Beryl Grey may always have been less of a ballet icon than Margot Fonteyn, and may have been thought of as the Lilac Fairy to Fonteyn's Aurora, but as her 75th birthday tributes have acknowledged, she was separated from her peers by an unusually intrepid spirit.
While still known as Beryl Groom she was a lively, willing child prodigy who was considered by Ninette de Valois to have "all the gifts". As the ballerina Beryl Grey she was given a terrifying push into adulthood by dancing her first Odette/Odile on her 15th birthday. But as a woman who stood nearly 5ft 7in in her bare feet (and over 6ft on pointe) Grey was significantly taller than many of her female colleagues (and some of the men). Despite the polish and grandeur of her dancing, she was cast less frequently than was good for her and in 1957 she took the risky option of leaving the Royal Ballet and going freelance. The next decade was scheduled around an ambitiously international itinerary that took in Russia, where she was the first British ballerina to dance, and Beijing, where she was the first western ballerina.
When Grey retired from the stage she took on the artistic direction of London Festival Ballet for 11 years and now deploys her huge reserves of stamina rehearsing dancers from around the world. On Sunday night, when she came onstage for her 75th birthday gala, she not only looked as racehorse rangy as a woman half her age, but dropped a full length curtsey of enviable elegance.
The gala (organised by Wayne Sleep in aid of his own scholarship and the Dance Teachers' Benevolent Fund) was as much about history and community spirit as it was about glitz. The running joke of the evening became the numbers of ex dancers who had to fumble for their reading glasses as they read out their tributes, while the contents of the programme reflected Grey's involvement with the wider British scene. Alongside items danced by the big British ballet companies were numbers from Rambert as well as from students of both ballet and tap.
But most importantly the event was a celebration of Grey's own performing history. Much of the first half was taken up by a deftly arranged tour of Grey's most famous roles - including Ashton's icily sublime Winter Fairy variation and the second ballerina role from Balanchine's Ballet Imperial. And at the end, when Thomas Agnes and Agnes Oaks danced the pas de deux from Don Quixote, the cut-glass brilliance of their dancing, and the radiant integrity of their mutual style were reminders of all that had made Grey a star.
