Brenda Hamlyn (1925 – ). Dancer and Teacher

Brenda Hamlyn was born in London in 1925. She trained at the Cone Ripman School from 1934-41. She started taking classes with Marie Rambert in London, as a result of which she began working for Lunch Time Ballet in 1941. A short period with the Ballet Guild was followed by full membership of Ballet Rambert from 1943-8. During this time she toured extensively with Rambert, including an ENSA tour to Germany immediately after the war, and a tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1947-8. In 1948 she joined the Empire Ballet in Leicester Square, and began taking classes with Vera Volkova and Stanislas Idizikowski. In 1951 she went to Milan, and began dancing throughout Italy and other parts of Europe, including Salzburg and Cologne.

In 1963 Brenda Hamlyn opened her own Scuola de Danza Hamlyn in Florence, qualifying shortly after as a Cecchetti teacher. She has since become internationally renowned as an expert on and practitioner in the Cecchetti Method. In 1987 she became a Cecchetti examiner and in 1989 President of the Cecchetti Society of Italy. On stepping down from directorship of her own school after 23 years, she continued to teach and lecture in many countries on the Cecchetti Method until well into the 1990s. In 1996 she won the Enrico Cecchetti Medal and, in 1998, the Premio Cecchetti.