Leo Kersley (1920–2012). British dancer and teacher

Leo Kersley was born into poverty in Hertfordshire in 1920. After his family having moved to London, he studied dance under number of teachers, including Marie Rambert at the Mercury Theatre in 1934, dancing professionally from time to time. Kersley was a soloist with Ballet Rambert from 1936 until 1939, and in 1939 worked for the Ballet Trois Arts. At the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, he registered as a conscientious objector and was briefly imprisoned. On being released, he combined his work in hospitals with dancing for Ballet Rambert during the evenings (1940 to 1941). He was a member of Sadler’s Wells Ballet from 1941 until 1942, and then joined the International Ballet. He was a member of the Anglo-Polish Ballet from 1942 to 1943. From 1945 to 1951, Kersley danced with the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, and in 1952 went to teach in Denver, Colorado. Two years later, he became a teacher in Rotterdam in The Netherlands. Whilst there, he also danced with a number of companies. In 1959 Kersley returned to Britain and set up his own school in Harlow, which he ran until his wife, Janet Sinclair, who died in 1999. With Sinclair, Kersley published the well-regarded Dictionary of Ballet Terms in 1952.