Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1991, and the presenter was Sue Lawley. My castaway this week is Britain's most distinguished ballet mistress.

Her glamorous French name belies her Anglo-Irish upbringing.

It is in fact one she adopted shortly after her first appearance on the professional stage more than 75 years ago.

Her contribution to ballet in this country has been phenomenal.

In 1931, she became the first director of the Vic Wells Ballet School, which grew and changed

over the years to become in 1956 the Royal Ballet.

Fierce but compassionate, she has brought to her work the perfection she learned long ago

from the presiding genius of 20th century ballet Diagalef.

She's now in her 90s and still known in her own world as Madam.

To the rest of us, she is more familiar as Dame Ninette de Valois.

Do the pupils at the school or the members of the core still stand a little

straighter and put on their best behavior when madam walks down in the

corridor.

At all they were natural because if they're natural I know how good they are or bad.

We don't go in for any affectations if we can help it.

But they used to say you gave them hell in rehearsals. Oh I, well you know what to,

you tell any art to say, don't do anything very well, they'll say it's hell and it is to them

bord a sympathise with them.

But you were said to be the mistress of the single withering sentence is that right?

I don't know I'm afraid I haven't kept a list of any of my

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