Sylvia Briar Sylvia Briar remembers her time as a dancer from 1941 to 1950. Sylvia joined the Rambert School in 1941 when she was 12 years old and was taken into the Company in 1945. In this audio interview, Sylvia recalls Marie Rambert, classes at the Mercury Theatre and her fellow dancers, including Walter Gore, Sally Gilmour, and Frank Staff. Sylvia was 18 when Ballet Rambert went on its famous tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1947. She remembers her time in Australia fondly and talks about how wonderful the conditions were in comparison to those back home in postwar London. Australian pointe shoes were not so wonderful, however. Sylvia explains how hard they were, ‘ruining’ the dancers’ feet. Only half of the dancers returned to the UK in 1949, but Marie Rambert managed to get a season together at the Mercury Theatre. The dancers were paid £4 per week – hardly enough to survive on. Sylvia remember how fellow dancer Margaret Hill passed out from hunger and how others in the Company started to bring in stale bread and cake to help feed them. Conditions were not much better on tour; rationing was still in place and food was scarce. Sylvia also recalls that finding digs could be difficult and sometimes the boys would be offered only a bath to sleep in. 00:02:00 The Mercury Theatre 00:02:52 Marie Rambert 00:06:03 Andrée Howard 00:07:33 Australia and New Zealand Tour 00:16:56 Marie Rambert 00:21:51 Melbourne 00:25:25 Travelling on train across the Nullarbor Plain 00:27:50 Arriving back in the UK 00:29:20 Margaret Hill 00:32:00 Ballet Rambert on television 00:34:52 Digs on tour in the UK 00:41:28 Marie Rambert Audio interview recorded on 15 November 2017 at Rambert, London. Interviewer: Claire Izzard Images in order of appearance: Sylvia Briar and Audrey Turner in Mercury from ‘The Planets’ (Tudor, 1934); Sylvia Briar (in foreground) with other members of Ballet Rambert on board the Marine Phoenix travelling from San Francisco to Australia, 1947; Sally Gilmour; Mercury Theatre in 2017; Sylvia Briar in her Cygnet costume from ‘Swan Lake’ Act II (Ivanov, 1895); Sylvia Briar backstage in ‘The Sailor’s Return’ (Howard, 1947); company letter, 1947; cover of the programme for the Australia and New Zealand Tour 1947-1949; two pages from the programme for the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, November 1947; cover of the programme for the Crystal Theatre, Broken Hill, Australia, 1948; announcement of the Ballet Rambert season in Sydney, Australia, 1948; advertisements from the Sydney programme, 1948; further announcement of the season in Sydney, Australia, 1948; publicity for the season in Adelaide, Australia, 1948; Sylvia Briar (left) in the Spanish Scene from ‘Mermaid’ (Howard and Salaman, 1934); Sylvia Briar as the Dog in ‘Mr Punch’ (Gore, 1946); newspaper article about the hard Australian pointe shoes, c.1948; publicity for the season in Wellington, New Zealand, 1948; Sylvia Briar as the Dog in ‘Mr Punch’ (Gore, 1946); several pages from the Ballet at Eight programme, July 1949, including the cover and the cast list; Rambert building on London’s South Bank, 2017 The Rambert Voices oral history project is part of Rambert at 90, a project marking the company’s 90th anniversary, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.