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Transcript of Gillian Lynne Final
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Hallett
Annette Hallett
Denise Comer
English Composition 1
Sunday May 26th 2013
Gillian Lynne, Choreographer
Case Study to illustrate Factors Affecting Development of Expertise
Gillian Lynne, choreographer, at home in
London.
Photograph: Suki Dhanda for the Observer
Gillian Lynne, award winning choreographer, principal dancer, teacher, actress, director, and producer, was
born in Bromley, Kent, on February 20th
1929 to average middle-class parents. She was considered "an
underperformer and a troublesome distraction" by her primary school teachers because she lacked focus
and fidgeted a lot. A clinical psychologist observed that Gillian was not abnormal, she was a dancer. Her
mother enrolled her in a local dance school and very soon Gillian began to excel. At the school she found
companionship and she found her passion. Sadly, when Gillian was 13years old, her mother, a major
influence in her life, was killed in car crash.
As tragic as this event was, it proved to be "the building block on which Gillian built her remarkable
career. (Interview Guardian Nov 2011). Just one year after her mother's death, Gillian won a
scholarship to the prestigious Royal Academy of Dance (RAD). As a result of her self-
professed "hard work, discipline and devotion" she went on to become a principal dancer, first with the
Sadlers Wells Ballet and, thereafter, with the Royal Ballet. After leaving Covent Garden she started her
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own theatrical production company, and was associated with several successful West End shows. She
eventually moved into television where she achieved acclaim both as a performer, as a producer (Gillian
Lynne, History and Career).
As a choreographer and stage director, Gillian has worked on several productions for the Royal Opera
House, The Royal Shakespeare Company, the English National Opera, and on several films. However her
greatest triumph has to be her work for Andrew Lloyd Webber, which includes worldwide direction and
choreography of the musical production, Cats, and Olivier Award winning directorships of bothPhantom of
the Opera andAspects of Love. Although Gillian eventually stopped dancing, she never stopped working
both as a choreographer and as a teacher. In 2006, when she was 80 years of age, Gillian was asked by the
Royal Academy of Dance to create four variations for the Fonteyn Nureyev Young Dancers Competition, a
project that focuses attention on ballet for young people. In 2013 Gillian Lynne was named an Olivier Life
Time Achievement Award winner.
As one of the most successful choreographers for several generations, she believes her career and
amazing contribution to theatre has been "built on a commitment to her art and a dislike of shortcuts.
(Interview Guardian Nov 2011), but she is concerned about the future of theatre. She fears that a reliance
on celebrities has undermined her craft. "Television, especially reality TV, is a danger [to live theatre]
because producers drop someone into a [stage] role [just because] they been on television. It's not healthy.
They want instant fame."
(Guardian Mar 2013).
Are her concerns justified? I suspect they are. Research results suggest that "experts", particularly
those of Ms Lynne's calibre, do not just spring into being, they are the result of thousands of hours of
directed training, and hard work (Colvin 2009). The myth of overnight success is exactly that. A myth!
In 1996 Ericsson, one of the world's leading researchers on the subject published a detailed review of
the results of scientific research into factors and cognitive processes involved in the acquisition of
expertise. This review was updated in the year 2000. Information from this review has been cited
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extensively by authors like Daniel Coyle (2009) and Geoffrey Colvin (2009) who have both written more
recent but non academic texts on the subject.
According to Coyle, talent is not necessarily the most significant determinant of success. Expertise he
suggests is developed through a process of "struggling at the edges of one's abilities, where mistakes are
made" preferably from an early age, and for many hours.
According to Colvin there is no such thing as a natural gift to perform a particular job and that
[greatness is achieved] only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years work of a
particular type that is demanding and painful (Fortune).
Both these authors seem to be attempting to convince their readers that greatness is an attribute that is
available to everyone who is willing to do the right kind of work in the right kind of way. While the
research results would seem to uphold this theory, it does point to the possibility determinant conditions
that are not so readily available to the population in general.
It is apparent that for some individuals, no matter how hard they practice, no matter for how long, true
greatness eludes them. In the presence of a gifted master their performance becomes merely proficient.
Though there may be many who qualify to be called "expert", where that word means " one who has
acquired special skill in, or knowledge of, a particular subject through professional training and practical
experience"(Webster's Dictionary. 1976. P 800), there are only a few who possess star quality. These are
the exceptional talents who set the standard for excellence within the domain of their expertise.
I believe that Gillian Lynne possesses such star quality but she did not come by it instantly or easily.
As a result of early intervention, she experienced a personalized and specifically directed education system.
She was mentored and guided by those who had themselves achieved exceptional expertise, such as Dame
Nannette De Valois, who first discovered the aspiring ballerina and groomed her for greatness.
Gillian was able, for thousands of hours, to engage in the kind of practice that would hone her
abilities to a high level of skill. Within her brain, she was able to generate the necessary neural networks to
organise her extensive experience so that it could be "easily referenced in her working memory, and rapidly
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accessed from her long term memory (Ericsson, K. A., and W. Kintsch, 1995). She could then effortlessly
resource knowledge and utilise it for "planning, evaluation and adaptation"(Chi, Glaser& Rees 1982). The
research suggests that it is the ability to use learned information in these specific and refined ways that
establishes the true expert, and makes them superior to those who are merely proficient. But are these only
relevant factors involved?
Sir Kenneth Robinson, an expert in the field of education, who constantly stresses the need to
revolutionise education systems, cites in his book Element (2009) the life stories of several people
including Gillian, who have become icons within their individual domains of expertise. A career such as
Gillian's exemplifies something he refers to as the Element, this being "the point where natural talent meets
personal passion". He states that "When people arrive at the element they feel most themselves, most
inspired, and achieve at their highest levels. (Element Intro P1). Unlike Colvin, Robinson feels that there
is such an attribute as raw innate talent, but it is not until a connection is made, between that talent and the
passion to pursue it, that the journey to greatness becomes not only possible but almost inevitable.
When Ms Lynne was asked what factors contributed to her success she replied " I owe a lot to my
mother's influence...she taught me so much... she taught me discipline, real discipline. (Moorhead,
Guardian, Nov 2011). Of her debut performance as a soloist at Covent Garden in 1946 Gillian writes in her
autobiography " ...everything disappeared ...there was my mother above and all around me, and I offered up
my dance to her" (Gillian Lynne 2011).
I doubt that scientists and researchers will ever come up with testing strategies to determine the effect
of inspiration and spiritual connection as motivators for achieving expertise. I suspect that until they do the
research data will remain incomplete.
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Works Cited
Chi, M. T. H., R. Glaser, and E. Rees, 1982, Expertise in problem solving. In *Advances in the
Psychology of Human Intelligence*, R. S. Sternberg, ed. Hillsdale, NJ Erlbaum, Vol. 1, pp. 1-75. (Print)
Ericsson, K. A., 1996, the acquisition of expert performance: An introduction to some of the issues. In
*The Road to Excellence: The Acquisition of Expert Performance in the Arts and Sciences, Sports, and
Games*, K. A. Ericsson, ed. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 1-50. (Print)
Ericsson, K. A., and W. Kintsch, 1995, Long-term working memory. *Psychological Review*, 102: 211-
245 (Print)
Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code, New York: Bantam Dell, 2009, Print
Colvin, Geoffrey. What it takes to be greatFortune 19 October 2006 Web
Gillian Lynne, a Dancer in Wartime: One girl's journey from the Blitz to Sadler's Wells Chatto & Windus
Great Britain 2011 Print
Gillian Lynne,History and Careerwww.gillianlynne.comMay 2013 WEB
Joanna Moorehead, Gillian Lynne Theatre BalletGuardian Nov 2011 WEB
Sir Kenneth Robinson, ElementViking Penguin, Penguin Group(USA) 2009 Print
Vanessa Thorpe ,Choreographer Gillian Lynne Guardian Mar 24th 2013 WEB
Images
Suki Dhanda Gillian Lynne, choreographer, at home in London. Observer 2013 WEB
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