Dance talk 14th December

 My Life in Dance

An illustrated talk by Carlotta Barrow, Tuesday 14th December, 7.15 pm

The ARTS CLUB CENTRE,
17a Commercial Road,
Swanage.

Tickets £5 includes refreshment. Tickets available in advance from Totally Local, on the door on the day or phone 425967.


There will also be a raffle in aid of the Ranger School of Dance


A passion for dance lifted Carlotta out of her ballet classes at St Mary’s Convent School in Swanage to a place at the Arts Educational school, Tring Park. After winning the Ballet Cup in 1957 she moved to the school’s London branch. From this her professional career began, first as a dancer in West End musicals then in films including Stop the World I Want to Get Off and Casino Royale. She met the choreographer Gary Cockrell while dancing in the American musical Carnival at the Lyric Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue. He had come to London with West Side Story and was teaching jazz dance, a new form that attracted Carlotta’s interest. She flew to New York to study with Gary’s teacher Matt Maddox, and here was auditioned and accepted for the Boys from Syracuse which was transferring from New York to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. After this Gary chose her to be a member of his new group, The Beat Girls, with whom she danced on BBC2’s show Beat Room for a year.
A new turning point in Carlotta’s career occurred on the night the Daily Mirror sponsored a ball at the Albert Hall in the presence of the Beatles. She sustained a knee injury after the performance and had to say goodbye to her friends in the Beat Girls who later formed Pan’s People. She joined Gary and his partner in creating the Dance Centre in Covent Garden on an American model of open classes, airy studios and proper showers. Here Carlotta taught jazz dance and began work as a choeographer.