Norman Morrice

Norman Morrice has died at the age of 76. A shy, retiring man, he had not played a high profile role in British dance for some years yet he made a vital contribution to the two oldest British dance companies, quite literally saving one of them from extinction. He was born in Mexico on 10 September 1931 and spent his childhood in Scotland and England. He started to dance quite late, attained a scholarship to the Rambert School and joined Ballet Rambert in 1953, became a principal dancer, starting to choreograph in 1958 with “Two Brothers,” of which filmed fragments still survive.

Apart from “Blind Sight” in 1969, which was very popular, his choreographic works have not survived in the repertoire. However, in 1962 he became Marie Rambert’s principal choreogra-pher and it was he who advised her in 1966 to avoid financial ruin by ceasing to exist as a ballet company and becoming  an experimental modern dance group instead. It was advice which provided salvation. Rambert dates its existence from 1926 and is officially the oldest dance company in the UK. Without Morrice’s intelligent vision Rambert would have sunk into extinction. He became joint director of Ballet Rambert from 1970 to ...