Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Director and choreographer.
On the island
Eight records
I think it's the most wonderful... piece of... writing for a choreographer and for drama, the accurate interpretation of a piece of wonderful writing, Shakespeare's play, in music to choreograph to that I've ever heard.
It's a lullaby and I think it would help me get to sleep. But also I admire Guy very much and I'm at present directing for the B B C a commissioned musical written by Guy and John Fletcher.
one of the first scores I fell in love with when I was in Saddlers Wells Valley was William Walton's score for The Quest, which is seldom heard.
The Midsummer Marriage (Ritual Dances)
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
I think this is the best piece of choreography I've ever achieved, partly because it's a wonderful libretto for the dance the actual story of the ritual dances.
when I was down I'd put this record on to make myself shine and and think that life was worth living even if I am alone on an island.
this section is a wonderful piece of writing by Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose music turns me on no end. I mean I never know how to sit there and watch it. I always want to leap up and dance myself because the music's so beautiful.
Concerto for Double String OrchestraFavourite
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
It is the piece of music that means home. And peace. and my marriage to me.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:06How old were you when you started dancing, and did you take to it at once?
But eight. ... Yes, instantly.
Presenter asks
2:20What do you remember about losing your mother [in a car crash]?
Yes, [it was] a car crash just before the war, which is very tough. And it it was very interesting because um I was... quite a good dancer up until then, and then to various reasons, war and evacuation and everything, I was sort of prevented from dancing for a long time, and when I finally got back to a dance boarding school, the arts educational school, such talent as I had had taken an enormous bound forward.
Presenter asks
4:34Why did you leave [the Sadler's Wells Ballet]?
I left because on one of those tours I saw my first musical, which was South Pacific. And I fell in love with the form instantly, and being greedy for theatrical experience, which I still am, um, I thought I've got to open my mouth as well as dance. ... both Moira Scherer and Beryl Gray, with whom I shared roles, got ill. So I played um their roles and mine, and then I got ill. and it seemed a moment to take the plunge and see if I could start opening my mouth as well as dance.
The keepsakes
The book
The luxury
Presenter asks
5:19What did Dame Ninette [de Valois] say when you told her that you were leaving the company?
She was surprised,'cause she knew I was very keen and very ambitious, but I was married at the time, and I think she thought That I hadn't quite got the iron in my soul that, in fact, I have got. And since then, she and I have talked about it and uh She's been very, very supportive. When I had my own little company, she was wonderful. But at the time, she was amazed.
Presenter asks
11:08How do you find straight actors take to dancing?
Reluctantly sometimes ... It's just a different way of work. It's the relentlessness of the repetition that you have to have to get anywhere physically, that they... Fight against initially. But I find that they are wonderfully eager, and when they start to feel themselves able to do just a little bit, the joy that they exude at that accomplishment, which is a new one for them, makes up for a lot of technique which they don't have.
Presenter asks
21:17You have this reputation for being a very tough cookie and keeping your performers going until they drop. Have you any secret for your extraordinary vitality?
No, nana, I I just love the job. I think it's that. And I'm always thinking that what I'm doing isn't good enough, so I keep trying to... go on and on and on to d to get it better. And I I just I'm in love with the job. That's really the answer, I think.
“I left because on one of those tours I saw my first musical, which was South Pacific. And I fell in love with the form instantly, and being greedy for theatrical experience, which I still am, um, I thought I've got to open my mouth as well as dance.”
“I always feel if I've got my eyelashes curled I can face up to anything.”