[1] Born in Cape Town, a cosmopolitan city near the southern tip of South Africa, Alfred Rodrigues made his first appearance on stage as a child.
Subsequently, as a student in the ballet classes of the celebrated teacher Cecily Robinson, he failed to show any particular talent as a dancer, but in workshops he did demonstrate a certain flair for choreography.
In 1946, he arrived in England on a troopship, made his way to London, and resumed his dance studies with Stanislas Idzikowski and Vera Volkova, who taught at the Sadler's Wells Ballet School.
In 1949, he was promoted to soloist and was encouraged to pursue his choreographic interests, whereupon he restaged L'Île des Sirènes for a tour by Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann, the stars of the company.
After these two productions, he proceeded to mount his ballets all over the world, working in Poland, Denmark, Turkey, the United States, Chile, Japan, Germany, the Philippines, and South Africa.
Among the West End musicals and revues for which he created dances are Airs on a Shoestring (1953), Joyce Grenfell Requests the Pleasure (1954), Pay the Piper (1954), Chrysanthemum (1956), Ann Veronica (1960s), and On the Brighter Side (1961).
In old age, Rodrigues became severely handicapped, but as late as 1996, he was in Japan to revive Cinderella for the Kobayashi company, with Farron giving him support by acting as "his legs."