Widely recognized as "modern British ballet's first male virtuoso,"[1] he had an illustrious career as a principal dancer, after which he continued to perform in character roles.
Then, encouraged by Léonide Massine, he moved to London and continued his studies with Marie Rambert at her school in Bedford Gardens.
[4] In 1930 the ballerina Tamara Karsavina joined Rambert's performing group as a guest artist and chose Turner, then only 20 years old, to partner her in Le Spectre de la Rose, a work originally choreographed for her and Vaslav Nijinsky by Michel Fokine.
Of the numerous roles he created during his five years with this company, the two most memorable are the Red Knight in Checkmate by de Valois and the Blue Boy in Les Patineurs (The Skaters) by Ashton.
The Red Knight is engaged in a dramatic, grim struggle of love and death with the Black Queen; the Blue Boy is a perky, lighthearted show-off performing dazzling tricks on a frozen pond.
In 1941-1942 he danced with Mona Inglesby's International Ballet, after which he served in the Royal Air Force during World War II.
Engaged to appear as the old Marquis di Luca in the 1962 revival of Massine's The Good-Humoured Ladies, he died of a heart attack on the way to his dressing room after a rehearsal at the Royal Opera House.