David Blair (1932-76). British dancer and ballet master

David Blair (originally Butterworth) was born in Halifax in 1932. He entered Sadler’s Wells Ballet School in 1946 and joined the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet in 1947. While there he created roles for John Cranko in Pineapple Poll and Harlequin in April. He was transferred to the Sadler’s Wells (now Royal) Ballet at Covent Garden in 1953, becoming a principal dancer in 1955.

Blair was known for his huge technique and masterful stage presence, and also for his partnering of the company’s ballerinas, including Elaine Fifield, Svetlana Beriosova, Nadia Nerina and, before the arrival of Rudolf Nureyev in 1962, Margot Fonteyn. In 1957, Blair created the role of the Salamander Prince in the Cranko-Benjamin Britten production of The Prince of the Pagodas. He danced in all the major classics, as well as in Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Biches, and was a superb first-cast Colas in Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée in 1960. Later, in 1965, Blair appeared as the first-cast Mercutio in Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, after which he continued to appear with the company as a guest artist. Blair also worked as a freelance dancer and ballet master for a number of companies, including several in the United States of America, and he mounted productions of Swan Lake and Giselle for American Ballet Theatre.

David Blair retired from dancing with a performance of La Fille mal gardée with The Royal Ballet in 1973. He was about to take up the role of director of the Norwegian National Ballet in 1976 when he died of a heart attack in London. He was married to the Royal Ballet principal Maryon Lane, with whom he had twin daughters, and was appointed CBE in 1964.