Lynn Seymour, acclaimed ballerina, dies at 83
LONDON >> Lynn Seymour, a ballerina who was widely hailed over her long career as one of the greatest of all dance actors, died March 7 in London. She was 83.
Her death was announced by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, where she had performed for many years as a principal, and later as a guest, of its resident company the Royal Ballet. No cause was given.
The most radically original dancer in British ballet history and a star on both sides of the Atlantic, Seymour inspired international choreographers of successive generations.
Canadian-born, she became a choreographer, artistic director of two European ballet companies and a screen actress. But it was as a dancer that she astounded audiences in many countries with her dramatic intensity, seemingly boneless fluidity of movement, physical abandon and innovative characterizations of famous roles.
Seymour closely watched the leading actors of her day, including Joan Plowright and Judi Dench. In turn, she was praised by Dench (who called her “one of my heroines”), Michael Gambon (who cited a 1977 Seymour-Mikhail Baryshnikov “Romeo and Juliet” as the greatest dance performance he had ever seen), Ian McKellen and many more renowned actors.
In London, she risked royal disapproval by dancing scandalous roles at prestigious galas. In newspapers, she spoke up against the stuffiness of ballet.
In 1999, Baryshnikov, remembering his three 1977 performances as Romeo to her Juliet, recalled her gift for reckless rapture onstage.
For 40 years, Seymour was a muse to multiple choreographers. Four of the many vehicles created for her were threeact productions; she found the challenge of tracing a vast theatrical arc over a three-act work supremely fulfilling. She also created roles for dancers William Forsythe, John Neumeier, Ian Spink, Glen Tetley and others.
Berta Lynn Springbett was born March 8, 1939, in Wainwright, Alberta, the second of two children of Ed Springbett, a dentist, and Marjorie (McIvor) Springbett, a homemaker. (In 1954, her brother, Bruce Springbett, a sprinter, represented Canada in the 220-yard event at the Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, British Columbia.)
As a teenager in 1953, when the Sadler's Wells Ballet was on one of its biennial tours of North America, Seymour successfully auditioned for a place at its London school. Her gifts were quickly recognized by the company's resident choreographer, Frederick Ashton: She displayed keen musicality, a rich-toned lyricism, an exceptionally supple torso and an unusually rounded carriage of the arms (port de bras) that gave her dancing qualities that could seem both Romantic and Russian.
The singular fascination she inspired stemmed from an intensely romantic classicism that was imbued with a searchingly modern spirit.
In 1956, at age 17, she joined the Covent Garden Opera Ballet. There the choreographer Kenneth MacMillan chose her for a leading role in one of his first ballets, and the two collaborated for the next 20 years, challenging the perceived nature of ballet.