Podcast » Antoinette Sibley
Antoinette Sibley talks with Alastair Macaulay. Her wonderful mix of enthusiasm, appreciation and practicality typify the glorious mercurial talent that has beguiled a generation of dancers and...
people » Lynn Seymour
Lynn Seymour, The Royal Ballet, getting ready for Swan Lake in her dressing room at the Empire Theatre, Sydney, in October 1958
Photographer Norm Danvers, Wiki Commons
Lynn Seymour (1939–2023). Canadian ballerina, choreographer, teacher and director
During the mid 20th Century, British ballet had a piece of good fortune. In 1953 in Toronto, Lynn Seymour was auditioned by Frederick Ashton for a place at the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School in London, to which she came in 1954.
By 1956 she had joined the Sadler’s Wells Opera Ballet, and The Royal Ballet Touring Company a year later where, in 1958, she created the role of the Adolescent in Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet The Burrow. This was the start of a long association, with Seymour as MacMillan’s perfect muse. Fiercely intelligent and observant, she was never afraid to sum up situations and react accordingly, a rarity in an age of deference.
At a time when it was possible to dance the great classical heroines in quick succession, Seymour was able to absorb and understand what was needed to carry a three-act ballet, something that was going to stand her in good stead in the coming years. By the end of 1959 she had danced Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, and Giselle, as a fully-fledged ballerina at Covent Garden.
The next 12 months were defining for both Seymour and British ballet. In 1960 MacMillan choreographed both The Invitation and Le Baiser de la fée on her and Ashton his ballet The Two Pigeons. Her Juliet in MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet in 1965 was testament to her unique ability to completely capture the very essence of a role and transpose the mood, idea or argument to something completely believable and absorbing, yet still theatrical and balletic.
From 1966 to 1969, Seymour went with MacMillan to dance at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, where he was director. She then returned to The Royal Ballet for another eight extraordinary years, where she created the lead in MacMillan’s Anastasia (1971), Ashton’s Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan (1975) and Natalia Petrovna in his A Month in the Country (1976) and then with David Wall as Crown Prince Rudolf, she created the role of Mary Vetsera in MacMillan’s Mayerling.
Seymour was a guest artist with many companies, both in Britain and abroad, and worked with most of the significant choreographers of the age. She also choreographed for various companies and was artistic director of both the Bavarian State Ballet (1978 to 1980) and the Greek National Ballet (2006 to 2007). Lynn Seymour was uncompromising, innovative, daring and inimitable – a great dancer in any age. She was appointed CBE in 1976 and died in 2023.
Timeline Event » 1960 – Premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s The Invitation by The Royal Ballet Touring Company
In a bold move, in The Invitation Kenneth MacMillan chose to create a sexual drama of shifting emotions and desires that culminates with the rape of a young girl by an older married man. Created for...
Timeline Event » 1961 – Premiere of Frederick Ashton’s The Two Pigeons by The Royal Ballet Touring Company
Originally performed under the title Les Deux Pigeons, and premiering on St Valentine’s Day in 1961 by The Royal Ballet Touring Company, Frederick Ashton’s ballet The Two Pigeons is a cousin to...
Timeline Event » 1963 – The Royal Ballet dances the ‘Kingdom of the Shades’ scene from Marius Petipa’s La Bayadère for the first time
This mysteriously beautiful ballet, originally in four Acts, was created in 1877 by Marius Petipa, ballet master of the Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg. This typically Romantic tale has undergone...
Kenneth MacMillan was eager to give ballet its ‘new wave’, and though his earlier one-act works revealed a unique perspective and command of ballet’s expressive potential, it was his first...
Timeline Event » 1970 – The Royal Ballet dances Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering for the first time
Dances at a Gathering, which had been created for New York City Ballet in 1969, represented the first work by Jerome Robbins to enter The Royal Ballet’s repertoire. Danced to music by Frédéric...
Timeline Event » 1971 – Premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s three-act version of Anastasia by The Royal Ballet
Anastasia was originally choreographed in 1967 by Kenneth MacMillan as a one-act ballet for Lynn Seymour and the Deutsche Oper Ballet Berlin, with music by Bohuslav Martinů and designs by Barry Kay....
Jerome Robbins’ exploration of Frédéric Chopin found a comic outlet in The Concert, originally performed by New York City Ballet in 1956 and staged by The Royal Ballet in 1975. Audience-members...
A Month in the Country was created in 1976 by Frederick Ashton for The Royal Ballet. It was based on the play by Ivan Turgenev, and was almost more than 40 years in gestation. It was pushed on its...
Timeline Event » 1978 – Premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling by The Royal Ballet
With his fourth three-act ballet, Mayerling, Kenneth MacMillan cemented his legacy for reinvigorating the full-length narrative ballet for the modern age. Mayerling, first performed by The Royal...
John Cranko created Onegin in 1965 for his company, Stuttgart Ballet, using his star dancers Marcia Haydée and Ray Barra to create the roles of Tatiana and Onegin respectively, with Egon Madsen as...
Commissioned by the City of Salford as part of its celebration of the artist L.S. Lowry, A Simple Man follows the painter’s search for subjects, and his relationships with his mother and the...