Marion Tait (1950- ). British ballerina, ballet mistress, coach and assistant director

Born in London, Marion Tait joined The Royal Ballet School at 15, graduating into The Royal Ballet Touring Company (now Birmingham Royal Ballet). She danced ballerina roles in all the classics and in Romeo and Juliet, Elite Syncopations, Las Hermanas, The Invitation, Hobson’s Choice, The Dream, The Burrow, Fall River Legend and Pillar of Fire. She also created many roles in ballets by Kenneth MacMillan and David Bintley and appeared as a guest worldwide. She was awarded an OBE in 1992, a CBE in 2003, and was nominated for two Olivier Awards. She also won the Evening Standard Ballet Award, was named Dancer of the Year in 1994.

Tait assisted Desmond Kelly in Ballet Changed My Life – Ballet Hoo!, an educational project documented on Channel 4 in 2006, for which she was presented with the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards in 2008. In more recent years she was Birmingham Royal Ballet’s ballet mistress and succeeded Kelly as assistant director, a role from which she stood down in early 2021. In February 2020, Marion was awarded the De Valois Award for Outstanding Contribution to Dance at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards.