During the Second World War, still in the ballet company, Gnatt worked with the Resistance as liaison for British special operations parachutists.
Gnatt and New Zealand ballet teachers Beryl Nettleton and Bettina Edwards performed at the Playhouse Theatre[a] and in His Majesty's Theatre, Queen Street, which led to lecture-demonstrations with a quartet of dancers, starting with tours to rural centres in the North Island sponsored by the Community Arts Service of Auckland University College.
He was famously photographed in the sand dunes at Te Henga / Bethells Beach in 1954, alongside dancer Julie Barker.
His sister, Kirsten Ralov, and her husband, Fredborn Bjornsson, visited in 1962 to dance in Bournonville's Napoli, its first production outside Denmark.
[5] In 1998, the Royal New Zealand Ballet's principal studio was named in Gnatt's honour when it moved into the refurbished St James Theatre in Wellington.