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 Pamela May | |||||||
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Pamela May could be said to be almost the archetypal Royal Ballet dancer. Joining the company straight from school, she gradually worked her way up through the ranks to become one of the most respected ballerinas in the company's history, and then put her experience at the disposal of her successors as a teacher. Although most of the limelight fell on her contemporary, Margot Fonteyn, May created a string of roles that any dancer could be deeply proud of. Pamela May was born in Trinidad in 1917, and joined the then Vic-Wells ballet (as Doris May) in 1933. Her first solo role was in the pas de trois in Swan Lake a year later, and her first created role was the Red Queen in de Valois' Checkmate in 1935. It was this more dramatic role which first gave an inkling of the artist she was to become. In these years May shared a number of roles with the slightly younger Fonteyn; the two were also close friends, and went to Paris together to study with the great Russian teachers. May's most important creation in the pre-war era was the Moon in Frederick Ashton's Horoscope, a role which showed off her beauty and her classical line. She also had a prominent role in Ashton's Dante Sonata, and has recently been able to recreate her solo for a new generation of dancers in the revival by Birmingham Royal Ballet. Also in 1940 May created the role of Mlle Theodore in The Prospect before Us - another we've seen revived recently - but the next year she was badly injured whilst appearing as the Lilac Fairy: it was she, rather than Aurora, who had to be carried offstage. She rejoined the company after a two-year gap and was the first to take over from Fonteyn as Aurora during the first season at the Royal Opera House. Although she had occasionally danced Odette/Odile, she was better known for her performances in demi-charactère ballets, particularly those where she could show-off her sense of humour, such as A Wedding Bouquet. She was one of the six who gained immortality in the first performances of Symphonic Variations, and later created the Fairy Godmother in Ashton's Cinderella. May gave up dancing ballerina roles in 1952, but for a long time after that she took character and mime roles, and for many years she taught at the Royal Ballet School. Her seemingly perfect memory provides endless fascinating stories of the life of the company from nearly seventy years ago - if you ever get a chance to hear her talk, don't miss it!
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