In a career spanning more than six decades, Dare made her first appearance on stage in 1899, in the Christmas pantomime Babes in the Wood in London, where she performed under her real name Florence Dones.

In the first decade of the 1900s, she starred in pantomimes and various Edwardian musical comedy productions including An English Daisy, Sergeant Brue and The Catch of the Season, as well as the title roles in Lady Madcap and The Girl on Stage.

She retired in 1911 and nursed soldiers in France during World War I. Dare returned to the stage in 1926 where she played the title role in The Last of Mrs. Cheyney.

Dare was born in Chelsea, London, the oldest of three children[1] of Arthur Albert Dones, a divorce clerk, and his wife Harriette Amelia (née Wheeler).

[1] Dare left Edwardes' company in 1906 to play Betty Silverthorne in Hicks' The Beauty of Bath at the Aldwych Theatre.

[4] In 1907, she returned to the Aldwych as Victoria Siddons in The Gay Gordons and spent the rest of the year in a tour of one act plays with Hicks' company.

She spent 1908 and the beginning of 1909 touring both in The Gay Gordons, this time in the lead role of Peggy Quainton, and in Sweet and Twenty, among other pieces.

[3] In March 1909, she starred in Papa's Wife at the London Coliseum and then played Princess Amaranth in Mitislaw or The Love Match at the Hippodrome.

[1] She spent the better part of 1910 touring as Duc de Richelieu in The Dashing Little Duke, before returning to the Hippodrome to perform in The Model and the Man.

[2] While appearing in The Catch of the Season, she met and subsequently became engaged to Maurice Vyner Baliol Brett (1882–1934), the second son of the 2nd Viscount Esher.

Dare began her own theatre company in 1928 and toured South Africa in The High Road, The Trial of Mary Dugan, The Squeaker and Other Men's Wives.

In 1938, she went on to play Tiny Fox-Coller in Farrell and Perry's Irish comedy, Spring Meeting, at the Ambassadors Theatre, which was directed by John Gielgud.

In 1943 she played Fanny Farrelly in a tour of The Watch on the Rhine, followed by the Red Queen in Gielgud's revival of Alice Through the Looking Glass at the Scala Theatre in London.

[7] She also appeared in several television movies in England including: Spring Meeting (1938), Barbie (1955), The Burning Glass (1956) and An Ideal Husband (1969).