Elaine Fifield
	Elaine Fifield was one of a number of dancers from former Commonwealth countries whose energy and talent helped to revitalise the Sadler's Wells companies after the depradations of World War 2. Although she rose to be a ballerina at Covent Garden, she was probably best known in the days when, together with David Blair and Svetlana Beriosova, she led the 'junior' company, the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet. She could range from broad comedy to the classics, and created roles for many choreographers - most famously the lead in the ever-popular English classic Pineapple Poll. Born in Australia in 1930, Fifield studied originally with Elizabeth Scully, and came to London on a scholarship in 1946. After only a year at the Sadler's Wells School she was taken into the smaller company, then in its second year of existence and largely seen as training ground for younger dancers. She had only been in the company a few months when she created her first role, in the trio Tritsch-Tratsch - significantly, it was John Cranko who gave her this first break, and it was in his ballets that she had perhaps her greatest successes. Leading roles in his Pastorale and Reflection followed, but it was with the lovelorn but still feisty Pineapple Poll that she became most closely identified. Fifield grew with the company, and became one of their most charming and accomplished Swanildas as well as dancing Odette in Act 11 of Swan Lake, which was commonly given on its own in those days. Several successful tours of the States consolidated her position as the company's 'ballerina', but the wider stage of Covent Garden called and in 1954 (after the birth of her first daughter) Fifield moved to the main company. Like many others she found the transition less straightforward than she hoped. In particular her personality and her rather small-scaled dancing were at first too delicate for the larger theatre, and it took her some time to adjust. She didn't lack for roles, though, and indeed created the title part in Ashton's Madame Chrysanthème, one of the most tantalising of his 'lost' ballets and one which used her unique qualities and showed off her pretty feet. Fifield eventually danced Aurora and the full length Swan Lake at Covent Garden, and was promoted to ballerina. Just as the beauty of her dancing was finally beginning to be fully seen and appreciated, she decided to leave the company and to return to Australia to join the Borovansky Ballet. She retired after only a couple of years, but then rejoined the Australian Ballet, and was seen with them on a European tour before she finally left the stage. She died in 1999, leaving three daughters. She is remembered by those who saw her as a fine dancer, and for those of us who missed her, she lives on in the roles she created.
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