In this interview with Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet, Barbara Vernon illustrates that it is not all plain sailing out of the mainstream of the ballet world and gives a glimpse of a different sort of struggle, where dedication and belief are not quite enough – especially without funds. The interview, which was recorded in 2003, is introduced by the dance historian Jane Pritchard.
Born in 1918, Barbara Vernon’s mother was aware that she was an artistic child and supported her in her endeavours. Her first ballet classes were in Birmingham, where she trained in the syllabus as set by the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD). From the age of 16, she danced with various small groups, but it was whilst performing in pantomime at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin that her future life was set. There, she heard about the teaching of a Russian émigré ballet master, Nicholas Legat. When back in London in 1936, she joined his classes at 46, Colet Gardens. Legat died the following year, and Vernon then found her way to Léonide Massine’s studio in Monte Carlo, where she learnt a wonderful variety of repertoire.
These two momentous happenings – the teaching of Legat and the repertoire of Massine – were to shape and inform the whole of Vernon’s future life. During World War Two, she danced with various companies, including Mona Inglesby’s International Ballet, and the Anglo-Polish Ballet. It was whilst she was in the latter company that she met John Gregory, the multi-talented actor, artist, dancer and writer, John Gregory. The couple married in 1945 and later had two children together. In 1949 the pair created the School of Russian Classical Ballet in Chelsea, which developed into the Harlequin Ballet ten years later. This little group took ballet to the people for the following decade. From that time onwards they taught, lectured and wrote, and in 1995 the couple inaugurated the Legat Foundation. John Gregory died in 1996, and Barbara Vernon in 2007
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