TRAINING AS BALLET DANCER

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27581, 11 February 1955, Page 7

TRAINING AS BALLET DANCER

CHRISTCHURCH YOUTH FOR SADLER’S WELLS Christopher Bamford, a 17-year-old Christchurch dancer who has been offered free tuition at the Sadler’s Wells School of Ballet, will leave Wellington on Saturday for England to begin his studies. An offer such as he has received is regarded as a signal honour. Christopher Bamford will be at the college for a year, when the college authorities will review the position. Two North Island dancers, Bryan Ashbridge and Alexander Grant, have already become leading soloists at Sadler’s Wells. When he was at Cathedral Grammar School and later at the Christchurch Boys’ High School, Bamford won athletic cups, and he has been training hard for a career as a ballet dancer for three years. He was taught dancing as a small boy, but Miss Doreen Herbert, who has been his tutor from the time he started, said yesterday that he took little interest in it in the early stages. In the last two years he has taken part in Christchurch Operatic Society productions. Bamford has taken a considerable interest in costuming and stage decor, and has shown considerable aptitude in both directions. ’