Bob Lockyer

Bob has been described as ‘one of the great heroes of British dance’. Here he talks about his career of forty years as a director of dance at the BBC. Bob recalls his first experience of the Company when working on the BBC programme ‘Ballet Rambert: The First Fifty Years’ and how he first met Marie Rambert when filming her for a BBC series on Serge Diaghilev. Throughout his career he has directed both classical and contemporary dance works for television and worked with many choreographers including Glen Tetley, Merce Cunningham and Richard Alston.

This interview gives an insight into the coming together of dance and film as Bob talks through the process of directing dance for television and examines what the camera can do for dance. A founding member of Dance UK, Bob also recalls how the organisation came about and remembers his time working with Jane Attenborough on the Healthier Dancer Programme.

00:06:39 Marie Rambert
00:07:49 Glen Tetley
00:17:39 Antony Tudor
00:20:26 Christopher Bruce
00:21:08 BBC Dance for the Camera Series
00:32:57 Dance UK
00:34:25 Healthier Dancer Programme
00:36:50 Jane Attenborough

Interview recorded on 8 September 2016 at Rambert, London.
Interviewer: Claire Izzard; Filmmaker: Paul Izzard

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.