

Lynn Seymour22:30

I could just slip into a sort of terribly elegant dress.

Lynn Seymour22:36

and um wander down to the seashore.

Lynn Seymour22:39

With perhaps a glass of champagne

Lynn Seymour22:42

that had been washed up at some point.

Lynn Seymour22:45

and uh enjoy nature.

Lynn Seymour22:48

culture, music, everything all at once.

Presenter22:52

I think we'd better send off a dog pretty well.

Lynn Seymour22:53

Yeah.

Presenter22:55

And one book apart from the Bible, Shakespeare, and big encyclopedias.

Lynn Seymour23:00

Well, I've decided that I shouldn't take a favourite book. I should take a book that I've never read.

Lynn Seymour23:05

or have always intended to.

Lynn Seymour23:08

And um

Lynn Seymour23:10

I thought

Lynn Seymour23:11

that one that would be sufficiently engrossing and also enlightening.

Lynn Seymour23:15

would be Kenneth Clark's civilization.

Lynn Seymour23:18

I've got a lot to learn about it, and perhaps that would provide the time.

Lynn Seymour23:23

and the incentive.

Presenter23:24

Kenneth Clark's Civilization, and thank you, Lynn Seymour, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Lynn Seymour23:30

It's a pleasure.

Presenter23:31

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 223:40

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.