RIP Dame Beryl Grey

[Henry]

6 hours ago, Henry said:

On the Guardian link for the Beryl Grey photos, there is a photo with Robert Helpman labelled "With Robert Helpmann performing in John Milton’s masque Comus at Sadler’s Wells theatre, London, September 1942", but isn't that Margot Fonteyn and not Beryl Grey??  I am sure others will know better than me. 

 

 

The Guardian has now removed the photo with Robert Helpmann.  

[Suffolkgal]

The photos would once have been theirs by their own photographers and in their own photo libraries but most of those were broken up so people use digital libraries.

 

if anyone remembers Poliakoff’s Shooting the Past ... 

 

a great lady always so gracious. Ballet has such a tradition of passing on the art .. I am sure there are many in our companies who benefited from her work and coaching 

[Henry]

10 hours ago, Fonty said:

I am also slightly dubious about the one with RB young students in "1968".  That doesn't look like the ballet tunics worn then, so I believe that either the year is wrong, or it isn't the Royal Ballet.  (In 1968, younger students wore white, and the older ones wore black.)

Looking at the carpet and reflection in the glass, the photo is taken at the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank.  London Festival Ballet used to have a summer and winter season there.  Winter would be Nutcracker with, I suppose, children.  To my eyes this photo, which looks very posed, doesn't look like winter.  Anybody know more?  Or better? 

[Jan McNulty]

The late Mary Clarke had prepared an obituary for Dame Beryl Grey before her own death.  Graham Spicer has been given permission to publish this obituary:

 

https://www.gramilano.com/2022/12/dame-beryl-grey-obituary-by-mary-clarke/

 

I understand it is the norm to have obituaries ready for prominent people so they can be published quickly when someone has passed away.

 

Thank you to Graham Spicer and Jonathan Gray for publishing this obituary.

[Jan McNulty]

Birmingham Royal Ballet's tribute:  https://www.brb.org.uk/stories/dame-beryl-grey-celebrated-british-ballerina-dies-aged-95?fbclid=IwAR0jFKL3Sw95dNwf1IO-y9DJHGvOpdMDXUlf19c7a-gGaq6bEamNGfwx9EM

[Fonty]

15 hours ago, Henry said:

Looking at the carpet and reflection in the glass, the photo is taken at the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank.  London Festival Ballet used to have a summer and winter season there.  Winter would be Nutcracker with, I suppose, children.  To my eyes this photo, which looks very posed, doesn't look like winter.  Anybody know more?  Or better? 

Given her connections with the Arts Educational School, that I am guessing that that the students might be from there.   Furthermore, if the photo was taken at the Royal Festival Hall, I believe that Festival Ballet performed the Nutcracker there.  In the production then, the role of Clara was always danced by a child.  So it is possible that the students shown were part of that production, hence the setting? 

[bridiem]

The ROH has tweeted: 

'Tonight's performance of The Nutcracker is dedicated to the late Dame Beryl Grey', with a tribute from Kevin O'Hare.

 

[DelphiumBlue]

Have fond memories of seeing The Nutcracker with my mother for the 1st time  at the RFH -  winter 1969/70 .  I remember the elegant photo of Beryl Grey in the programme  and Mum telling me she’d seen her dance  at Covent Garden. 

[LinMM]

Damn it missed out on O’Hare’s tribute as had to miss yesterdays Nutcracker ( bought the ticket last July) due to weather and strikes etc!! 
 

The State Ballet of Georgia had a tribute on their Facebook page this morning with some piccies of Grey from when she performed in Tbilisi and a tribute from the current Director Nina Ananiashvili
I tried two different ways of trying to post here but couldn’t get anything to work.  
 

Edited December 14, 2022 by LinMM

[Sophoife]

https://www.facebook.com/156675617676525/posts/6155285794482114/?flite=scwspnss&mibextid=1BnibGME8S4PAYXY

 

@LinMMI tapped the three dots at the top right hand corner of the post, chose Share, then More Options, then Copy Link To Clipboard (using Android phone and Chrome).

 

Thank you for pointing me in the direction of the post, it's quite sweet!

 

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Sophoife
Added comment

[LinMM]

Many thanks Sophoife! 
I first tried to copy the link but it wouldn’t paste here and then took a screenshot of the page and tried to post that but the file too big! 
It’s strange that I’ve sometimes managed to post the odd video to the Forum but still photos from my album are deemed too big 🤔

Georgian script looks really fascinating but luckily there’s usually an option to translate!! 

 

[Sebastian]

New readers might like to know of a wonderful (and most unusual) film of Dame Beryl dancing the Black Swan. Here is a link to the Forum discussion, which includes a clip:

 

 

[Jan McNulty]

A couple of letters from the Guardian:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/dec/16/when-beryl-grey-threw-cold-water-over-my-ballet-dreams

[James]

My old friend John Raven, who died a year ago, was full of ballet anecdotes. He told me once of his meeting Beryl Grey.

 

John, a dancer, teacher and actor, and a tall and very strong man, taught double work and pas de deux at the Bush-Davies school for 25 years from 1964. When Beryl Grey, who was always short of tall partners, saw him at work she exclaimed, “Where were you when I was dancing?”. After a moment she added, “Never mind, we shall dance in heaven.”

 

I do hope they are.

 

 

 

[Geoff]

On 16/12/2022 at 09:22, Sebastian said:

New readers might like to know of a wonderful (and most unusual) film of Dame Beryl dancing the Black Swan. Here is a link to the Forum discussion, which includes a clip:

 

 

Beryl Grey in this impossibly rare 3D Black Swan film is now on disc, available here:

 

https://www.flickeralley.com/classic-movies-2/#!/3-D-Rarities-Volume-II/p/170617337/category=12445053

 

Congratulations and thanks to the company for issuing this. Anyone here seen the result?