Peter Darrell, an original member of Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, left the company in 1947 to dance in musicals whilst choreographing for Marie Rambert’s Ballet Workshop amongst other choreographic engagements….
A man of the theatre through and through, in this conversation Peter Wright shows us that fulfilling one’s destiny can be fraught with difficulties and that the path is not…
Gerald Dowler hosts a special episode about the comic ballet Pineapple Poll created for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and its creators John Cranko and Charles Mackerras. Pineapple Poll,…
In 1969, Peter Darrell accepted an invitation to relocate the company he opened with Elizabeth West – Western Theatre Ballet – to Glasgow, becoming Scottish Theatre Ballet. This marked the…
Canadian-born Laverne Meyer studied at the Rambert School and The Royal Ballet School, joining Western Theatre Ballet in 1957, where he danced principal roles before eventually becoming assistant director of…
A special episode of Voices of British Ballet about Ballet For All. Jeanetta Laurence, formerly a dancer with and Associate Director of the Royal Ballet, hosts a conversation with former…
Brenda Last achieved distinction as a ballerina with The Royal Ballet, but this was after a successful and multi-facetted career in many theatrical disciplines. Here, she tells Patricia Linton, founder…
In The Prisoners, Peter Darrell’s work for Western Theatre Ballet in 1957, two convicts escape from prison, one to his death, and the other to a life of enslavement to…
Among the choreographers who have created works from the music of The Beatles was Peter Darrell, who specialised in narrative storytelling through classical ballet. In 1963 he created a ‘beat…