Gable, Christopher Michael

▪ 1999

      British ballet dancer and actor (b. March 13, 1940, Hackney, London, Eng.—d. Oct. 23, 1998, near Halifax, Yorkshire, Eng.), was a popular star of the Royal Ballet, and his strong dramatic ability paved the way for him to make a smooth transition to theatre and motion pictures. When he was a young boy, Gable, having seen dance numbers in films, asked for lessons. His mother consented, if he also studied piano, and by the time he was 11, he had been accepted into the Sadler's Wells (now Royal) Ballet School. After graduation (1956) Gable joined the Sadler's Wells Opera Ballet, and a year later he entered the Covent Garden Opera Ballet. Not satisfied with this outcome, he arranged to get himself noticed by the director of the Royal Ballet's touring company and before long was asked to join. His big break came when company member Lynn Seymour—herself a dramatic dancer and well aware of Gable's talent for bringing a story to life—suggested that choreographer Kenneth MacMillan cast him opposite her in his ballet The Invitation (1960). The value of their partnership was proved a year later when they danced together in the premiere of Frederick Ashton's The Two Pigeons. Gable continued to dance leading roles, and in 1963 he joined the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, where he added even more ballets to his repertoire. In 1965, however, although MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet had been choreographed on Gable and Seymour and was exquisitely suited to their style, the honour of dancing the premiere was given to Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev for box-office reasons. Disappointment over this, in addition to foot troubles caused by arthritis, led him to leave the company within two years. After guest appearances with Ballet Rambert, Gable spent a season with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where his most notable role was Lysander in Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and several seasons with the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. Gable also found work in television and motion pictures, especially under the direction of Ken Russell. He was acclaimed for his role as Eric Fenby in the BBC television film Song of Summer (1968) and for his performance in the title role, opposite Twiggy, in the film The Boy Friend (1971). In 1982 Gable cofounded the Central School of Ballet in Clerkenwell, London, and in 1987, after having danced once again—in Northern Ballet Theatre's A Simple Man—he became NBT's artistic director. Through his efforts NBT, then based in Manchester (now in Leeds), was transformed from a financially endangered company into one of major stature, imprinted with Gable's dramatic style. He was the subject of a BBC television documentary in 1989 and was appointed C.B.E. in 1996.

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