It really does seem true that dancers in the difficult years of World War Two were happy to exist on the bare minimum. The common bond was that they all loved dancing and that appeared to keep them going. In this interview with the dancer and teacher Robert Harrold, which was recorded in 2007, Patricia Linton, founder and director of Voices of British Ballet, talks with him about a career that commenced during a time of conflict. The interview is introduced by Jane Pritchard.
Robert Harrold was born in Wolverhampton in 1923. His first dancing lessons were in Birmingham with Evelyn Goodwin, and his stage career began with the Anglo-Polish Ballet in 1940. For the next few years, he danced with Ballet Rambert, where he experienced a fine repertoire of ballets with an enviable range of choreographers, in which he often partnered Rambert’s charismatic ballerina of the time, Sally Gilmour. During the later years of World War Two, Harrold was a member of the Central Pool of Artists (CPA), and he was a part of groups that entertained the troops in Italy, via India, Ceylon and Australia. After the war he danced in musical theatre and television and began to develop his choreographic ability. Most important was the beginning of his lifelong love and involvement with National and Folk Dance. He was a tireless advocate of this form of dance and, along with his friend and mentor Helen Windgrave, wrote books and formed groups – notably the Modial Company – and educational enterprises to interest people in general and to win converts if possible!
Dancer, teacher, examiner, adjudicator and writer, Robert Harrold had a very full and busy life in dance and contributed unstintingly to the many ventures in which he was involved. In 1986 he received the Imperial Award for Outstanding Services to the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD), an organisation he had been involved with for many years.
Photograph: CAPRICCIO by Richard Strauss; Valerie Davie and Robert Harrold as the Dancers Conducted by Pritchard; Directed by Rennert; Scenery Designed by Lennon; Costumes designed by Powell; Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Glyndebourne, Lewes, East Sussex, UK; 1963;
© Glyndebourne Productions Ltd.; Credit: Guy Gravett / Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. / ArenaPAL ;
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