I'm very sad to hear that Maryon Lane has died. I remember her performances from the mid 1960's (she retired in 1968 I believe) and if I remember rightly she was in the first cast when the RB staged Balanchine's masterpiece Serenade. Some years later I came into contact with Ms Lane when she taught pointe classes at Pineapple Dance Centre, where the company I was working with at the time used to rehearse, and remember her as a very warm and encouraging teacher. Some years ago she made the very sensible decision to re-locate to the beautiful island of Cyprus where her death occurred.

The following obituary has appeared in the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... -Lane.html

I hope some better obituaries are posted elsewhere later as I've had cause to complain about the dance obituaries in this publication before (always anonymous, please note). Just as I was dismayed earlier in the year about the Telegraph obit of Bessmertnova including unkind and inappropriate comments about the ballerina's grieving widower, Yuri Grigorovich, I am dismayed all over again at the writer’s attacks on Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev and Ninette de Valois.

So Ms Lane once criticized Nureyev; so what? Why include in an obituary some off the cuff remark that was probably later regretted? It is true that Ms Lane's husband, David Blair, did see almost an end to his partnership with Fonteyn with the advent of Nureyev and was not unsurprisingly upset about it, but he got on with his career and (I know this from talking to him) wasn't one to dwell on the past. What a great shame that this writer has to pad out his/her piece by making two outstanding dancers such as Lane and Blair sound mean and resentful.

The Independent is two months late with its obituary of Maryon Lane, but has nevertheless produced a much better appreciation than the Telegraph.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obitu ... 94373.html

I find it interesting that this obit provided the information that her school was actually in Kyrenia (a breathtakingly beautiful town) that is in the breakaway area of Turkish controlled Northern Cyprus. I wonder if any of her former pupils are now dancing with the Turkish National Ballet?