David Wall Remembered

On Tuesday 18^th June, the British ballet dancer, director and teacher David Wall passed away aged 67 after a battle with cancer. Renowned as one of ballet’s nice guys, the ‘cheeky chappie’ of the dance world with the most amazing energy on the stage, his talent, friendship and advise will be sorely missed by family, friends and students. Born in London in 1946, David first put his dancing shoes on at the age of 10, when his talents became apparent during a compulsory Ballroom class at school. With the encouragement of his teachers he auditioned and was accepted into the Royal Ballet school. Inspired by the new found prominence male ballet dancers were enjoying, after the defection of Rudolf Nureyev in 1961 and the creation of John Cranko’s Antigone and Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardee in which the male took the lead role, Wall decided to become a professional dancer. After he completed his training therefore, Wall joined the Royal Ballet’s touring wing (now the Birmingham Royal Ballet) creating a hugely successful partnership with Doreen Wells. In 1966, Wall became the Royal Ballet’s youngest male principle at the age of 21, and a year later he married the ballerina Alfreda Thorogood. Valued for his strength, stamina and masculine presence he was then transferred to Covent Garden as the principal during the ‘golden age of classical ballet’. There he regularly worked with Frederick Ashton and Merle Park and partnered Lynn Seymour and Dame Margot Fonteyn; who was beginning to age. Later Fonteyn expressed her heartfelt thanks for the sensitivity and reliability Wall showed while working with her. It wasn’t until February 1978, that David Wall secured his place in the history books of dance as the Crown Prince Rudolf in Kenneth Macmillan’s Mayerling. Wall later described this role as ‘the pinnacle of my career’, but the strenuous nature of the performance contributed to his early retirement in 1984. He continued to inspire younger generation of dancers, however, becoming a director of the Royal Academy of Dance and a ballet master at the English National Ballet. In 2011 he retired from the English National Ballet, but continued to coach both the English National Ballet and the Royal Ballet. David leaves behind his wife, two children and grandchildren as well as countless students, friends and colleagues. As Rupert Christiansen of The Telegraph noted: ‘Its no empty cliché to say that he will be muched missed’.