(9 August 1893 – 2 May 1985) was an English ballerina and dance teacher.
2 quotes found
"There was a wonderful cast for 'Alice'. Stanley Brett, 's brother, played the ; Tom Graves, brother of , played the and ; Will Bishop, himself, was the First Lobster and the Golliwog; and was played by the beautiful . The rest of the cast were: as the and ; Florrie Arnold as the ; Rita Leggerio as the ; Harry Ulph as the and the ; as the Duchess and the ; Euphan Maclaren as the Cook; Marjorie West as the ; as the Dormouse; Margaret Fraser as the Second Lobster; Alice Dubarri as the First Fairy and the Rose; Julian Cross as the and the ; Florence Lloyd as the and the ; Harold Borrett as the and the . took the parts of the Executioner, the , and ; Carmen Sylva, the Lily; Dorrit MacLaxen, the Red Knight; Leslie Bilbe, the Lion; John Hobbs, the Unicorn; Tom Jones, the Leg of Mutton; Ethel Evans, the Plum Pudding. In Act I, I emerged from a large oyster shell, dressed as a little sailor boy, and danced a hornpipe. This seemed to me slightly incongruous, as I was supposed to be the First Oyster; but nobody minded."
"The matinee witnessed the close of an era—an era which saw the birth and childhood of an English ballet. That era is past: English ballet has now reached the period of adolescence and a bright future stretches before it. How precarious its very existence was in the early days, and what a wonderful tonic the precept and example of Phyllis Bedells proved only the more elderly of us can know."