Gillian Haywood-Widdowson Interview: Kirby's Flying Ballet
Title
Gillian Haywood-Widdowson Interview: Kirby's Flying Ballet
Date
7 November 2018
Description
Oral history interview with former dancer and Pantomime performer Gillian Haywood-Widdowson.
What's the story?
Gillian Haywood-Widdowson was born in Manthorpe in Lincolnshire in 1933 and moved to Nottingham aged 2, living in Sneinton Dale.
As a child she contracted rheumatic fever and following advice from doctors her mother enrolled her in dancing classes to try and prevent further problems with her joints.
As a teenager she started dancing professionally and performed in Pantomimes at the Theatre Royal, most notably Dick Whittington in 1948, Jack and the Beanstalk in 1949 and Red Riding Hood in 1950. For these shows Gillian was one of the star performers for Kirby’s Flying Ballet, which performed spectacular aerial routines.
Gillian continued to dance well into her 40s, performing cabaret work, as well as her second career of designing and making bridal veils. She still lives in Sneinton.
In this interview Gillian talks about how she was recruited, along with her life-long friend Cherry Hutton, to be part of Kirby’s Flying Ballet. As Gillian recounts, flying above the stage in harnesses was not without its problems:
But I was in Red Riding Hood, Jack and Whatsit and Cinderella and in Derby I was in the Flying Ballet there. And it was Kirby’s Flying Ballet. They wanted the local girls to stand there and we didn’t know what it was about. It was all new. And somebody said, “We’re flying”. Flying? Never heard of it, you see. And they pointed to me. “Would you come out Gillian”, they’d been told who I was, you see. And I went and stood and they said, “Stand here, turn round” and everything looked at me and “I think you’ll do”. And then they’d got six others, went in pairs, so they chose Cherry and Little Julie, we called her, Little June and another June, there was, I forget the other two. And those were the single flowers, they used to come up and down, like that, and I used to come up and down, up and down, spinning. Up there.
And in Red Riding Hood, I got trapped up in an arc lamp, the wires. And then when I came down, they couldn’t get me down and of course they’d closed the curtains, you see, this was some front curtain act going on, I forget what you call it now, I’ll have to put my cap on, and they said you’ll have to stay there, stay there and it was red hot. It was really hot, it was. “Are you all right? But stay there. Lift your legs, lift your legs, lift your legs up”. And Julie Andrews came down with the Principal Boy walking down. Of course they’d see it. What was happening, without the audience noticing. And I didn’t get down till after they’d drawn it up again. Anyway Cherry decided that I wouldn’t be there in time to get changed for the next scene and that was to do this Eastern dance and so they brought all my clothes down to change into and somebody, a stagehand, I think, took my gear, it was a saddle, I wore and it was all right, I made it in time to go on.
As a child she contracted rheumatic fever and following advice from doctors her mother enrolled her in dancing classes to try and prevent further problems with her joints.
As a teenager she started dancing professionally and performed in Pantomimes at the Theatre Royal, most notably Dick Whittington in 1948, Jack and the Beanstalk in 1949 and Red Riding Hood in 1950. For these shows Gillian was one of the star performers for Kirby’s Flying Ballet, which performed spectacular aerial routines.
Gillian continued to dance well into her 40s, performing cabaret work, as well as her second career of designing and making bridal veils. She still lives in Sneinton.
In this interview Gillian talks about how she was recruited, along with her life-long friend Cherry Hutton, to be part of Kirby’s Flying Ballet. As Gillian recounts, flying above the stage in harnesses was not without its problems:
But I was in Red Riding Hood, Jack and Whatsit and Cinderella and in Derby I was in the Flying Ballet there. And it was Kirby’s Flying Ballet. They wanted the local girls to stand there and we didn’t know what it was about. It was all new. And somebody said, “We’re flying”. Flying? Never heard of it, you see. And they pointed to me. “Would you come out Gillian”, they’d been told who I was, you see. And I went and stood and they said, “Stand here, turn round” and everything looked at me and “I think you’ll do”. And then they’d got six others, went in pairs, so they chose Cherry and Little Julie, we called her, Little June and another June, there was, I forget the other two. And those were the single flowers, they used to come up and down, like that, and I used to come up and down, up and down, spinning. Up there.
And in Red Riding Hood, I got trapped up in an arc lamp, the wires. And then when I came down, they couldn’t get me down and of course they’d closed the curtains, you see, this was some front curtain act going on, I forget what you call it now, I’ll have to put my cap on, and they said you’ll have to stay there, stay there and it was red hot. It was really hot, it was. “Are you all right? But stay there. Lift your legs, lift your legs, lift your legs up”. And Julie Andrews came down with the Principal Boy walking down. Of course they’d see it. What was happening, without the audience noticing. And I didn’t get down till after they’d drawn it up again. Anyway Cherry decided that I wouldn’t be there in time to get changed for the next scene and that was to do this Eastern dance and so they brought all my clothes down to change into and somebody, a stagehand, I think, took my gear, it was a saddle, I wore and it was all right, I made it in time to go on.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Contributor
Interviewers: Valerie Rogers & Sally Smith
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
