Individual artists such as Margot Fonteyn, Wayne Sleep and Rudolf Nureyev used the smaller spaces to privately fine-tune their performances.
As an art-student Valerie bought student tickets for The Royal Opera House top gallery so that she could see the great Russian dancers take command of the aging stage.
[2] Other teachers who quickly found the facilities helpful include Gillian Gregory, Diana South, and Mike St.Leger Arlene Phillips,[citation needed] Lindsay Kemp, Molly Molloy[3] and Gary Cockrell.
Many of the dance students themselves went on to successful careers, for example David Bowie, who cites Lindsay Kemp's mime classes[4] as being a fundamental inspiration for the character Ziggy Stardust,[5] and Kate Bush.
[citation needed] In 1971, theatre producer Ian Albery asked The Dance Centre to help rent its warehouse (just around the corner in Earlham Street) to theatrical companies.