Phyllis Bedells

Phyllis Bedells (9 August 1893 – 2 May 1985) was an English ballerina and dance teacher.

Quotes

• There was a wonderful cast for 'Alice'. Stanley Brett, Seymour Hicks's brother, played the Mad Hatter; Tom Graves, brother of George Graves, played the Mock Turtle and Tweedledum; Will Bishop, himself, was the First Lobster and the Golliwog; and Alice was played by the beautiful Marie Studholme. The rest of the cast were: J. C Buckstone as the Gryphon and Tweedledee; Florrie Arnold as the March Hare; Rita Leggerio as the White Rabbit; Harry Ulph as the Caterpillar and the Red King; Alice Barth as the Duchess and the Red Queen; Euphan Maclaren as the Cook; Marjorie West as the Cheshire Cat; Ivy Sawyer as the Dormouse; Margaret Fraser as the Second Lobster; Alice Dubarri as the First Fairy and the Rose; Julian Cross as the King of Hearts and the Walrus; Florence Lloyd as the Queen of Hearts and the White Queen; Harold Borrett as the Knave of Hearts and the White King. H. H. Cameron took the parts of the Executioner, the Carpenter, and Humpty Dumpty; Carmen Sylva, the Lily; Dorrit MacLaxen, the Red Knight; Leslie Bilbe, the Lion; John Hobbs, the Unicorn; Tom Jones, the Leg of Mutton; Ethel Evans, the Plum Pudding.
  In Act I, I emerged from a large oyster shell, dressed as a little sailor boy, and danced a hornpipe. This seemed to me slightly incongruous, as I was supposed to be the First Oyster; but nobody minded.
  • My Dancing Days. London: Phoenix House. 1954. p. 16. 

Quotes about Phyllis Bedells

• The matinee witnessed the close of an era—an era which saw the birth and childhood of an English ballet. That era is past: English ballet has now reached the period of adolescence and a bright future stretches before it. How precarious its very existence was in the early days, and what a wonderful tonic the precept and example of Phyllis Bedells proved only the more elderly of us can know.
  • Phillip J. S. Richardson, (December 1935)"The Sitter Out". The Dancing Times 510: 338–339., as quoted by Beth Genné in (1995). "Openly English: Phyllis Bedells and the birth of British ballet". Dance Chronicle 18 (3): 437-451. DOI:10.1080/01472529508569217.

External links

• Media related to Phyllis Bedells on Wikimedia Commons
• Portraits of Phyllis Bedells, from 1916 to 1919, in the National Portrait Gallery.