Brenda Averty

Brenda Averty was born on 22^nd October 1933 in Tottenham, north London. Her mother played in an all-ladies big band while her father was an oboist and saxophonist performing regularly in pit orchestras in London and provincial theatres.
She began dancing lessons around age 10 and eventually was offered a place in the Sadler’s Wells school. She was accepted into the company in her teens. When the company made their second famous tour of the US after the war, she was still young enough to need a chaperone. She danced in many ballets and operas at the ROH, including Giselle, Carmen and Cinderella which starred Moira Shearer, Frederick Ashton, Robert Helpmann, Nadia Nerina, Beryl Grey, John Cranko and Kenneth MacMillan who was a personal friend. During her time with Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, she shared the same ballet shoes with Fonteyn.
She left the company in 1953 to expand her experience of the dance world working in musicals including South Pacific. In 1957, she was invited by Dame Ninette de Valois to go out to Ankara to start the Turkish Opera Ballet from a nucleus of graduating students at the Conservatoire run by former dancers and teachers of the Royal Ballet. She spent two years successfully creating an ambitious company with a growing repertoire.
On her return in June 1960, she choreographed the dances for the opening of Europe’s largest TV studio in Wembley which staged An Arabian Night (Associated-Rediffusion).
Harold Fielding made her his ballet mistress for all his West End shows including Half A Sixpence, Music Man and Sail Away (which she re-choreographed for its Australian premiere under the direction of Noel Coward).
Brenda married in 1959 and on the birth of her son in 1965, she decided to give up the theatre. Many tried to cajole her back, but sadly she never returned. She died on 8^th December 2012 after a long illness. Her son, Dru Masters is a leading TV and film composer whose credits include The Apprentice and the drama series, Silk.