News Story
We were saddened to hear of the death over the summer of Pauline Clayden at the age of 103.
Pauline joined Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1942. A talented and adaptable Soloist, she stepped out of the corps de ballet to dance leading roles (often second cast to Margot Fonteyn) and created roles for choreographers including Frederick Ashton, Andrée Howard, Ninette de Valois and Robert Helpmann.
But her connection with some of British ballet’s most important works continued long after her retirement from the stage in 1956. When we performed Ashton's Dante Sonata for the first time in 2000, it was only possible because of the vital work Pauline and her contemporaries had done in the reconstruction of the ballet, and Pauline, alongside Jean Bedells, joined us in the rehearal room to stage the work.
When over a decade later in 2014 Helpmann's Miracle in the Gorbals was reconstructed for BRB by Gillian Lynne, Pauline again played her part setting the choreography she remembered with pin sharp clarity for the role of the Suicide, which she had created in 1944.
Without Pauline, her knowledge and her memories, the Company’s connection with these important works might have been lost.
Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this time.
