Voices of British Ballet

About Voices of British Ballet

Voices of British Ballet tells the story of dance in Britain through conversations with the people that built its history. Choreographers, dancers, designers, producers and composers describe their part in the development of the artform from the beginning of the twentieth century. We publish every two weeks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

Voices of British Ballet

Category

arts · history

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

21 Sept 2022

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

82 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   12 Oct 2026

   Tom Pye

   In this 2023 extended interview British theatre designer Tom Pye talks about his career in dance with Jonathan Gray, dance writer and former editor of Dancing Times magazine, who was also a fellow student with him at Wimbledon School of Art during the late 1980s. Pye talks about his work on The Royal Ballet’s new production of Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella in 2023, and how a thorough understanding of the construction of ballet costume has helped him find some surprising solutions to designing authentic period costumes for television. Born in Lincoln in 1968, Tom Pye studied for a BA Hons in Theatre Design at Wimbledon School of Art from 1986 until 1989. His best-known work as a designer includes the BBC television series Gentleman Jack, and the award-winning stage productions of My Friend Totoro and Paddington The Musical, as well as West End productions of Medea, Brokeback Mountain and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In opera, he has worked with the director Deborah Warner on productions of The Turn of the Screw, Death in Venice and Eugene Onegin, as well as English National Opera’s acclaimed production of Akhnaten directed by Phelim McDermott. For ballet, Pye has worked closely with the choreographer Yuri Possokhov on a production of The Seagull for the Bolshoi Ballet, as well as Anna Karenina, Eugene Onegin and The Nutcracker in the USA. For The Royal Ballet, he designed the sets for the new production of Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella in 2023. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

2. 

   28 Sept 2026

   Brenda Last

   Brenda Last achieved distinction as a ballerina with The Royal Ballet, but this was after a successful and multi-facetted career in many theatrical disciplines. Here, she tells Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet, about her early training with teachers such as Tamara Karsavina, Vera Volkova and Lydia Kyasht, winning the Royal Academy of Dance’s Adeline Genée Gold Medal at the age of 16, and performing at the Edinburgh International Festival and in television before joining The Royal Ballet School. After that, she performed at Stratford-upon-Avon (as the leading dancer in Toad of Toad Hall) and then was asked by Elizabeth West to join Western Theatre Ballet as a founder member. Last talks about the early years of the company with Elizabeth West and Peter Darrell, and about Maurice Béjart, with whom she worked in Brussels. The interview, which was recorded in 2010, is introduced by former Royal Ballet principal Stephen Jefferies in conversation with Natalie Steed. Brenda Last was born in South London in 1938. Recovering from a childhood illness, she started dance classes and became passionate about dance. She trained with Biddy Pinchard at Brixton Hill, and studied with such notable teachers as Tamara Karsavina, Vera Volkova and Lydia Kyasht before winning the Royal Academy of Dance’s Adeline Genée Gold Medal at the age of 16. She then went to The Royal Ballet School for a year, having already performed at the Edinburgh International Festival and worked in television. She was then the leading dancer in Toad of Toad Hall at Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1957 Elizabeth West, with whom she had already worked in Edinburgh, asked Last to join her and Peter Darrell to become one of the founder members of Western Theatre Ballet. This was a pioneering company that specialised in dramatic works with contemporary themes, fusing classical and modern dance. She remained with the company until 1963, when Ninette de Valois saw her performing and asked her to join The Royal Ballet Touring Company. After two years in the corps de ballet, she was promoted to the rank of principal dancer. She stayed with the touring company because she relished the amount of performances it afforded – she once calculated that during her career, she danced the role of Lise in Frederick Ashton’s La Fille Mal Gardee 101 times. She eventually became ballet mistress for the company in 1974. In 1977, Last unexpectedly became director of the Norwegian National Ballet in Oslo, following the sudden death of David Blair, a former Royal Ballet colleague who had just taken up the position there. In 1980, Last returned to London to teach at the London Contemporary Dance School, where she stayed for 14 years. During this period of time she also worked extensively with the Noriko Kobayashi Ballet in Tokyo, where she staged works by Ashton and de Valois, among others. She has also worked with the Royal New Zealand Ballet and The Australian Ballet, as well as English National Ballet and Scottish Ballet. Brenda Last, who was married to the musician, conductor and accompanist Stephen Lade until his death in 2022, has served on the Arts Council Dance Panel and as a trustee of The Royal Ballet Benevolent Fund. She is vice president of the British Ballet Organisation, having previously been director of Training there. She was appointed an OBE for her services to dance in 2012 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

3. 

   14 Sept 2026

   Bryony Brind

   During the 1980s Bryony Brind was a distinctive and glittering presence in The Royal Ballet, famed for her long limbs and beautiful lines, combined with a deeply sensitive artistry. Here, she tells Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet, of her early days in the company, star struck by the dancers around her, and particularly moved by Margot Fonteyn’s captivating use of her eyes. She talks of her own desire in dancing always to open up as much as possible, for which she was criticised by some, but defended by Fonteyn herself. Coached by Michael Somes for her historic debut in Swan Lake in 1981, while still in the corps de ballet, Brind recounts how determined she was to make that appearance, despite a heavy injury just days before. The interview, which was recorded in 2007, is introduced by Jay Jolley in conversation with Patricia Linton. Bryony Brind started dancing at the age of three and joined The Royal Ballet School in 1971. In 1977 she won the Prix de Lausanne competition and joined The Royal Ballet a year later. In 1980, while still in the corps de ballet, she created a role in Frederick Ashton’s Rhapsody, and the following year made her debut as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. In 1982, she partnered Rudolf Nureyev in the “Kingdom of Shades” scene from La Bayadère, which led to other pairings together, including in George Balanchine’s Prodigal Son. Other leading roles followed, including Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker and the title roles in The Firebird and Giselle, and in 1984 she was made a principal dancer with the company. During her time with The Royal Ballet, she created roles in works by Richard Alston, David Bintley, Michael Corder, Jennifer Jackson, Kenneth MacMillan and Glen Tetley, which testified to her range and ability. In 1991 she left the company to pursue a freelance career in ballet, television and teaching, including at the Arts Educational School in London. In more recent years, Bryony Brind devoted herself to caring for her husband and her mother, before herself dying of a heart attack in 2015. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Who has been a guest on Voices of British Ballet

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Jock MacFadyen
• Pauline Clayden
• James MacMillan
• Gillian Lynne
• Siobhan Davies

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 20 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

27

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

Contact Voices of British Ballet

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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