Pauline Clayden

Pauline Clayden was born in 1922. Here she talks to Patricia Linton, the founder of Voices of British Ballet, about her student days, and moves on to her dancing life up until joining the Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1942. There was great uncertainty for all at the start of World War Two, and Pauline’s excellent memory, combined with her clarity, modesty and humour, shines a light on the assembling and disassembling of various groups of dancers.The interview is introduced by Patricia Linton in conversation with Natalie Steed.Pauline Clayden was born in London in 1922, studying at the Cone Ballet School before her debut with the Covent Garden Opera in 1939. Later that year she joined Anthony Tudor’s London Ballet and stayed with them when they merged with Ballet Rambert. In 1942 she joined Sadler’s Wells Ballet at the height of their extraordinary commitment to ameliorating the ravages of wartime Britain. She was a firm favourite of Ashton’s, and not just because she was so able artistically and temperamentally to successfully take on the roles he had created for Fonteyn. She was a master at understanding the style and underlying pulse and meaning of many different choreographers and approaches. She was a key member of the company for the ENSA organised tours of Belgium and Paris in early 1945 and also of Germany at the end of that year.In February 1946 when the Sadler’s Wells Ballet re-opened the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, she was back on the stage where she had started in 1939. Her tutu for the Fairy of the Song Birds, which she danced in the Prologue of The Sleeping Beauty on that memorable night, is now part of the Royal Opera House Collections. Her roles included Una in The Quest, Ophelia in Hamlet, Chief Child of Light in Dante Sonata, Flower Girl in Nocturne, Waltz in Les Sylphides, Princess Florine in The Sleeping Beauty, the Suicide in Miracle in the Gorbals, roles in The Fairy Queen, La Boutique fantasque, Les Sirènes and dozens of others, an amazing testament to her professionalism and versatility. When she retired in 1956, in order to have a family, she received a letter from Ninette de Valois acknowledging her gratitude for all that she had contributed to the company.During her career with the Sadler’s Well Ballet, Pauline Clayden compiled meticulous and perfectly written notebooks in which she recorded the details of every performance in which she danced, including cast changes due to injury or illness which did not make it into the programme. These notebooks are gold dust and are deposited in the Archives of the Royal Opera House. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.