Voices of British Ballet

This gorgeous couple, infectiously happy and loving and warm, not surprisingly became special “voices” for British ballet. They were stars of The Royal Ballet at a remarkable point of that company’s history and contributed hugely to its success. This conversation between the couple and Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet, was recorded in 2006. The episode is introduced by Dame Monica Mason.

Rowena Jackson was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, in 1926. She originally studied ballet with Rosetta Powell and Stan Lawson and for her academic studies attended the Epsom Girls’ Grammar School in Auckland. In 1941, Rowena won the very first Royal Academy of Dancing Scholarship to be awarded in New Zealand. She travelled to London and joined the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School in 1946 and won the Adeline Genée Gold Medal in 1947, the same year she joined the Sadler’s Wells (later Royal) Ballet at Covent Garden.

Rowena Jackson b. 1926 d. 2024; Dancer, teacher and director
By 1954 Rowena had been promoted to the rank of principal dancer and performed most of the ballerina roles in the repertoire at that time. She was especially noted for her interpretation of Swanhilda in Coppélia and was also famous for her ability to pirouette, both alone and supported. There is proof in film of her ability to perform fast and brilliant turns with a repetition of single and double fouettés for the whole of Odile’s 32 fouettés in the third act of Swan Lake, something that was seldom attempted in those days. Before she left New Zealand for England, Rowena had set a World Record of 121 consecutive fouettés without a break.
Early in 1958 Rowena married fellow Royal Ballet principal, Philip Chatfield. That same year they danced together in The Royal Ballet’s Giselle. They both retired in 1959 and moved to New Zealand. In 1961 Rowena was awarded an MBE. In 1972, she and Philip became directors of the National School of Ballet in Wellington. They eventually moved to Australia but continued to teach until well into their eighties. The couple had two children. Rowena died in 2024.

Philip Chatfield b. 1927 d. 2021; Dancer, teacher and director
Philip Chatfield was born in Eastleigh, Hampshire, in 1927. He first studied at the Elfin School of Dancing before getting a scholarship to the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School. He joined the Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1943 and danced in a wide range of ballets. In 1944 he joined the Armed Forces and returned from service to re-join the Sadler’s Wells (now Royal) Ballet at Covent Garden in 1946. He travelled extensively with the company and was on the famous tour to the United States of America in 1949. He became a principal in 1953, married Rowena Jackson, a ballerina with the company in 1958, and retired in 1959 to New Zealand. In 1972 he and Rowena became joint directors of the National School of Ballet in Wellington, and they later went on to direct the Royal New Zealand Ballet. They retired again, this time to Australia where they made their home. Both Philip and Rowena continued to teach and coach for many years. Philip died in 2021
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To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Ninette de Valois’ Academy for Choregraphic Art in March 1926, and to mark 25 years since her death, Patricia Linton talks to Dr Anna Meadmore, archivist at The Royal Ballet School. In the first of a series of special programmes across 2026, they discuss the early years of what would become the Vic-Wells, Sadler’s Wells Ballet School and then The Royal Ballet School.

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Anne Heaton’s career coincided with an upsurge in creative talent at the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. Observant and wide ranging she reflects on many things, not least the enigmatic choreographer, Andrée Howard. In this interview, which was recorded in 2003, she is talking to Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet. The interview is introduced by Monica Mason.

Anne Heaton was born in Rawalpindi, India, in 1930. She studied with Janet Cranmore in Birmingham from 1937 until 1943, and then with the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School. Her debut was with the Sadler’s Wells Opera in 1945 in a production of The Bartered Bride, and she became a soloist with Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet (SWTB) in 1946. That year, Heaton created roles in two ballets by Andrée Howard, Assembly Ball and Mardi Gras, and also in Celia Franca’s Khadra. In 1947, she created a role in Frederick Ashton’s Valses Nobles et sentimentales. She transferred to Sadler’s Wells Ballet at Covent Garden in 1948, where she specialised in romantic roles, for example, in Les Sylphides and Giselle. She performed again with SWTB when it was renamed The Royal Ballet Touring Company, creating the roles of the Woman in Kenneth MacMillan’s The Burrow in 1958 and the Wife in The Invitation in 1960. A foot injury caused her to resign from The Royal Ballet in 1959, but she continued to dance intermittently until 1962. Following her retirement from the stage, Heaton taught at the Arts Educational School and, from time to time, she staged ballets, including Giselle in Tehran in 1971. Having married Royal Ballet principal dancer John Field, who later became director of The Royal Ballet Touring Company, she co-directed the British Ballet Organization with him from 1984 until 1991. Field died in 1991 and Heaton in 2020.
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Darcey Bussell talks to the dance critic Alastair Macaulay about her graduation performance at The Royal Ballet School, her early career with both Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and The Royal Ballet, and the creation in 1989 of the role of Princess Rose in Kenneth MacMillan’s The Prince of the Pagodas, as well as her experience of being coached by Margot Fonteyn. The interview, which was recorded in 2017, is introduced by Alastair Macaulay.

Darcey Bussell was born in London in 1969. After initial vocational training at the Arts Educational School, she joined The Royal Ballet Lower School at the age of 13. In 1987 she graduated from The Royal Ballet Upper School and joined the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet that same year, but it was whilst still at the school that her talent had been noticed by the choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, who decided to create on her the leading role of Princes Rose in his new version of The Prince of the Pagodas. Bussell joined The Royal Ballet in 1988 and was promoted to the rank of principal dancer in 1989 on the opening night of MacMillan’s new ballet.

During her distinguished career with The Royal Ballet, Bussell became one of the most famous British dancers of her time, and indeed of any time. She was particularly noted for her combination of a tall, athletic physique with a lovely soft lyricism. During her dancing career she performed in as many as 80 different ballets, including the majority of the classical roles, and had 17 new roles created on her. She stayed with The Royal Ballet until her formal retirement from the stage in 2007 (in a performance of MacMillan’s Song of the Earth), but she had also appeared as a guest artist with many major companies abroad, including New York City Ballet, the Ballet of La Scala, Milan, the Kirov Ballet, the Hamburg Ballet and The Australian Ballet.
Even while dancing professionally, Bussell had begun to work in television and other media, and this side of her career developed at a fast pace on her retirement from ballet. As well as writing, modelling and presenting – both for television and for the Royal Opera House relays – she became a household name as a judge on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing (2009 to 2019). Since 2012, Bussell has been the President of the Royal Academy of Dance. Also in 2012, she danced the Spirit of the Flame at the Closing Ceremony of the London Olympic Games, leading a troupe of 200 dancers. She supports many educational and charitable causes, both artistic and in other fields. She has received many honours, including a gold medal from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 2009. Darcey Bussell was appointed an OBE for her services to dance in 1995, a CBE in 2006 and was made a DBE in 2018.
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In this extract, poor Henry Danton always seems to be running behind his talent – that is until he met the wonderful ballet teacher, Vera Volkova. However, before this and often against the odds, he managed to do quite a few things. From his early training with Judith Espinosa, he went on to work with Allied Ballet, International Ballet and, finally, Sadler’s Wells Ballet, and all this in the space of a few years. Candid and clear, something eventually went right as Henry continued to teach ballet into his 100th year. In this interview, recorded in 2004, Henry Danton talks to Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet. The interview is introduced by Alastair Macaulay.

Handsome and dashing, clever and full of life and good humour, Henry Danton was born into an army family in Bedford in 1919. He was educated as a King’s cadet at Wellington College. At first, Danton joined the army, but when on sick leave, following a back injury, he was introduced by a friend to the ballet teaching of Judith Espinosa. Almost overnight a new life unfolded for him. Although an avid ice skater, ballet had not been contemplated, but was “in his bones”, so to speak. After only 18 months of training, Danton joined the short-lived Allied Ballet, and then Mona Inglesby’s International Ballet. He joined the Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1944. Here he began studying with Vera Volkova in her West Street Studio, and his lifelong passion and interest in Russian ballet training began. Volkova helped him to understand and fill in the gaps in his training. He was one of the original six dancers in Frederick Ashton’s Symphonic Variations at Covent Garden in 1946. From here he danced with various companies, including Les Ballets des Champs-Elysées, and toured the United States of America with Roland Petit’s Ballets de Paris. The USA became his home. He taught and choreographed extensively, both there and internationally, and was teaching at The Dance Studio with the Ballet Theatre of Scranton, Pennsylvania, until shortly before his death in 2022.

The photograph shows Henry with Julia Farron and Gillian Lynne rehearsing a studio revival of Miracle in the Gorbals at White Lodge in 2011 photo courtesy of Marius Arnold Clarke
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