The Pull of Home - episode 19

The very beginning of my story. Visit our family home and the warm chaos within. Meet my Mum, Dad, brother and sisters. A glimpse into life in the 1960's.

My first ballet classes as a six year old. How my mother saved the day.

Things start to scale up when I go to Corona Stage School. I find a dance mentor and Dad becomes a grumpy hero.

My Dad organises my secret audition for a professional Ballet School in East Grinstead. I then meet another influential lady in my life whilst I Polka in the biggest studio I have ever seen. 

My Italian family think I have been kidnapped, my Dad tells them where to go whilst I get turned down for a grant. 

A rather tense car ride to my new Ballet School. My little sister playing 'rag doll' with me, my brother giving me a whole Ten Shilling note and my mother sobbing and smoking like she would use every cigarette in Surrey. Meeting 'Nursey' and finding out that trendy, short skirts were useless for galloping like a horse around a dance studio.

How I yearned for winceyette pyjamas and boring old fashioned slippers.

Crisp and formal bedding, lights out and growing home sickness with an unusual approach to bed time.

Girls behaving 'sort of badly' at night. Strange rituals involving absent Nursey and Glito . . . . .

My first morning with a ridiculously early start, cold linoleum and myriad shoes.