The eminent ballerina talks about her career on her 80th birthday.
Dame Beryl Grey is one of Britain’s best loved and most celebrated ballerinas. She began with the Sadler’s Wells Ballet during wartime, under the uncompromising eye of Ninette de Valois; and she was only 14 when she had to dance Odette in Swan Lake at a few hours notice. She went on to dance almost all of the major roles with the company – sometimes as bombs were falling around her. She finally hung up her ballet shoes to become the first female artistic director of what is now English National Ballet – an organisation of which she is now President. As she celebrates her 80th birthday, and as the ENB revives a spectacular production of Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall, Dame Beryl Grey joins Ritula on today's programme.
The ENB production of Swan Lake is at the Royal Albert Hall from 13-23 June 2007 and in Bristol and Southampton later in the year.
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