Monthly Club Meeting

Patrons

The Ballet Club is delighted to count amongst its patrons a wide range of leading lights from the world of professional theatre and dance.

Lesley Collier - Patron

Lesley Collier was born in Orpington, Kent, England in 1947. She studied with the Royal Ballet School graduating in 1965. Lesley joined the Royal Ballet where she was promoted to Principal in 1972. She was a dancer of rare musicality and was called the queen of variations. She danced the leading ballerina roles in La Fille Mal Gardée, Anastasia, MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Giselle and Sleeping Beauty. She retired in 1995 and took up teaching at the Royal Ballet School. We are privileged to have Lesley as one of Ballet Club's longstanding Patrons.

Mary Goodhew - Patron

Mary studied ballet in Kent with Rita Emmerson, a former pupil of Enrico Cecchetti, the Ballet Master to Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes until she was 16. Whilst a Cecchetti Society Scholar she was awarded the Graham Cup for the most promising Junior Scholar followed by the Cyril Beaumont Scholarship to the Royal Ballet Upper School.

Whilst still a student Mary performed extensively with The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and on their overseas tours. After graduation she joined Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, now the Birmingham Royal Ballet, touring Britain and internationally.

Winning a Winston Churchill Fellowship and Nabisco Award enabled Mary to study teaching methods for classical ballet dancers in Russia and a Stephen Arlen Arts Award meant she could continue her study of ballet training methods in Europe, America and Canada.

Mary was Ballet Principal at the Royal Ballet School, White Lodge, Artistic Director at Elmhurst School of Dance in association with Birmingham Royal Ballet, and then held the position of Head of Education at the British Ballet Organisation. Ballet Club were honoured to welcome Mary as our newest Patron in 2011 our 50^th Anniversary Year.

Jane Pritchard - President

Jane Pritchard is Curator of Dance at the V&A and was co-curator of the acclaimed exhibition and editor of the accompanying book 'Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes 1909-1929' and amidst travelling and the many tasks she is called upon to perform, she recently wrote a beautiful book 'Anna Pavlova Twentieth Century Ballerina' a signed copy of which has pride of place in the Ballet Club archives. Jane has been the Club's longstanding President, chairs our AGM in March and has given Ballet Club many hours of her precious time.

Kevin Richmond - Vice President

For twenty two years, Kevin Richmond was a member of London Festival Ballet/English National Ballet and created a number of roles. For the past five years he was Ballet Master with Basel Ballet in Switzerland, and kept in touch with Ballet Club via email and our monthly Newsletters. Sadly, Kevin passed away in 2019 after an illness and will much missed by all of us here at the Club.