[1] Born David Butterfield in Halifax, Yorkshire, he started taking ballet lessons after watching his sister in a class at their local dance school.
As he was very short in comparison with many of his classmates, Blair's acceptance into the school was on the understanding that he had to grow significantly during his first term or he would receive injections of growth-inducing hormones.
After the retirement of Michael Somes, Blair became for a time the regular partner of Margot Fonteyn, prima ballerina of the company, who was nearing the end of her career.
During his career, Blair worked with some of the most notable choreographers of the twentieth century, including Anton Dolin, George Balanchine, John Cranko, Frederick Ashton, and Kenneth MacMillan.
They had danced together as Swanilda and Franz in Coppélia and had won critical acclaim,[3] but it was as Lise and Colas in Ashton's new version of the old French ballet La fille mal gardée that forever solidified them as a pair of young lovers.
Set to a new arrangement of Frederick Hérold's music, with much new material by John Lanchbery, and with stunning décor designed by Osbert Lancaster, it was a spectacular success.