Julia Farron was born in London in 1922 and was part of the vanguard of extraordinary talent that helped shape ballet in 20th Century Britain. In 1931 she was the first scholarship pupil to join the Vic-Wells Ballet School and two years later she joined the Vic-Wells Ballet, as its youngest member. Vibrant and consummately theatrical, her conversation, like her dancing, is always a mix of wit and wisdom. In conversation with Bruce Sansom, she throws light on the early years of Sadler’s Wells Ballet, with all its attendant conventions and eccentricities. She later became a superb character artist as well as teacher.

The episode is introduced by Alastar Macauley in conversation with Natalie Steed.

Born in London in 1922, Julia Farron first studied dancing at the Cone School and in 1931 was the first scholarship pupil to join the Vic-Wells Ballet School. Her stage debut was in pantomime at Drury Lane in 1934 and two years later she joined the Vic-Wells Ballet, as its youngest member.

Over the next 30 years her fine talent, intelligence and theatrical power helped lay the foundations for the sort of company Ninette de Valois was attempting to forge. From ‘the classics’ as staged by Nicholas Sergeyev, at the start of her career, which she was on the spot to absorb, through to her final role in 1965, as Lady Capulet in Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, Julia Farron danced and created roles for many of the great choreographers of the 20th Century. From the works of de Valois herself, to Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, John Cranko, Léonide Massine and Georges Balanchine, her range was legendary, and thankfully for the generations of students to follow, so were her powers of recall, both practical and theatrical.

Her Lady Capulet - a masterpiece of theatrical expertise - was a wonderful culmination to Farron’s career and a fitting tribute from MacMillan to a pioneer of British ballet. Her stage career was followed by a teaching position at The Royal Ballet School from 1964 until 1982, when she was appointed Assistant Director of the Royal Academy of Dance. In 1983 she became Director and retired in 1989 as an Honorary Fellow. In 1994 the Royal Academy of Dance awarded her the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award.

In her later years Julia Farron was a keen supporter of The Royal Ballet School’s White Lodge Museum and Resource Centre. In 2012 she was appointed OBE for services to dance.

Episode photograph: A Mirror for Witches; Julia Farron as Hannah. World Premiere; March 4, 1952 ; Sadler's Wells Ballet at Covent Garden, London ; Music: Dennis ApIvor ; Choreography: Andrée Howard ; Designer : Norman Adams Credit: Roger Wood / Royal Opera House / ArenaPAL.com

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