Elaine McDonald (1943–2018). British ballerina and director

Elaine McDonald studied with Olivia Morley and Louise Browne and went to The Royal Ballet School in 1959. After graduating, McDonald performed with Walter Gore’s London Ballet and joined Western Theatre Ballet in 1964, an ensemble directed by choreographer Peter Darrell. With Western Theatre Ballet, McDonald created roles in Darrell’s Sun into Darkness and Ephemeron and appeared in his The Prisoners and Mods and Rockers, as well as Gore’s Street Games and Kenneth MacMillan’s Las Hermanas.

In 1969, Darrell was invited to form Scottish Theatre Ballet (later Scottish Ballet), and McDonald went with him to Glasgow. As well as Darrell’s Herodias, The Tales of Hoffmann, Mary Queen of Scots, Such Sweet Thunder, Cinderella, Chéri and Five Ruckert Songs, McDonald performed the ballerina roles in Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Giselle and Paquita; John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet; August Bournonville’s La Ventana, La Sylphide and Napoli; Mikhail Fokine’s Le Carnaval and Les Sylphides; Andrée Howard’s La Fête étrange; and Maurice Béjart’s Sonate à trois. Following Darrell’s death, McDonald took on the role of artistic controller of Scottish Ballet from 1988 to 1989. She became associate artistic director of Northern Ballet Theatre in 1991, appearing as The Mother in Gillian Lynne’s A Simple Man. Elaine McDonald died in 2018.