STAR-STUDDED GALA TAKING SHAPE

Sadler’s Wells, Sunday 10 March 2002, 7.30pm

‘The Grey Brigade’* will be out in force at Sadler’s Wells on Sunday March 10 when stars of the ballet and theatre worlds pay homage to one of Britain’s most popular and accomplished ballerinas, Dame Beryl Grey DBE, in her 75th birthday year.

Director of the gala performance, the irrepressible Wayne Sleep (who will also be performing), has assembled a cast of renowned dancers and entertainers, spanning several generations, to introduce and perform excerpts from the international dance repertoire, including many roles made famous by Beryl Grey herself.

Christopher Hampson, one of the brightest young stars in the UK’s choreographic firmament, is arranging a montage of Beryl’s best-loved roles against a changing backdrop of archive photographs, including the Winter Fairy in Ashton’s Cinderella (created for her in 1948), Birthday Offering (Ashton 1956) and Ballet Imperial (1949 - with her height she excelled as a Balanchine ballerina!).

The cast for this gala occasion is still growing and includes the stunning young Chilean star of the Ballet de Santiago Marcela Goicoechea who will dance with Irek Mukhamedov; Estonian partners Agnes Oaks and Thomas Edur; the Royal Swedish Ballet’s Nathalie Nordquist and Anders Nordström; Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Chi Cao, Krzysztof Nowogrodzki, Nao Sakuma and Wolfgang Stollwitzer; and Northern Ballet Theatre’s Chiaki Nagao and Neil Westmoreland. There will be star names from English National Ballet, including Yat Sen Chang, the Royal Ballet, including Darcey Bussell and Inaki Urlezaga and Rambert Dance Company.

Personalities associated with Beryl’s days as Artistic Director of London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet) who will be paying tribute include Patrice Bart, Peter Breuer, Alain Dubreuil, Eva Evdokimova, Andria Hall and Galina Samsova (who was also a soloist with the Kiev Ballet when Beryl famously guested with the company in 1957), and choreographers Ronald Hynd and Barry Moreland.

Harking back to the wartime years touring with the Sadler’s Wells (now Royal) Ballet, Dame Beryl will be reminded of some of Frederick Ashton’s ballets such as The Quest and Façade for which his great friend William Walton composed the music. Lady Walton, in the UK for the celebrations of her late husband’s centenary year, will introduce one of the tributes.

Always dedicated to high standards of training and education and a child prodigy herself, Dame Beryl will no doubt enjoy watching the students from the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet Schools who will perform Adagio for Strings (choreographed by Anthony Dowson) and Souvenirs (Christopher Wheeldon) respectively. Another rising star is Charlene Ford, Young Tap Dancer of the Year 2001 – a winner in the national dance competition formerly known as the All England Sunshine Dancing Competition, of which Dame Beryl was president for more than 20 years.

Proceeds from this charity gala will benefit the Dance Teachers’ Benevolent Fund (of which Dame Beryl is Vice Chairman) and the Wayne Sleep Dance Scholarship. The Dance Teachers’ Benevolent Fund was founded in 1979 to give assistance to teachers from all disciplines of dance who experience temporary or long-term hardship. The Wayne Sleep Dance Scholarship helps young talented dancers with training opportunities.

* Beryl Grey’s faithful following of fans in her dancing years titled themselves ‘The Grey Brigade’.

BOX OFFICE: Sadler’s Wells Tel. 020 7863 8000
or online www.sadlerswells.com Tickets from £25 to £100.

FURTHER PRESS INFORMATION
Debra Boraston, Henry Moore Studio, 11a Parkhill Road, London NW3 2YH
T: 020 7483 1950 F: 020 7586 3790 E: debra@henrymoorestudio.co.uk
Check the Sadler’s Wells website for latest additions to gala cast – www.sadlerswells.com

Note to Editors:
Dame Beryl rose to the heights of ballet stardom at a remarkably early age, becoming Britain’s first ‘baby ballerina’: having joined the Sadler’s Wells Ballet at the age of 14, she danced her first full-length Swan Lake at 15, followed by Giselle a year later and Sleeping Beauty at 19. She was the first foreign ballerina to guest in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s with Russian and Chinese ballet companies - experiences she told of in two autobiographies, Red Curtain Up and Through the Bamboo Curtain. Following retirement from the stage she took up directorship of the Arts Educational Schools and was Artistic Director of London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet) 1968-79. She continues to be actively involved on many committees associated with the well-being and teaching of dancers and dance practitioners and is the recipient of numerous awards and honours.