Ballet For All

A special episode of Voices of British Ballet about Ballet For All. Jeanetta Laurence, formerly a dancer with and Associate Director of the Royal Ballet, hosts a conversation with former members of the company: Oliver Simons (dancer and Ballet For All’s Ballet Master), Mark Silver (dancer), Nicola Katrak (dancer) and Fergus Early (dancer and choreographer) and they talk about their experiences with the company.

Ballet for All was a Royal Ballet initiative from the 1960s. It was initially worked out by the students from the Royal Ballet Upper School, under the direction of Barbara Fewster and Peter Brinson. Various exploratory performances were undertaken over a number of years, mainly in schools. However, after its success at The King’s Lynn Festival in 1964 and subsequent performance for Sir Frederick Ashton in the Shell Theatre, London,  it was then developed for small groups of Royal Ballet Company dancers.

The group, together with a pianist, would perform extracts from classical ballets together with an explanatory commentary. The performances were given to audiences in small theatres, mainly outside London.

The aim was to introduce ballet to new audiences, but without diluting the art. The lecturer and indeed the director of the programme was Peter Brinson, a distinguished critic, writer and television presenter. The dancers would usually be a mixture of Royal Ballet principals and some younger dancers. Thus Ballet for All both served the twin aims of making ballet accessible to a new public and also to giving young dancers invaluable performing experience. Ballet for All was supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, as well as the Royal Ballet Company.

The conversation was recorded in 2019.