Lynn Seymour

Lynn Seymour CBE (born 8 March 1939) is a Canadian-born retired ballerina, choreographer, and director.

Early career

She was born in Wainwright, Alberta, as Berta Lynn Springbett in a Canadian family of Scottish descent, and studied ballet in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In 1953, she was auditioned by Frederick Ashton and given a scholarship to London's Sadler's Wells Ballet School. There she was in Winifred Edwards's class with Antoinette Sibley and Marcia Haydée.

In 1956, she joined Covent Garden Opera Ballet, then moved to the Touring Royal Ballet in 1957 and a year later to the main company of the Royal Ballet as a soloist dancer, becoming a principal in 1959.

Her first created role was the Adolescent in Kenneth MacMillan's study of Anna Frank's diary, ''The Burrow'' (1958), that gained her into prominence.

Her lyrical technique, her unconventional style and the very intense dramatic powers were developed through a wide range of roles MacMillan started to regurarly make on her including ''The Girl'' in '' The Invitation'' (1960, with the revolutionary scene of an explicit rape as a metaphor of the abuse in all its connotations) and ''The Fiancée'' in ''Le baiser de la fée'' (1960, with Svetlana Beriosova and Donald MacLeary).

Under the guidance of Ashton - who passed on the inheritance of Anna Pavlova and Olga Spessivtzeva to her - she soon debuted in the classics by dancing Odette-Odile (1958, on tour in Australia), Giselle and Aurora (both 1960).
He also relied on her talent for comedy by creating on her the witty Young Girl in his new ''The Two Pigeons'' (1961), in which she began a much praised partnership with Christopher Gable.

International fame and choreography

The title role in MacMillan's '' Romeo and Juliet'', which was created for her in 1965 (although danced by Margot Fonteyn at the première,) established her as the leading dance-actress of her generation.
Her rebellious and sensual portrayal of the Skakesperean heroine was totally spontaneous and yet influenced by her admiration for Franco Zeffirelli's 1960 Old Vic production of the play with Judi Dench.

She was prima ballerina at Berlin Opera Ballet (1966–69) under MacMillan's direction, where she danced the first performance of his ''Concerto'', whose second movement was inspired by her magnetic plasticity, and created the turbulent role of Anna Anderson in the one-act version of ''Anastasia'' (1967).

She guested with various companies including London Festival Ballet, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, National Ballet of Canada, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and American Ballet Theatre. She worked with different choreographers from John Cranko, Antony Tudor and Jerome Robbins to Glen Tetley, Lar Lubovitch and Roland Petit and was often partnered by her beloved friend Rudolf Nureyev (''La Sylphide'', ''Raymonda'', ''Apollo'' and others). With Nureyev she improved her classical technique by attending the class of Danish teacher Stanley Williams at the School of American Ballet.

From 1971 to 1978, she returned to the Royal Ballet as a guest artist with new MacMillan dark characters such as the title role in the three acts version of ''Anastasia'' (1971) and Mary Vetsera in ''Mayerling'' (1978, with David Wall as Crown Prince Rudolf). Ashton created for her a very successful solo called '' Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan'' (1976) and the poignant role of Natalia Petrovna in ''A Month in the Country'' (1976, with Anthony Dowell as Beliaev).

In order to bring her free approach even to the classics, as Giselle she stabbed herself with Albrecht's sword instead of dying for love in act I and she preferred a melting quality of dancing in the style of Michel Fokine to the strictly Soviet tradition for act II.

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1976 Birthday Honours and won the Evening Standard Drama Award the following year.

She was herself a choreographer, creating her first ballet ''Night Ride'' (mus. Michael Finnissy) for the Royal Ballet Choreographic Group in 1973. Her other works include ''Gladly, Sadly, Badly, Madly'' for LCDT (mus. Carl Davis, 1975), ''Intimate Letters'' for Galina Samsova (mus. Janáček, 1978), ''Wolfie'' for Rambert Dance Company (mus. Mozart, 1987) and ''Bastet'' for Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet (mus. Michael Berkeley, 1988).

Directorship and subsequent career

She was artistic director of Munich Ballet of Bayerische Staatsoper (1978–80) where she invited a young William Forsythe, then she briefly returned to the Royal Ballet before retiring (1981) and working there subsequently as occasional coach.

In 1979 film director Karin Altman realized ''Lynn Seymour: In A Class of Her Own'', an Anglo-Canadian documentary. In 1980 Richard Austin published an authorised biography and, four years later, Seymour herself wrote an autobiography, ''Lynn'', with Paul Gardner.

She appeared as an actress in the Herbert Ross 1987 movie ''Dancers'' with Mikhail Baryshnikov and in ''Wittgenstein'' by Derek Jarman (1993) playing the part of Ballets Russes's Lydia Lopokova; she came back to the stage with a number of cameo roles: in Gillian Lynne's ''A Simple Man'' with Northern Ballet Theatre (1987), in ''Escape at Sea'' with Second Stride (1993) and with Adventures in Motion Pictures in Matthew Bourne's '' Swan Lake'' (1996) and ''Cinderella'' (1997) in which she originated the role of a cruel and sexy Stepmother.

In 1989, at the invitation of Peter Schaufuss of the English National Ballet, she came out of retirement to dance for the first time Tatiana in Cranko's ''Onegin'' in London and again the title role of MacMillan's ''Anastasia'' that earned her a raptuous ovation in New York.

In 2006–07, she worked in Athens as artistic director of the Greek National Ballet with Irek Mukhamedov as chief ''répétiteur''and Truman Finney as guest teacher.

Named in honour of her, the 'Lynn Seymour Award for Expressive Dance' is annually held at the Royal Ballet School.

Private life

Seymour married three times and had three children: twin boys by a Polish dancer whom she did not marry, and a son by her second husband.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seymour, Lynn
Canadian ballerinas
Prima ballerinas
1939 births
People educated at the Royal Ballet School
Living people
Principal dancers of The Royal Ballet
Canadian female dancers
Canadian choreographers
Canadian women choreographers
Canadian Commanders of the Order of the British Empire