Gillian Lynne Final

7/29/2019 Gillian Lynne Final

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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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