My Gurus

Errol Addison
Errol Addison taught me at the Royal Ballet School from the age of 12. He was an unlikely ballet teacher – in the Ballets Russes in the 1920s and then performing in music hall for 30 years. He taught me about musicality, dynamics and sheer enjoyment of dance. In contrast to many ballet teachers, he taught by validation. He picked out everyone’s individual strengths. He sang us boys wonderful dirty songs, accompany-ing himself on the piano, and eventually the Royal Ballet School sacked him when the head mistress overheard him.

Teresa Early
My sister Teresa, five years my senior, always encouraged me in my dancing career. I was sharing a flat with her when she set up Balletmakers Limited, an organisation to encourage young choreographers, designers and composers to collaborate on creating work, and I benefited enormously from the workshops and performance platforms Balletmakers provided. Her work with New Peckham Varieties (now Theatre Peckham) is a constant source of inspiration.

Peter Brinson
I joined the Royal Ballet Company at the time Peter Brinson was starting Ballet for All, his education group linked to the Royal Ballet. So I went out on Ballet for All’s first tour and Peter gave me my first opportunities to choreograph professionally. He taught me much about analysis, organisation and the connections between politics and art. He remained an important ally all my life, later joining the board of Green Candle until his health, sadly, deteriorated. In the conservative world of dance, his rigorous but charming socialism was enormously refreshing, as was his ability to put dance and art in a wide social context.

Jacky Lansley
Jacky has been my partner for most of my working life. As long as I have known her she has been an incisive and perceptive critic of my work. Her own work has always been a model of fearless integrity, and I have had the good fortune to perform her choreography on many occasions. I feel very fortunate to have a life partner who is also a professional peer, a fine artist and a formidable and principled intellect.

Peter Avery
Peter is a theatre director I first met more than 30 years ago as a lecturer on the Theatre Design course at the Central School of Art. His main interest was in creating performance projects for his design students, reasoning that theatre is best understood by creating and performing it. I collaborated on many projects with him at Central and we have found common ground in working with groups of older people. Peter is an inspiration in his undertaking of daunting challenges. A true original, doing remarkable work with his company, 3rd Thought.