[4] Her American father, Bill (or Billy) Darnborough (1869–1958), a former minor league baseball player and chop house owner who amassed a small fortune at roulette in the early years of the twentieth century,[5] has been described as "the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo, though ... [l]ike many an habitual gambler, he would generally lose his winnings at the next turn of the wheel, and it took all his wife's pleading to persuade him to stop".
Reporting on the event for the Dancing Times, which featured an early photograph of Darnborough, Arnold L Haskell wrote that she was "above the average, with the makings of a first class soloist", while noting that "competition conditions seem to affect the senior artists far more than the children" and that consequently there was in all of them "a certain strain and lack of spontaneity".
[14] Darnborough took additional lessons from some leading Russian teachers in London, notably Serge Morosov and Serafina Astafieva, and, with MacLaren's encouragement, joined the class of Ninette de Valois who, in 1931, founded the Vic-Wells company (forerunner of the Royal Ballet).
[3] In 1933 she performed in Les Rendezvous, Frederick Ashton's first major production at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London,[16] dancing a pas de six with Beatrice Appleyard, Sheila McCarthy, Freda Bamford, Nadina Newhouse and Gwyneth Mathews.
Others who appeared in this landmark production included Alicia Markova, Robert Helpmann ("so pushy, but very funny with it" according to Darnbrough[3]) and de Valois herself ("good technique, but stiff arms").
[28] Darnborough took part in the annual summer productions of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha at the Royal Albert Hall, which were choreographed by Euphan MacLaren, among others,[29] and had a cast of some 800 singers and 200 dancers.
[3] Well into the 21st century, a child veteran of Saturday performances recalled the "amazing" proportions of the scenery - a huge backdrop of mountains and trees, with wigwams and "the sound of a waterfall" - and the "horrible brown liquid" used for make-up.
She appeared not to have regretted her decision and, in old age, recalled both the relatively poor pay at Vic-Wells and the sternness of de Valois, who would "stamp her stick furiously" and had once castigated her for the untidiness of her dressing table.
[3] In 2008 she was visited at her home in Oxfordshire by a South African "blogger" who noted her peaceful life and artistic background[35] and the following year she gave an interview to the Dancing Times, whose retrospective of her career was illustrated with photographs from her own collection.