Desmond Doyle (dancer)
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Desmond Doyle (16 January 1932 – July 1991) was a South African ballet dancer who performed in England in the 1950s and 1960s before becoming ballet master of The Royal Ballet.[1]
Desmond Doyle was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Dulcie Howes (1908-1993), a ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher, established the University of Cape Town Ballet School in 1934. Among her most promising students during the 1940s were Johaar Mosaval and Doyle.[2] After some years' study with her, and performing under her direction in the University of Cape Town Ballet, both of them went to London to continue their training at the Sadler's Wells Ballet School.
Professional career
In 1951, Doyle was accepted into the Sadler's Wells Ballet, under the direction of Ninette de Valois, and was promoted to soloist in 1953. During his years with the company, renamed the Royal Ballet in 1956, he created roles in a number of new ballets by Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, and John Cranko. MacMillan often cast him in "cruel, overbearing roles because of his height and narrow face, as lethal as a knife blade."[3] He was not always villainous, however. He danced many roles in classical and romantic works already in the active repertory, including Les Sylphides, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, and Sylvia, and took prominent roles in such important ballets as de Valois's The Rake's Progress, Ashton's 'Symphonic Variations, and Alfred Rodrigues's The Miraculous Mandarin. Upon his retirement, he served as the company's ballet master from 1970 to 1975.[4]
