Gary Burne

Gary Burne (20 April 1934 – 26 August 1976) was a Rhodesian dancer, ballet master, and choreographer who spent ten years with the Royal Ballet in England before moving to South Africa to dance with ballet companies in Johannesburg and Cape Town. He also danced for a period in Toronto, Canada.

Algernon de Blois Hayes-Hill was born in Bulawayo, an industrial center in Matabeleland, a district of the self-governing British Crown colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He began his dance training as a seven year old youth with Elaine Archibald, where his grandmother, tasked with his care during WWII, was the studio pianist.

He soon showed a facility for classical ballet. When Anton Dolin saw him in class, aged fifteen,during a visit to Southern Rhodesia, he suggested that Hayes-Hill would benefit from further training in London. Algernon's parents, Harry M Hayes-Hill and Una May (née Spurr) were of British and Canadian stock, supported him in his ambition to pursue a career as a professional dancer, and made it possible for him to travel to London in 1951.

He had one elder sibling, a brother, Terence Basil Hayes-Hill, whom became a prominent soldier in the unrecognised state of Rhodesia.

Once in London, he enrolled in classes with Ruth French and, after three months' study with her, auditioned, successfully, for admission to the Sadler's Wells Ballet School. The faculty there were favorably impressed. His command of classical technique, his height, his good looks, and his aristocratic bearing made him an ideal candidate for a danseur noble. After only one month's study at the school, he was invited to join the Sadler's Wells Ballet at Covent Garden.

Hayes-Hill joined the Sadler's Wells company late in 1951, and later became known under the stage name of Gary Burne, as his birth name Algernon de Blois Hayes-Hill, was deemed unsuitable for theatrical purposes.

He chose the surname Burne from his maternal Aunt's family, and the first name, Gary, was inspired by Gary Player, the South African golfer whom had just become the worlds youngest professional at age 17, as well as Gary Hocking, the future Southern Rhodesian Grand Prix motorcycle racing world champion, whom both were at the start of their careers; these Southern African personalities were prominent in world print media of that time.

After five years in the corps of Sadler's Wells Ballet, Burne was promoted to soloist in 1956, the same year that the company received a royal charter and changed its name to the Royal Ballet. In 1957, he created the role of King of the South in John Cranko's The Prince of the Pagodas, set to the music of Benjamin Britten, and danced a difficult variation in the act 3 pas de six. "With choreography mainly consisting of high jumps with open lines and then extremely fast beats in the coda," it always elicited applause. In 1958, he danced in the ensemble of Frederick Ashton's Ondine and appeared in other Ashton works in the repertory, including Symphonic Variations and Daphnis and Chloĕ. In 1959, he created the role of Eriocles in Cranko's Antigone, based on the tragedy by Sophocles and set to music by Mikis Theodorakis. Having gone on tours of the United States and Russia with the company, Burne danced for the first time in South Africa in 1960. His partners during these years included Rosella Hightower, Beryl Grey, and Antoinette Sibley.

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