Jean Bedells (1924–2014). Dancer and teacher

The daughter of the great British ballerina and teacher, Phyllis Bedells, Jean Bedells was born in Bristol in 1924. Jean studied at first with her mother and then trained at the Vic-Wells Ballet School for a year in 1936 before joining the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1937, making her debut as Clara in The Nutcracker. Although she took leave of absence to dance as the Herald of Spring in Hiawatha at the Royal Albert Hall in 1937, 1938 and 1939, Bedells rejoined the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1938. She danced in Frederick Ashton’s Les Patineurs and The Quest, Ninette de Valois’ The Haunted Ballroom, as appeared as the Rose and Silver Fairies in The Sleeping Princess, Bathilde in Giselle and, later, as one of the Three Fates in Robert Helpmann’s Adam Zero. She also performed in number of early films made of the company, notably as the Silver Fairy in The Sleeping Princess and a Red Pawn in Checkmate (both 1939), and later, in 1958, a character role in The Nutcracker.

In 1946 Bedells became ballet mistress for the Sadler’s Wells Ballet when the company moved into the Royal Opera House. (The Vic-Wells Ballet was re-named Sadler’s Wells Ballet in the early 1940s.) Following her retirement from Sadler’s Wells Ballet, Bedells became a teacher, most notably at The Royal Ballet School during the 1960s and 1970s. Her granddaughter, Anne Bedells, was a dancer with London Festival Ballet. Jean Bedells died in 2014.