Diana Gould (1912-2003). British dancer

Diana Gould was born in London in 1912 and trained in ballet in Paris with Lubov Egorova from the age of nine before returning to London to study with Marie Rambert. She danced with Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at the age of 13, and studied with Mathilde Kschessinska and Vera Volkova. In 1928, when she was performing with the Marie Rambert Dancers, Frederick Ashton created for her his ballet, Leda and the Swan. Diaghilev asked Gould to join his company, but he died the following year, and Anna Pavlova, who had also expressed an interest in taking her in her own company, died in 1931. Instead, Gould worked as a leading dancer with Rambert and her company until 1935, creating roles for Ashton, Antony Tudor and Ninette de Valois, as well as appearing in George Balanchine’s Les Ballets 1933.

On leaving Rambert in 1935, Gould worked briefly with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, before joining the Markova-Dolin company to dance leading roles, where she stayed until 1937. In her later career, Gould began to move into acting roles in the straight theatre, though she continued to work in some smaller ballet companies during World War Two. In 1940 she joined the Arts Theatre Ballet, and then became prima ballerina with Jay Pomeroy’s Russian Opera and Ballet Company, where she stayed until 1944. From 1944 until 1946, she acted, danced and sang the role of Frou-Frou in a production of The Merry Widow in London and on an international tour.

In 1947, Diana Gould married the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, whom she had originally met in 1944, when he fell in love with her. Once married, Diana Menuhin, later Lady Menuhin as she now was, devoted her life to supporting the great musician’s work and career. She died in London in 2003.