Lynn Seymour

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Lynn Seymour
Sadler's Wells Ballet School
Occupations
  • Ballet dancer
  • choreographer
  • director
EmployerThe Royal Ballet
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1963; div. 1965)​
[1]
Philip Pace
​
​
(m. 1979, divorced)​
[2]
Vanya Hackel
​
​
(m. 1983, divorced)​
[2]
Children3
AwardsOrder of the British Empire – Commander
1976

Lynn Seymour

ballerina, mostly associated with the Royal Ballet in London. She was a muse of choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, creating lead roles in Romeo and Juliet, The Invitation, Concerto, Anastasia and Mayerling, among others. She originated lead roles for several ballets by Frederick Ashton, including The Two Pigeons, Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan and A Month in the Country
. She also guested with various ballet companies throughout her life.

Early career

Seymour was born in Wainwright, Alberta, as Berta Lynn Springbett, and studied ballet in Vancouver, British Columbia.[2]

In 1953, she was

Sadler's Wells Ballet School.[3] She joined Covent Garden Opera Ballet in 1956 and moved to the Touring Royal Ballet in 1957. A year later, she joined the main company of the Royal Ballet, becoming a principal dancer in 1959.[4]

Her first created role was the Adolescent in

The Two Pigeons (1961).[4]

International fame and choreography

The title role in MacMillan's

première[6]) established her as the leading dance-actress of her generation.[7][8][9]
Her rebellious and sensual portrayal of the
Old Vic production of the play with Judi Dench.[10]

Seymour was

one-act version of Anastasia (1967).[4]

Seymour guested with various companies, including the

London Festival Ballet, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, National Ballet of Canada, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and American Ballet Theatre. She worked with different choreographers from John Cranko, Antony Tudor and Jerome Robbins to Glen Tetley, Lar Lubovitch and Roland Petit and was often partnered by her beloved friend Rudolf Nureyev[12] (La Sylphide, Raymonda, Apollo and others). With Nureyev, she improved her classical technique by attending the class of Danish teacher Stanley Williams at the School of American Ballet.[13][14]

From 1971 to 1978, she returned to the Royal Ballet as a

Mary Vetsera in Mayerling (1978). Ashton created for her a solo called Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan (1976) and the role of Natalia Petrovna in A Month in the Country (1976, with Anthony Dowell as Beliaev).[4]

Seymour was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1976 Birthday Honours[15][16] and won the Evening Standard Drama Award the following year.[17]

Seymour became a choreographer while still dancing,

Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet.[20][9][21]

Directorship and subsequent career

From 1978 to 1980, Seymour was

Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, where she invited a young William Forsythe to join her.[22] Her time in Munich was marred by injuries and administrative issues.[21] After a period of illness, she briefly returned to the Royal Ballet before retiring in 1981 and worked there subsequently as an occasional coach.[23][24][21]

In 1979 film director Karin Altman released Lynn Seymour: In A Class of Her Own, an Anglo-Canadian documentary.

authorised biography[26] and, four years later, Seymour herself wrote an autobiography, Lynn, with Paul Gardner.[27]

Seymour acted in the children's television series

Adventures in Motion Pictures in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake (1996) and Cinderella (1997).[29][2]

In 1989, at the invitation of Peter Schaufuss of the English National Ballet, Seymour came out of retirement to dance for the first time as Tatiana in Cranko's Onegin in London[30] and again the title role of MacMillan's Anastasia that earned her a rapturous ovation in New York.[31]

In 2006–07, Seymour worked in Athens as artistic director of the Greek National Ballet[32] with Irek Mukhamedov as chief répétiteur[33] and Truman Finney as a guest teacher.[34] Named in honour of her, the Lynn Seymour Award for Expressive Dance is annually made at the Royal Ballet School.[35]

Personal life

Seymour married three times and had three children: twin boys Adrian and Jerszy Seymour [de] by Polish dancer Eike Walcz whom she did not marry, and a son by her second husband.[12][36]

Seymour died in London on 7 March 2023,[37][36] one day shy of her 84th birthday.[4][28]

References

  1. ISSN 0307-1235
    . Retrieved 8 February 2025. Though he danced mainly in supporting roles, Jones mingled with the Royal Ballet's elite, by virtue of his relationship with its prima ballerina, the Canadian Lynn Seymour, who married him in 1963. They divorced two years later.
  2. ^
    ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  3. ^ Moon, Barbara (10 August 1963). "Lynn Seymour: What it takes to become an international star". Maclean's.[dead link‍]
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Mattiello-Kent, Nina (8 March 2023). "Remembering Lynn Seymour (1939–2023)". Royal Opera House. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  5. ^ Seymour, Lynn (n.d.). "Agent Provocateur". Kenneth MacMillan. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  6. ^ Bernheimer, Martin (1 June 1985). "Dancer Lynn Seymour has hung up her ballerina slippers". Ottawa Citizen. p. 46 – via Google News Archive.
  7. ^ "Lynn Seymour". Fondation Rudolf Noureev. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  8. ^ Ulrich, Allan (1 February 1999). "Ballet Muse". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  9. ^ a b c "Lynn Seymour". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  10. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  11. ^ Beaumont, Rachel (6 December 2012). "Creator and Muse: Choreographers, dancers and the roles they make together". Royal Opera House. Archived from the original on 24 March 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Lynn's dance to the music of time". The Daily Telegraph. 25 October 1996. Archived from the original on 26 February 2016.
  13. ISBN 978-0-14-191213-4
    .
  14. ^ Seymour, Lynn (April 2012). "Notes for the future" (PDF). Dancing Times. pp. 35–37. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  15. ^ "No. 46919". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1976. p. 8023.
  16. ^ "Lynn Seymour". Everything2. 7 March 2003. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  17. ISBN 978-1-85743-122-3
    .
  18. ^ SEYMOUR,Lynn. Thames News. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2023 – via YouTube.
  19. ^ Robertson, Bryan (21 October 1978). "Dance". The Spectator. pp. 29–30. Retrieved 18 March 2023 – via The Spectator Archive.
  20. ISBN 0-19-311330-9
    .
  21. ^
    ISBN 0-19-509462-X
    .
  22. ^ "Bayerische Staatsballett". Archived from the original on 26 April 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  23. ^ "Kenneth MacMillan – choreographer". Archived from the original on 17 September 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
  24. ^ The Royal Ballet | Isadora Dances. BalletBoyz. 25 July 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2023 – via YouTube.
  25. ^ "Lynn Seymour: In a Class of Her Own (1979)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 12 July 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  26. ISBN 978-0-207-95900-4
    .
  27. ISBN 978-0-246-11790-8
    .
  28. ^
    ISSN 0307-1235
    . Retrieved 8 February 2025.
  29. ^ Mackrell, Judith (3 November 1993). "DANCE / Second Stride, second wind: Lynn Seymour has always been a". The Independent. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  30. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  31. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  32. ^ "Lynn Seymour –former Director of the Greek National Opera Ballet– has died". Greek National Opera. 9 March 2023. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  33. ^ Varvaressou, Yvette (27 January 2007). "Lynn Seymour brings new air to GNO". Kathimerini. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  34. ^ "Truman Finney (1944â€"2012)". Dance Magazine. 21 June 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  35. ^ Onisiforou, Sylva (12 December 2014). "The Lynn Seymour Award For Expressive Dance 2014". The Royal Ballet School. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  36. ^
    ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  37. ^ "Lynn Seymour obituary". The Times. 13 March 2023. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
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