I shall always be thankful for the full scholarship I was granted by the Legat School, under the leadership of Mrs. Anna Legat-Pinnes. The resident teachers  Eunice Bartell, Moïra Scott and John Raven participated in giving me the basic technique I was lacking when I joined the school in 1971.

In two years, their teaching allowed me to make enough progress so as to be offered a contract in Heidelberg, Germany  where other ex-Legat students Jenny Lowe, Manel Jayasekera, Vanda Curphey, Teresa Rocks were already dancing professionally.

During my stay, on top of classical, modern, character, pas de deux etc.. I started studying Yoga, a daily discipline introduced  by Nadine Nicholaeva Legat in 1923 long before it became popular. I still continue this practice today.

Combining general education and ballet, in Mark Cross, Sussex, the Legat Trust boarding school, was set in the fabulous grounds of an old monastery. It included a theatre, a swimming pool, tennis court etc… and held an end of the year Garden Party where I performed the various variations and  pas de deux from la Fille Mal Gardée or Don Quixote and ballets of the classical repertoire as well as: Dream of  Vienna Woods, Masquerade, The Seal Wife or Harnasi (Polish character) which we had learnt during the year.

Ten years after my graduation as a student, I went back to the Legat School to acquire the Advanced Teachers Exams of the Russian Ballet Society in 1983.

RUSSIAN BALLET SOCIETY : THE LEGAT SYSTEM

Sergeï Nicholaï Legat (1869-1937) trained at the Imperial Theater School, St. Petersburg from 1880 to 1888 under Enrico Cecchetti and Christian Johanssen before joining the the Marinsky Theater as Premier Danseur where he partnered Anna Pavlova in La Fille mal gardée and Swan Lake etc.. 

He then became a teacher of the Class of perfection at the Imperial Theater School as well as of the Marinsky where he taught Nijinsky, Massine, Danilova and Vaganova.
 
At the time of the Russian revolution in 1922, he was ballet master of the Grand Theater in Moscow. The next year, with his wife Nadine Nicolaeva Legat, he moved to England and opened a studio in Kensington, London and founded the Russian Ballet Society.  There he taught Alicia Markova, Anton Dolin, Michael Somes, André Evglesky, Karsavina etc..

In 1925 he was shortly ballet master of the Diaghilev Ballet Russe.

After his death in 1937 Nadine Nicolaeva Legat  founded The Legat School of Russian Ballet in Finchcocks, Goudhurst, Kent to continue the promotion and teaching of his technique.

When she passed away, on 4th of February 1971, the school was taken over by Eunice Bartell who carried on the teaching of the system in Tunbridge Wells and later back home in Edinburg.