Library News: Gillian Lynne CBE

ISTD Librarian, Mollie Webb, wishes forward-thinking choreographer, dancer and director Gillian Lynne would take a break to write her autobiography.

I knew her personally for only a very short period, when our paths crossed while I was teaching at Arts Ed., but you always knew when Gillian was around. The energy, vitality, dedication and excitement of the work being taught seemed to permeate the whole building.

Students visiting the library today continually ask for information on Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. All of them icons of the musical theatre and films, and each in his own way leaving a legacy of work to enrich our ‘viewing and doing’ for many years to come. But when I suggest Gillian Lynne as an interesting alternative study they ask for a book about her, and of course there’s the rub – there isn’t one!

However, over a period of time I have put together a folio of articles by Beryl Grey, Sophie Constanti, Bill Drysdale, John Gruen, Edward Thorpe, Allen Robertson, Valerie Grove and Donald Hutera. In these, they chart her progress from Madeline Sharp’s classes in Bromley, Kent, through the Cone-Ripman school (later Arts Ed.), being invited to dance for the Embassy Ballet by Molly Lake, then taken into the Sadler’s Wells Ballet Company at seventeen by Ninette de Valois, to become one of their principal dancers between 1943 and 1951.

The move to the Palladium was prompted by an increasing interest in modern work and jazz, and belief in the future importance of this genre for our dancers. There followed acting roles on stage, television and films, choreography on Broadway, and staging and directing productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

If you asked a student today, what is the most important contribution she has made to our musical theatre, I expect ‘Cats’ and ‘Phantom of the Opera’ would come top of the list, but in 1960 she was asked to submit a series of articles for the Dancing Times on Modern Stage Dancing, which I believe, at the time, revolutionised the attitude of teachers and the teaching of this genre. She was also asked to teach a class at the ISTD Congress in July of the same year, based on the work in these articles.

An excerpt from her first article is somewhat prophetic – “…the classic technique will not be impaired by the acquisition of a modern one, as seems to be mistakenly feared, provided that the modern technique is acquired with the same care and scientific training. In fact the classical dancer of the future, who does not wish only to appear in The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and Giselle as her major roles, will need a wider range than at present to be a full and comprehensive artist. Every dancer of the future, to be a worthy instrument for the modern choreographer, will need this range.” One only has to look at Sylvie Guillem to prove this point.

In the 1920s and 1930s Zelia Raye had just such a vision, and laid the foundations for the ISTD Modern Syllabus. Gillian Lynne, starting from those articles written in the 1960s with her vision of future needs in training, together with the tremendous enjoyment that she has brought to so many people, both through her own performances and inspired choreography has already a fascinating legacy for us to study.

Still as busy as ever, I just wish she would take a break to write her autobiography!

Mollie Webb