Pearl Argyle
	'Pearl Argyle was a legend. She looked a legend, beautiful and mysterious, full of deep, unfathomable charm.' These happily appropriate words were written by Marie Rambert after Argyle's death. She goes on to speak of 'her unique loveliness, perfection of feature and form, her calm grace and serenity'; and in fact you will hardly ever find a reference to Argyle that doesn't mention her beauty. Quite apart from that, though, she played an important part in the early years of British ballet, and was one of the first to inspire Frederick Ashton. Born in Johannesburg in 1910, Argyle trained in London in Rambert's classes. It was there she first met Ashton, who described her as 'simple, dedicated...an exquisite Botticelli angel...so shy that she would blush whenever I spoke to her'. She made her debut with Ballet Rambert in 1926, and her first major created role was as Venus in Ashton's Mars and Venus (seen in the photograph below). Over the next few years she was in most of Ashton's new ballets, most notably perhaps The Lady of Shalott and Les Masques (for the Ballet Club), and for the Vic-Wells Ballet she had a brilliant role as the Fairy in Le Baiser de la Fée, with 16-year old Margot Fonteyn as the Fiancée. Ashton called her 'a most musical and sensitive interpreter...a great stylist'. Andrée Howard also found inspiration in Argyle, creating for her the leading roles in her Cinderella and Mermaid - this latter in particular seems to have left an indelible impression on those who saw her in it. Her performance in the Prelude in Les Sylphides satisfied even Arnold Haskell, who thought her the equal of the great dancers of the Ballets Russes, and she was the first British ballerina to dance the great pas de deux from Act lll of Sleeping Beauty in this country. At the same time as all this, she appeared also in both stage shows and in films - a versatility much more taken for granted in the 30s than it would be today. In 1938 Argyle married a film director and retired to live with him in America. She had two children but died at the sadly early age of 36. Her career lasted a comparatively short time but has left a deep mark: she seems to have had an absolutely dazzling stage presence (Haskell says she was much less effective in class or rehearsal), which combined with her musicality and a vivid intelligence to make her a choreographer's dream. It's still, though, her beauty that most reverberates down the years: Rambert talks of being held enchanted, Ashton of becoming 'drunk with her beauty' - and all that's left to us are a few scraps of film and some staggering photographs.
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