Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Founder of the Royal Ballet and Britain's most distinguished ballet mistress, known for establishing the Royal Ballet School and shaping 20th-century ballet.
On the island
Eight records
The Sleeping Beauty: Introduction
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
I choose Sleeping Beauty, because it's one of the most beautiful of the classical Valleys, and um the piece I've chosen is one of my favorite movements in in the whole of the Valley.
Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa
I love very much as a class great classical ballet.
The Prince of the Pagodas (excerpt)
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Benjamin Britten
I'd like to hear something out of the Prince of Agodas,'cause uh it's a lovely score lovely score of Britons, and very important, one of his full length ballads he wrote.
La Bayadère: The Kingdom of the Shades (excerpt)
Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Lanchbery
The Biodia, Kingdom of the Shades, I think its most lovely melody.
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Louis Frémaux
Fassade, one of our English ballads of the days of Sadler's Wells in the thirties, and one of my favourites. It's a brilliant little score, and great fun, with lovely choreography by Frederic Ashton, and one of our very early triumphs.
London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vernon Handley
Yes, Job is one of the most interesting and exciting things I've ever done. And eight across it will see. Musical score of a great English composer And it was to me a great challenge, because in those days not everyone thought it was Proper that the Ballyworld should take on such a subject. It's Job. a biblical subject, and produces Zebeli. and attempt to be influenced by such a great artist as Blake. I'm afraid I accepted the challenge. certain amount of joy, as I was happen to be a particular fan of Mr. Blake's.
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vernon Handley
I'd like to have a piece out of Checkmate, it's one of my favorite scores, anyway. To sir. A very important reduction which we did just before the war. and we lost our first production of it when we went to Holland. And the Germans walked in in the middle of the season we had to walk out, leaving everything behind us.
The Nutcracker Suite: InterludeFavourite
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by André Previn
And we come to the Nutcracker. The music that I've chosen from the Nutcracker would be high on my list to have as a desert island disc. It's the interlude music from it. It always reminds me of our days at Saddler's Wells when we first put on the nutcracker, in a very simplified form to what we have to put up with to day. And I do remember The joy of that interlude because we weren't able to illustrate it as it is these days. with wild changes of scenery. and mad carts flying through the air with people in them. Uh we just sat back and the curtain came down. and the orchestra conducted by Constant Lambert played this lovely interlude, and then we sat and listened to it. But today What's going on on the stage is no one's business, and I think it I'd like to see it all frankly blotted out and the curtain brought down again, and let us listen to this beautiful interlude in peace.
In conversation
Presenter asks
5:35Do the two things naturally go hand in hand, ballet and pain?
Well, to a certain extent I think it's the life of an athlete. We have to accept that. And we know what athletes have to put up with, and dancers have to put up with very similar troubles. I think it's true, the point, but I think it's all getting a little bit exaggerated now, and people are making more of it than it's necessary to. But it is a very dangerous Career physically for dancers have got to realize that they can have accidents. that are not so serious as accidents to the ordinary person, but may bring their particular career to an entire standstill.
Presenter asks
11:43Do you remember the first time you met Margot Fonteyn?
Oh yes, I remember coming into the rehearsal room, her mother brought her in, she said. Just come from China. This remarkable little girl entered the classroom. There's some people who never forget meeting the first time, and she was one of them. … Yes, I told the belly, Mister, I said, who's the little girl on the left? 'Cause she stood out like a diamond among all the others. … Just everything about her, the way she moved, her Kill. Physique everything. You it's very, very easy to spot talent like that. We can't help it. It stands out against everybody else.
Presenter asks
18:14Tell me about Diaghilev, because you worked for him for two years in the early twenties, didn't you?
The keepsakes
The book
A collection of poems of the great poets
Various
I would like a collection of poems of the great poets. Well, I think a a mixed book of the great poets.
The luxury
I should think some sleeping pills. Might be rather important. Not nothing any more romantic than that.
Well, he's a very overawing gentleman, he's very intelligent, he was very critical. of everything and everybody. He demand perfection in every direction. He was a very frightening man. But he was a very formative influence on and um marvellous influence on the belly world in general. … Almost everything was worth learning. because he was uh had extremely good taste and Choice of music and choice of choreographers. You never got anything but the best in his belly. So it was very disciplined. Very disciplined. Very, very strict. He was a perfectionist. Yes, complete perfectionist.
Presenter asks
24:42I wonder which of all those roles has given you greatest pleasure in your life?
Oh, I think the gener World picture. Getting everything together and making it a whole. Being in charge? Yes, being well, guiding them as far as it was possible to. Uh but seeing that they all worked together and got together and did something. But seeing also that they abided by uh the things that you had learned from Diagilev, the the discipline The reason one passed on one's knowledge was that one also accepted the knowledge of other people. Otherwise you'd only get into a sort of cud sack in the end.
Presenter asks
27:38Was there a single moment when you knew that your vision of an English ballet was a reality, that your ambition was achieved?
Well, you don't notice your ambition being achieved. You're too you're too busy achieving it. I mean, it's like watching yourself growing up. You just grow up, and you've suddenly noticed you've grown up. It's the same process exactly. Nothing dramatic about it. You just go on from day till day until it's uh finished.
“I I always say that I have danced a dying swan on every pier in England before the First World War.”
“'Cause she stood out like a diamond among all the others.”
“I always say in the end there's a sp Struggle you enjoy most.”
“Well, you don't notice your ambition being achieved. You're too you're too busy achieving it.”
“I should take a muddle of all those three together. A little bit of madness in there somewhere.”