The Dance Centre, previously at 12

Floral Street Floral Street is a narrow street in the Covent Garden area of London, England. It runs east from Garrick Street to Bow Street and contains a number of fashion stores, including Paul Smith. The Upper School of the Royal Ballet School is located ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, central

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, was founded by Valerie Tomalin (née Hyman) in 1964 as a space where dance teachers could hire small studios by the hour and large ballet companies, such as

The Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...

and

Ballet Rambert Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...

, could rent larger studios by the day or by the week. Individual artists such as Margot Fonteyn, Wayne Sleep and

Rudolf Nureyev Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev ( ; Tatar/ Bashkir: Рудольф Хәмит улы Нуриев; rus, Рудо́льф Хаме́тович Нуре́ев, p=rʊˈdolʲf xɐˈmʲetəvʲɪtɕ nʊˈrʲejɪf; 17 March 19386 January 1993) was a Soviet ...

used the smaller spaces to privately fine-tune their performances. The venture was inspired by Valerie's fascination with ballet. As an art-student Valerie bought student tickets for The Royal Opera House top gallery so that she could see the great Russian dancers take command of the aging stage. Subsequently, Valerie became fascinated by modern dance and especially American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

which was championed in those days by Matt Mattox. Other teachers who quickly found the facilities helpful include Gillian Gregory, Diana South, and Mike St.Leger

Arlene Phillips Dame Arlene Phillips (born 22 May 1943) is an English choreographer, talent scout, television judge and presenter, theatre director, and former dancer, who has worked in many fields of entertainment. For many years, she was most noted as the c ...

, Lindsay Kemp,

Molly Molloy Molly E. Molloy (Massachusetts, April 4, 1940 – New York, June 15, 2016) was an American dancer, choreographer and teacher who worked internationally. She was based in Paris, New York and London and was the originator of the Molloy Technique of ...

and

Gary Cockrell Gary may refer to: *Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name *Gary, Indiana, the largest city named Gary Places ;Iran *Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province ;Unit ...

. Many of the dance students themselves went on to successful careers, for example

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

, who cites Lindsay Kemp's mime classes as being a fundamental inspiration for the character Ziggy Stardust, and Kate Bush. By the mid-1960s, the Dance Centre was a Covent Garden Landmark. At that time virtually all the other buildings in Floral Street were vegetable or fruit warehouses. In fact the Dance Centre itself had previously been a banana-drying warehouse and before that it was a

poor school Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse < ...

. As a listed three-storey building, the bell-tower can still be seen rising above the other Floral Street retail units. The fruit and vegetable market was established in the 1600s as a growing area literally annexed to a convent; hence the name. Eventually many west-end and national shows auditioned there and rehearsed there too. The Dance Centre also operated its own leading theatrical agency under Rob Gardell. It commissioned its own

ballet shoes A ballet shoe, or ballet slipper, is a lightweight shoe designed specifically for ballet dancing. It may be made from soft leather, canvas, or satin, and has flexible, thin full or split soles. Traditionally, women wear pink shoes and men wear wh ...

, tights,

leotard A leotard () is a unisex skin-tight one-piece garment that covers the torso from the crotch to the shoulder. The garment was made famous by the French acrobatic performer Jules Léotard (1838–1870). There are sleeveless, short-sleeved, and lo ...

s and leg-warmers. The idea of such brand extension was pioneering in its day. It also created its own dance troupes called The Beat Girls, later to become

Pan's People Pan's People were a British all-female dance troupe most commonly associated with the BBC TV music chart show ''Top of the Pops'', from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. They appeared on many other TV shows in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and al ...

. In 1971, theatre producer

Ian Albery Ian Bronson Albery (born 21 September 1936) is an English theatre consultant, manager, and producer. He is a former chief executive of Sadler's Wells Theatre (1994-2002), and was in charge of the Donmar Warehouse from 1961 to 1989.

asked The Dance Centre to help rent its warehouse (just around the corner in Earlham Street) to theatrical companies. So successful was The Dance Centre in reviving this space that the warehouse thrived and became The Donmar Theatre. Valerie Tomalin's business partner Gary Cockrell opened The Sanctuary next door at number 11 Floral Street, and Valerie opened The Costume Centre in King Street in the centre of Covent Garden just by the piazza.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dance Centre, The 1964 establishments in England Organizations established in 1964 Dance organizations Cultural organisations based in London Organisations based in the City of Westminster Buildings and structures in the City of Westminster Covent Garden