Merle Park

Merle Park
Born	Merle Park 8 October 1937 Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe)
Occupation	Ballet dancer

Dame Merle Park, DBE, (born 8 October 1937) is a British ballet dancer and teacher, now retired. As a prima ballerina with the Royal Ballet during the 1960s and 1970s, she was known for "brilliance of execution and virtuoso technique" as well as for her ebullience and charm. Also admired for her dramatic abilities, she was praised as an actress who "textured her vivacity with emotional details."

Born in Salisbury, the capital and most populous city of the self-governing British Crown colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe), Margaret Kneusen was educated in local schools. As a child she began her dance training with Betty Lamb, a local ballet teacher, and soon showed unusual facility. In 1951, when she was 14, her parents moved the family to England and enrolled her in the Elmhurst School for Dance. Located in Camberley, Surrey, not far from central London, Elmhurst is an independent vocational school for youngsters intent on pursuing a professional career in classical ballet. During her three years there, Park proved to be an outstanding student. She transferred to the Sadler's Wells Ballet School in London in 1954, and, after only six months of study, was taken into the corps de ballet of the Sadler's Wells Ballet company, soon to be granted a royal charter and renamed The Royal Ballet. She herself adopted a new name, Merle Park, for theatrical purposes. (Addendum:- Please note that I am Merle Park's nephew and Merle herself will attest to several inaccuracies in this article. Merle was born Merle Park and did not change her name for theatrical purposes. She left Southern Rhodesia and her family (father Joe Park, mother Flo and sisters Margaret and Eileen Park), and moved to the UK on her own to further her ballet career. re Mike King)

Park made her stage debut as a rat in the retinue of the wicked fairy Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty, the ballet staged by Ninette de Valois for the reopening of the Royal Opera House in 1946, a year after the end of World War II in Europe. From 1955 onward, while still a member of the corps, she was assigned numerous solo roles. At the age of 19, she danced the role of the carefree Milkmaid in Frederick Ashton's popular Façade in the opera house's Silver Jubilee gala on 6 May 1956. Soon thereafter, she was noticed by critics in a sparkling performance of Princess Florine, opposite the Bluebird in act 3 of The Sleeping Beauty. Promoted to soloist in 1958, she danced her first Swanhilde, the saucy village lass in Coppélia, and the title character in John Cranko's Pineapple Poll, set to the merry tunes of Sir Arthur Sullivan. She had notable success in both parts, as "her small, light frame and fleet, sunny style made her a natural soubrette." Named a principal dancer in 1962, she subsequently danced all the ballerina roles in the classical repertory.

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