News Story
Today the Company celebrated the long career of Marion Tait. Current Company members were joined in the studio by former Directors Sir David Bintley and Sir Peter Wright, former Assistant Director Desmond Kelly, and former colleague and current Artistic Director of Elmhurst Ballet School, Robert Parker, alongside many friends and former colleagues who joined the celebrations online.
Sir David paid tribute to Marion's long career as dancer, Ballet Mistress and Assistant Director, fondly remembering playing her mother, dancing the role of Widow Simone, as a 20-year-old Company novice to Marion's sublime (and fierce!) interpretation of Lise. He recalled that when he took over the Company from Sir Peter in 1995, high on Peter's list of advice was to make sure Marion stayed - advice he took to heart, appointing her first as Ballet Mistress then, following the retirement of Desmond Kelly, as his Assistant Director, all the while continuing to use her amazing talents as a performer in roles such as Maggie Hobson in Hobson's Choice, and to create memorable roles on her, such as the Stepmother in Cinderella.
A Lifetime of Dance
Marion Tait was less than three years old when she attended her first ballet class – little did she know those first steps were the beginning of a lifetime of dance.
Marion's first ballet class
Marion can still remember that first class: ‘It was just before my third birthday and, even in those days I was small for my age, and the teacher asked my mum if I was really three - I looked like a toddler. My mum took me because she thought it would be nice for a little girl to have dancing lessons and I just enjoyed it, no more than that. We did everything – tap, musical, ballet – but there was something about ballet for me, I think it was because it was more of a challenge.’
Dance remained a hobby for Marion until she was ten when she gained a Royal Academy of Dance scholarship to attend classes twice a week. But even then, she hadn’t really set her sights on a career on the stage.
‘I never thought I would be a ballet dancer. My mum wasn’t a pushy theatre mum, it was just because I was enjoying it that she took me. But I guess my teacher must have seen I had some sort of talent at that point.’
How did Marion find her way into ballet?
Marion was spotted by the prestigious Royal Ballet School who offered Marion a place at the age of 15 and just two years later in 1968 she joined The Royal Ballet’s touring company.
Marion added, ‘I really wanted to be in the touring company because there were so many more performances and so many opportunities. They had 15-week tours, Monday to Saturday, double shows three times a week so you worked really hard but there were so many opportunities for dancers in that company.
'In those days you didn’t drive back after each week, you just kept going. On Crewe Station on Sundays all the touring companies would meet on the platform, changing trains to where they were going next.’
Love at first tour
‘In my first year with the Company we went to Cairo and that was where I got together with my husband David Morse, who was also a dancer. He was going up to the Pyramids to see the sunrise the night before the tour finished and so I invited myself along!’
The couple have been together more than 50 years. Both remained with Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet throughout their careers, with David becoming the Company’s video archivist and a character dancer before retiring a decade ago.
Rising through the ranks
Born in London, Marion joined the Royal Ballet touring company (now Birmingham Royal Ballet) at just 17, rising to the rank of Principal and dancing the lead ballerina roles in all the classics.
Marion had just become a Principal with the Company at the age of 24 when she was asked to dance with the world’s most famous male dancer – Rudolph Nureyev.
‘We were doing The Dream at the Edinburgh Festival and I was Titania and Rudolph was Oberon. I said “I won’t act any differently from normal, he’s only another person,” – and then in the first rehearsal he trod on my foot and I apologised!’
In 1995 Marion became Birmingham Royal Ballet's Ballet Mistress, and for many years has taught and rehearsed the Company. Until recently she performed character roles such as a scene-stealing Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty and The Stepmother in David Bintley’s Cinderella, which was created for her in 2010.
Marion said, ‘Our former ballet mistress, the wonderful Anita Landa, was ready to retire and for one year I shadowed her. Then the role came up at the time when Peter was announcing the handover to David and that I would be retiring as a dancer.
'I thought being Ballet Mistress would be all about keeping everyone in line and making sure they all looked the same but that’s only 20 per cent of it. The job is about being someone’s confidante and really knowing the dancers and listening to their problems, their good times and their bad times. They knew they could trust me to listen.’
A move to Birmingham
It was under the artistic directorship of Peter Wright that Sadler’s Wells Royal Balletmade the decision to create a new base in Birmingham. Marion was totally in the dark about the move until the last minute.
‘We were performing La Fille mal gardée in Oxford and I was warming up on stage before curtain up. Peter came up to me and said “I don’t know if you’ve heard the rumours?” I said “What rumours?” and he said “About us moving to Birmingham.” I hadn’t and he replied: “Well we are and it’s going to be announced tomorrow. Will you come?” I said “yes, of course”.’
Renamed Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Company moved to our now home,Birmingham Hippodrome in 1990 where Peter Wright staged his world-famous productions of TheSleeping Beauty and Swan Lake as well as his ever-popular The Nutcracker which has been performed in Birmingham nearly every Christmas for over 30 years.
A star-studded career, on stage and on screen!
Marion was made an OBE in 1992 and a CBE in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours list. Marion has twice been nominated for Olivier Awards (Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, 1994, and Hagar in Pillar of Fire, 1995), was named Dancer of the Year 1994 and that same year also received the Evening Standard Ballet Award for Outstanding Performance. Most recently she was awarded the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement 2019 by the Critics Circle National Dance Awards.
Marion assisted Desmond Kelly in directing Birmingham Royal Ballet's artistic team for Ballet Changed My Life - Ballet Hoo!, the education project documented on Channel 4 during September and October 2006, for which she was presented with a special award at the Critics' Circle National Dance Awards in 2008.
In December 2020 Marion stood down from her role as Assistant Director with Birmingham Royal Ballet and she now acts as Rehearsal Director and Coach. Across over 55 years with the Company, she has performed countless leading roles, from Romeo and Juliet’s eponymous heroine through to Sleeping Beauty’s Aurora and has taken to the stage with world-renowned choreographers and dancers.
‘Birmingham Royal Ballet is a family - if it hadn’t been, I don’t think I would have wanted to stay with them for my entire career,’ she says. ‘You didn’t get jealousies because everyone had a chance, we all had a go. It’s in our DNA to bring someone into the corps de ballet and see them rise through the ranks, we encourage talent.'
Extracts from a 2021 article based on a conversation between Marion Tait and Diane Parkes
