Laverne Meyer
Monday 12th September 2005
Friends House, Euston Road, London NW I

Our guest tonight, Mr Laverne Meyer, was introduced by Michael Ludgate, and the interview was conducted by Robin Key.

Laverne Meyer was born in Canada and began his dance training there, but came to Europe in 1956 when he joined the Sadlers Wells School. He studied with Harold Turner, Peter Wright and Barbara Fewster at the school, but also studied with other great teachers including Lubov Egorova in Paris, and with Anna Northcote and Cleo Nordi in London He was over 16 when he arrived at Sadlers Wells School and was not very happy there at that time, and at one stage he thought of returning to Canada and joining the National Ballet of Canada. However, at a class in Anna Northcote's studio he met Elizabeth West, who was in the process of founding Western Theatre Ballet, and she invited him to join this new young company, so he accepted her invitation.

Western Theatre Ballet was based in Bristol and was the first of the regional companies, beginning with 10 dancers and an enterprising repertoire of "chamber" ballets. While rehearsing the new works, the dancers appeared in pantomime and could exist on their pay during the rehearsal period. Laverne described life with Western in its early days, when the company travelled around by coach with all their costumes on board. All the dancers helped with the practicalities of putting on a show, as the boys loaded the bus and the girls looked after the costumes. The repertoire of dramatic ballets to unconventional music was unlike the classical companies of today. Their productions included work by Peter Darrell, including "The Prisoners" to Bartok and an early ballet by Maurice Béjart. The dancers included Brenda Last, Hazel Merry, and many others who went on to successful careers in ballet and contemporary dance. Laverne pointed out that at that time (1950s to early 1960s) there was no "contemporary dance" as we know it today and Martha Graham had not yet visited the UK, though he saw her company later at Edinburgh and had class with Ethel Winter. Western Theatre Ballet were pioneers in creating dramatic work about real people in the modern world. Ballets included first British performances of "Las, Hermanas" by MacMillan and "The Lesson" by Fleming Flindt. Laverne created roles in many of these ballets and was appointed Ballet Master and then Associate Director. Laverne spoke about his own ballet "The Web" to Webern music which was a great success. MacMillan's "Seven Deadly Sins" was another success for the group, which had Anya Linden and Cleo Laine as the dancing and singing Anna.

Following the tragic death of Elizabeth West, there was uncertainty about the future of Western and after discussions with various Boards and Committees, Laverne was asked to prepare a feasibility study for a regional company in the North West, based in Manchester, and this led to the founding of Northern Dance Theatre, which later became Northern Ballet Theatre. He collaborated with the Royal Northern College of Music, who agreed to provide an orchestra, and put on three performances at Manchester University Theatre which were well received. Spacious rehearsal facilities were provided free of charge, including the use of a large hall shared with the Halle Orchestra. Many of the dancers from Western joined the new company, which also started with 10 dancers, but Laverne had plans to add 2 extra dancers each year as the repertoire expanded. From his days of touring with Western, Laverne had contacts with theatre managements around the country, who were of great assistance in arranging touring dates. Some of the dancers began to choreograph their own ballets at this time, and these included Jonathan Thorpe, Suzanne Hywel, Royston Maldoon and Clover Roope. Laverne continued as Founder Director of Northern Dance Theatre until, unfortunately, due to a divergence of views he decided to resign. Laverne commented that during the 1970s the ballet world was changing with the administration, for financial reasons, becoming more involved in choice of repertoire, which was formerly the concern of the artistic director.Laverne went on to produce ballets for other companies and spoke about his experience and personal development as a teacher. When invited to be a guest teacher at the Bat-Dor company in Israel, he met teachers from the Kirov and became interested in the Vaganova system. He stressed the difference between a system as opposed to a syllabus. He said that a syllabus means the students perform the same steps to the same music every day, and this produces good corps de ballet dancers, but in the Vaganova system the same class may be repeated three days running but with differences and developments in the steps which leads to the dancers becoming artistic individuals. At that time the teaching methods in Russia and the UK were very different and he spent a lot of time comparing and analysing the contrasting schools. Laverne had some very interesting comments to make on the teaching methods during the late 1970s and the type of dancers produced as a result.

Laverne has continued to teach as guest teacher with many distinguished companies and schools around the world until he decided it was time to retire in 2000. Since then, he has started to write his memoirs, which will cover the founding of Western Theatre Ballet and Northern Dance Theatre, and, of course, the very interesting events in the world of dance up to date. We all look forward to seeing the publication of this valuable work.

The evening ended with a presentation of wine and photos and "thank you"s from our many members who recalled the excitingly dramatic performances and productions of Western Theatre Ballet and the early days of Northern Dance Theatre.