Ellie Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 I have just read the following sad news on the Dance Europe FB Page. With much sadness we pass on the news of the death of Bryony Brind, the former Royal Ballet principal dancer, who suffered a heart attack after a short illness and passed away last Wednesday. She was 55 years old. Deborah Weiss will be writing an obituary for the next issue of Dance Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harwel Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 That is very sad, I remember her very well from when I was training and looking at her pictures in a training book my mum had. So young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 How awful! RIP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 Gosh, so very young. How sad. I used to love watching her dance back in the early 80s. RIP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 Such dreadfully sad news. Sincere condolences to her family and friends. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Pigeons Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 Good Heavens! And she was only 55. What hope for the rest of us? All those postings about Sleeping Beauty reminded me of her debut as Aurora. She was a very distinctive and individual dancer and I will spend some time thinking over my memories of her. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 Very sad news. I never saw her dance, but I have heard many good things about her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesrhblack Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 How very sad. I still remember the excitement generated by her 1981 debut in Swan Lake (not withstanding slipping over as she rushed too hastily to protect her Swans in Act 2) and then being chosen to partner Nureyev, despite the fact that she was rather too tall for him, in Bayadère. Im also sure, unlikely as it might seem from the size perspective, that she was partnered by David Wall in his last few weeks as a full time member of the RB in Beauty, don't know if anything else quite lived up to those thrills and a difficult run in Ballet Imperial apparently affected both her personal confidence and managent's confidence in her but relatively late in her Covent Garden career I did see her as a memorably affecting Giselle, capturing an intriguing mixture of fragility and vitality in Act 1 and a really other worldly delicacy in Acr 2. She certainly had a magic about her and even if eariy promise wasn't entirely fulfilled she will be remembered fondly by many who saw her dance who will also mourn her untimely passing. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 So shocked. She was the same age as me and I followed her career with such excitement - first Swan Lake so young, etc. She once gave me two signed pairs of her ballet shoes, one for me and one for my sister - she brought them down to me at the old stage door at the ROH with a lovely postcard she'd written. She was so sweet. She had a fragility and intensity that made her compelling to watch, as well as the most beautiful lines, long and yearning and sometimes a bit uncertain, like a young colt. Huge eyes and such immediacy to her dancing. So very sad. Rest in Peace. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scheherezade Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 Yes, indeed, both sad and shocking. Did anyone know that she was ill? Could the R.B. not have put out a statement? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melody Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 (edited) Oh, my goodness, what an awful shock. I remember some of her work back in the early 80s when we'd just moved to the USA and I was still trying to keep up with what the company was doing. I still have a copy of The Colourful World of Ballet, from the late 1970s, where she and another RBS student were featured in an appendix showing all the basic ballet steps. It said that they were first-year upper-school students. I always think of her as that teenage student demonstrating the steps in that book. Edited December 6, 2015 by Melody Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balletfanp Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 I think I had that same book. Awful news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nina G. Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 So shocked. Sincere condolences to her family and close friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 Shocked to hear this: I think her time at the RB was coming to an end about the time I started watching the company, and I don't think I ever saw her dance, but I know how highly many people thought of her. My deepest condolences to her family and friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daisydance Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 terribly sad news - we have many happy memories of seeing her when we first started watching RB together Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irmgard Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Still reeling from the shock of hearing this news yesterday when my friend, David Peden, posted it on Facebook. Since then, tributes have been pouring in from all over the world from dancers of her generation and it appears that no-one knew she was ill as it has come as a huge shock to everyone. It is very fitting that Deborah Weiss will write Bryony's obituary as they were in the same year at the Royal Ballet School. I remember Bryony when she first started in the Royal Ballet and of course she had only been in the corps de ballet for a short while when Nureyev chose her as his partner for his Royal Ballet comeback. I was there for her debut in "Swan Lake" (and I, too, remember her landing on her backside when she ran in to protect her swans but she impressed by immediately springing back to her feet and carrying on as if nothing had happened), her debut in "La Bayadere" and many more. She was a favourite muse for Michael Corder when he choreographed for the company in the 1980s. He created an exquisite pas de deux for her in "L'Invitation au voyage" and then a very different type of dancing for her in "Party Game". Sadly, MacMillan did not use her for his new works, preferring the divine Alessandra Ferri, and so she was rather sidelined after the brilliant start to her career. I did not know her very well but we often ended up in the same tube carriage on the journey from Baron's Court to Covent Garden and would exchange greetings and I remember she was never without a bag of nuts which she would graze on for the entire journey. I do hope a memorial service will be planned for her as I know there are many of us who will want to pay our respects to Bryony who was a lovely dancer and a lovely person. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irmgard Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Deborah Weiss has just posted that Bryony died of heart failure, not a heart attack, and passed away peacefully surrounded by her loved ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Such sad news. I have a short video clip of her in a rehearsal studio with a young ballet fan who had cerebral palsy. Briony dances for her and helps her try on pointe shoes and a headdress - very touching. I'm wondering if any of her performances were recorded. I think she may be one of the fairy variation in a recording of Sleeping Beauty, but I wonder if there is a recording of her Swan Lake. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loveclassics Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 How dreadfully sad - so young. I remember her being promoted as the first of a new type of dancer: tall, willowy but athletic and I'm sure she paved the way for dancers like Bussell and Guillem to be accepted in the romantic roles. She didn't have the happiest time at the RB but I do hope they remember her and her importance. She was a great dancer but not for long enough. Linda 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesrhblack Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 Now on the ROH website... http://www.roh.org.uk/news/bryony-brind-a-look-back-at-her-life-with-the-royal-ballet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa O`Brien Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 So sad. I remember the newspaper article,can`t remember which paper it was. "Has Nureyev found the new Fonteyn ?". It wrote about her quick rise in the Company,being picked out to dance with Nureyev and that her fans "Cheer her on like they are watching a revolution". I think at the time a lot of us thought she was going to be Fonteyn`s successor as the Company`s next Prima Ballerina. RIP. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dance*is*life Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 Gosh - really sad! I just saw it on Facebook and did a double take at how could that be true? She was only 55! What a loss...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 The first published Obituary, I think, from tomorrow's Links: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12041904/Bryony-Brind-ballet-dancer-obituary.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naomi M Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 One more here http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35049787 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amum/Cathy Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 So sorry to hear this. I'll be digging out some very old programmes to remind myself what I saw her in. I had a great fascination for her - you could always spot her on the stage and would be drawn to watching her performance over others. A beautiful interesting dancer! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 Dance Europe reports that a memorial service for Bryony Brind will be held on 27 January 2016,11:45, at St Mary the Virgin, Essendon, Hatfield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 She made patchy progress, however, which some observers blamed on an inattentive Royal Ballet management failing to nurture her through the tests of classical repertoire. I saw this paragraph, and wondered what was behind it. How did the RB management fail to nurture her? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Pigeons Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 It was rather sad really. She was the 'star of the moment' and she was physically very different from many of her colleagues. One minute she was in everything and the next she was sort of dropped without trace. I feel that she was mentally quite fragile and when tougher dances came along Bryony faded from notice. Macmillan's didn't use her much at all and when people like Ferri appeared Bryony's star faded and faded very quickly. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAB Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 This news has upset me deeply which is why I haven't commented until now. Something went badly wrong with this dancer's career and I wouldn't want to speculate here as to why that happened. She was quite unique and at the time massively popular with the audience, personally I thought her superior to the others in the company at the time. If, as has been suggested, she had a fragile personality, I would have thought it incumbent on the RB management of the time to offer more in the way of pastoral care. Her early retirement from the company was an incalculable loss to the art of dance. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 This news has upset me deeply which is why I haven't commented until now. Something went badly wrong with this dancer's career and I wouldn't want to speculate here as to why that happened. She was quite unique and at the time massively popular with the audience, personally I thought her superior to the others in the company at the time. If, as has been suggested, she had a fragile personality, I would have thought it incumbent on the RB management of the time to offer more in the way of pastoral care. Her early retirement from the company was an incalculable loss to the art of dance. Seconded, in all respects. Thank you MAB. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 My sister and I were at the Thanksgiving Service for the life of Bryony Brind in Essendon, Herts, today. The church was absolutely packed and the service was very beautiful and extremely moving. The entrance music was Swan Lake Act 1, The Lord of the Dance was included in the hymns, and Swan Lake Act 4 brought the service to a close. Above all, this was a wonderful tribute to someone who was clearly very much loved. I am so grateful to have known her through her performances, which were evidently a true reflection of her loving and generous personality. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAB Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Thank you so very much for sharing your thoughts with us bridiem. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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