Ms. Lynne received two Olivier Awards, the highest honor in London theater, and was named a . This little band usually consists of one's assistant, a boy and a girl dancer, the dance captain (male or female) who will then remain and take care of the show, and of course a brilliant and creative pianist. In the theatre, her choreography sometimes flattered the material in hand, but could not always salvage it. 10-Year-Old Hadley Jensen is on a Streak of Kindness! They were strong and precise and Gillian Lynne's choreography was so different from anything I had done in my ballet classes. In June, Dame Gillian Lynne was carried to a West End stage in a golden throne, surrounded by dancers from Cats, in a ceremony to mark the renaming of the New London Theatre as the Gillian Lynne Theatre. I've got two metal hips and a metal foot!" Her second husband, the actor Peter Land, whom she married in 1980, survives her. The English. She published a memoir, A Dancer in Wartime, in 2011. You have to create a company who like each other, get on and trust one another. It's no good just wanting to be something in life, you have to do something to show you could do it. The dance classes were taken by two ballet teachers: Miss Knight, a ruthless task master who drove her pupils to perfection and Miss Davis, who cared more about the music than technique. You just have to confront difficult people and make their wickedness become obvious. She went on to become an admired dramatic ballerina in the soon to be renamed Royal Ballet, renowned for her Black Queen in de Valois's Checkmate, Queen of the Wilis in Giselle and in roles created for her by Frederick Ashton and Robert Helpmann. She staged musical numbers for The Comedy of Errors (1976), As You Like It (1977), The Way of the World (1978), Once In a Lifetime (1979) and The Secret Garden (2000). See today's front and back pages, download the newspaper, order back issues and use the historic Daily Express newspaper archive. She came into a world where dance often seemed like an irrelevant interlude and, through her theatrical skill and tireless industry, turned it into something integral to the musical form. A Dancer in Wartime: One girl's journey from the Blitz Gillian Lynne: A Dance Legend Beginning as a soloist under Dame Ninette de Valois in the original Sadler's Wells Ballet, going on to become a star dancer at the London Palladium, acting opposite Errol Flynn in films and dancing on television, it seems Gillian Lynne has done the lot! The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. They need a different structure to their days to be successful. Though Barbara (nee Hart) was a keen amateur dancer, it was not she who first noticed her daughters talent it was the family doctor. Among her many awards, a special category outstanding achievement in a musical was created in 1981 by the organisers of the Oliviers to recognise her contribution to the blockbusting Cats. Her many accolades include two Olivier Awards: Outstanding Achievement for her Choreography of Cats in 1981, and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013; a BAFTA for her BBC TV dance drama A Simple Man; and Viennas Silver Order of Merit, Golden Rose of Montreux Award for her work on The Muppet Show.