Georgina Parkinson: A dancer in her time/making the blueprint, cont.

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Georgina Parkinson as Odette in Swan Lake, partnered by Brian Laurence, graduation performance, Sadlers Wells Ballet School; photo by The Times of London, 1955.

After receiving her certificate, matriculating into the upper school and the "graduate" course required that she reside in London. Her family relocated there so she could live at home. Though the household faced hard times–her father was a bookmaker and lost everything during this period–good luck shined on Parkinson when, shortly after her graduation from the lower school, the Royal reached into the school and took her, at age fifteen, into the company. "With these things there's always an element of luck–the company was really hard up for dancers, so they simply took me out of the graduate class and into the company. I was underage so on my first tour I had to have a chaperon. So I started way down; I wasn't even on the first step of the ladder."

Though it took awhile to adjust from being the best in the school to being one of many young women in the corps de ballet, Parkinson remembers that at the Royal "you always felt that people were looking out for you and helping you and you felt very safe."

The company culture at the Royal was like a family, and the company's dancers were cultivated within a particular kind of repertoryÑone that was based on a company style exemplified in the work of particular choreographers closely associated with British ballet, most notably Frederick Ashton. During her years at the Royal, Parkinson was able to work closely with Ashton, on Monotones and Enigma Variations, as well as with Kenneth MacMillan on the creation of his ballets Mayerling and Anastasia.

Georgina Parkinson, center, partnered by Keith Rosson with Michael Coleman (right), other dancers unidentified, in Song of the Earth, chor. Kenneth MacMillan, The Royal Ballet; photo by Roy Round, 1966.

Georgina Parkinson, center, in Song of the Earth, chor. Kenneth MacMillan; photo by Roy Round, 1966.

"It was very different with each of them," Parkinson recalls. "It was wonderful becoming a sponge for each of them. I think I felt more comfortable in the narrative works because I was able to use my own imagination. And that's what Kenneth did–and Fred as well: they both gave you material, in different ways, and then it was up to the individual to flesh it out. It became a collaboration of minds."

Both choreographers, so identified with the Royal Ballet, were quite distinct in their approach to choreography. "Kenneth would be more explicit about what steps he wanted than Fred who would just ask you to do something" Parkinson remembers. "Fred would say 'I don't like that. Try this.' But Kenneth would know exactly what he wanted–up to a point. If there was a pas de deux, he'd want you to try it. Or if you did something wrong and he'd catch it and love it, then he would put it in. It was a truly creative process that not only included the choreographer and the dancer but also included the designer, the costumes, and the music. It was a complete experience: you became very much a part of the production that they were creating."