Ballet legend Beryl Grey: `It´s amazing what the human body can take`
(The Guardian Culture News)

She did Swan Lake on her 15th birthday, collaborated with the combustible Rudolf Nureyev and was the first westerner to perform with the Bolshoi. The dame reflects on a life in dance`It´s such a shame they moved Covent Garden market,` says Dame Beryl Grey. `You used to go into the Opera House and you could smell the cabbages! It was wonderful,` she smiles.This was in the 1940s and 50s, the early days of British ballet. Grey was there shaping it, a dancer of warm, joyful presence and dazzling technique. Her name hasn´t lived in the public consciousness like her contemporary Margot Fonteyn, but she should be celebrated. In her heyday, there was a poem about her in Punch. She was the subject of This Is Your Life and even appeared on Call My Bluff. It´s hard to imagine a current Royal Ballet principal being invited on Would I Lie to You? Continue reading...