Moira Shearer (1926-2006)

Moira Shearer, who rose to international fame with the lead role in the 1948 film The Red Shoes, died at the age of 80 on January 31 after a long illness.

She was born Moira Shearer King in Dunfermline on January 17, 1926 and was educated in Scotland and in what is now modern-day Zambia.

She trained in ballet from 1936 and in 1940 she joined the Sadler's Wells School and made her debut in Mona Inglesby's International Ballet on its formation in 1941, moving on to the Sadler's Wells ballet in 1942, becoming a soloist, and by 1944 she was a principal of the company, dancing a wide variety of roles.

It was the move of the company to the Royal Opera House in 1946 that confirmed her position as a ballerina. In the opening production of The Sleeping Beauty, she followed Margot Fonteyn and Pamela May in the role of Princess Aurora, winning a following of her own.

By starring as the young ballerina Victoria Page in the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger film The Red Shoes (1948), the stunning redhead became, for a while, the best-known dancer in Britain and the United States.

She created roles in Sir Frederick Ashton's The Quest (1943), Symphonic Variations (1946), Don Juan and the title role in Cinderella (1948), De Valois' Promenade (1943) and Massine's The Clock Symphony (1950). An experience which left a mark on her was working with choreographer George Balanchine in 1950, later writing the book, Balletmaster - a Dancer's View of George Balanchine, in the eighties.

She was an accomplished actress, making several films including The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), The Story of Three Loves (1953), The Man Who Loved Redheads (1955), the controversial thriller Peeping Tom (1960) and Black Tights (1961).

Her stage career included the Edinburgh festival where she played Titania in 1954, seasons at the Bristol Old Vic and some tours. Among her roles were Madame Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard, Sally Bowles in I am a Camera, Judith Bliss in Hay Fever and Major Barbara.

In 1980 she appeared with Scottish Ballet at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow in GOLD DIGGERS - a piece by Peter Darrell, in Busby Berkely mode. All the "boys" with top hat and tails and canes stood with their backs to the audience in V-formation and as the curtain rose the last one to turn, on a terrace at the back, was Moira Shearer. She led the team in a high-kicking routine!

In 1987 she returned to ballet when she played the mother of the painter LS Lowry in Gillian Lynne's creation A Simple Man with Northern Ballet Theatre for the BBC. Her last stage appearance was in 1994 in a production of The Aspern Papers and she presented the awards at the fairly recently established Young British Dancer competition. She also wrote a biography of Ellen Terry and book reviews, gave some lectures on dance history, including tours on the QEII, and served on the Scottish Arts Council. In 1950, she married Sir Ludovic Kennedy, by whom she had a son and three daughters.

The Peter Darrell Trust 326 West Princes Street Glasgow G4 9HA Email: info@peterdarrell.org