Princess Diana’s dance teacher talks about what she learned from the iconic royal

“Princess Di” — formally Diana, Princess of Wales — loved to dance. She was also a great supporter of dance, notably London City Ballet and English National Ballet. Less well-known is that for almost nine years, starting shortly after her 1981 marriage to Charles, she took hundreds of private one-on-one classes with Glasgow-born dancer and rehearsal director Anne Allan.
Now, more than 30 years later, Allan has published “Dancing with Diana,” a memoir about that special experience which offers fresh insight into the real Princess Di.
It vividly recounts such extraordinary events as Diana’s unannounced performance at a charity gala at London’s Royal Opera House and her secret visit to watch a dance extravaganza from the wings of a West End theatre.
The memoir additionally details Allan’s own career path, from performer and ballet mistress to choreographer and director, a journey that eventually led her to settle in Canada where, among other roles, she served as resident director of the Toronto-based Livent, the company that brought the city such hits as “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and “Ragtime.” Allan, who later served for 10 years as artistic director of Prince Edward Island’s Charlottetown Festival, now makes her home in the Beach.
Many books have been written about Diana, especially since her tragic death. What prompted you to write your own?
Over the past 30 years I’ve done about three interviews with people who knew I’d taught the princess. I was excited to be able to share what I saw in this remarkable lady in the almost nine years we worked together. Although I thought we’d had a wonderful interview, in the final edit it seemed all they were interested in was the salacious side of things, the tittle-tattle, which was not at all what I wanted to express. Then I thought there are some stories I’d like people to hear that cast perhaps a different light on Diana and reveal (her) inner beauty.
So why not sooner?
What finally convinced me that I really should write it down was when my then three-year-old granddaughter saw a photo in my home and asked, “Who is that?” When I told her, “Well, that’s the princess,” she got quite excited. So, that very night I started writing down some of my memories, initially for my family to have, but then I thought, why not share them more widely?
How did you come to be Diana’s dance teacher?
In 1981 I was a dancer and ballet mistress with a small company called London City Ballet. I’d had a tiring day at work. I’d just put my young daughter Emily to bed and could hardly wait to put my feet up when the phone rang. A very posh voice said, “Hello, this is Anne Beckwith-Smith, lady-in-waiting to the Princess of Wales.” I replied, “Oh, hello,” as if I was used to getting evening calls from members of the royal household. She continued to tell me that the princess was interested in taking dance classes with me. There was part of me that was wondering if a friend or someone was playing a prank, but when she asked if we could meet for tea at the Ritz the coming Friday, I thought, “Why not?” And that’s how it started.
But why you?
I asked myself the same question and then remembered that weeks before, the day of the royal wedding, my artistic director, Harold King, had mentioned to me, confidentially, that he’d been told the princess would like to take dance classes. He’d been asked for recommendations. Harold said he’d put three names forward, including mine. The incident had slipped my mind until after I got that phone call, and I still don’t know why I was chosen. I’m sure there must have been a full background check, but I knew nothing of that.
Tell me about that first class in 1981.
Naturally, one is a bit nervous. You only know what you’ve seen on the television or read in the papers. The princess’s staff had found a private dance studio that was somewhat out of the way, down a lane behind some houses in a fairly quiet part of southwest London. I’d arrived early, of course. I’d bought a little bouquet and put on what I thought was a suitable dress. I’d been told I must address the princess as “Your Royal Highness.” So, when Diana swept into the room with that lovely smile, I made my best ballet curtsy and gave her the flowers and addressed her as instructed. She immediately said, “Oh, please call me Diana.” Initially, I just couldn’t but, eventually, as we became comfortable with each other, I did. And we were so lucky because her two detectives always waited outside.
It’s clear that you quickly established a rapport with Diana. How do you account for that?
There was such an openness about Diana. I think that’s why so many people loved her and still love her, because she was so transparent in expressing her enjoyment of meeting people. In our case, it was partly the whole situation, meeting privately, away from the glare of the media, doing something she felt passionate about in a lovely studio that actually belonged to a Royal Ballet star of the time, Merle Park. It was a luxury for Diana to have those moments; just two women, eventually both us mothers, dancing or just lying sweaty and exhausted on the studio floor after a class, chatting casually. It was a cocoon of privacy, and we developed a real bond of trust. I think she valued honesty when she asked me something, not as the Princess of Wales, but as a fellow human being.
How would you describe the woman you knew?
It’s important to remember that Diana was only 20 when I began teaching her. She was still in her 20s when we stopped — just a young woman. People tend to focus on what came later, the books, the interviews, the separation, the divorce and the tragic end. One of the reasons I wanted to write the book was to remind people how young and, in a way, vulnerable Diana was as she began what she saw as her professional life as the Princess of Wales. In some ways she was a little bit on her own in terms of getting honest advice, and I think she felt she got that in her times with me.
Can you single out any particular moment with Diana that you especially treasure?
There were several of them and they mostly happened in the dance studio. I still remember that first class, with us ending up sitting on the floor. I had no way of knowing how it would go, but to see her in that relaxed moment of total enjoyment, I’ll treasure that. And that laugh of hers and the way her eyes would light up. And her youthful enthusiasm, like the time she’d just come back from America and the first thing she told me was how she’d danced with John Travolta after a White House banquet. And then, of course, there was her pure, total elation as she came offstage after performing a duet with the wonderful British dancer Wayne Sleep.
A very vivid section of your memoir recounts that famous moment. And I was surprised to read that when Diana told you she wanted to perform in public, you had misgivings.
Well, it’s true that I did, and I expressed them to Diana. It’s one thing to dance in a studio, but to go out onto a big stage — with lights blazing at you and a huge audience and the music — it’s a very different thing. And there was not a lot of time to prepare. There was also the fact that I was not sure it was appropriate, given Diana’s position and I suppose you’d call them the stuffy attitudes of that time. I sensed some of that at the reception afterwards. But Diana had set her heart on it, and she’d already settled on the music, Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl.” It was, after all, the annual Friends of Covent Garden royal gala and Diana thought her surprise appearance on the program would be like a party piece. She and Wayne were truly marvellous and the audience, well, most of them, were thrilled.
It’s remarkable that Diana’s weekly dance classes, with gaps, of course, for royal tours and pregnancies — two of Diana’s and, during those nine years, one of yours — remained a secret from the media.
It just illustrates how much times have changed, because I don’t think with social media and the way almost everyone walks around with a camera in their pocket, we’d be able to do that now. There was just a very tight-knit group of people who knew, and they all wanted to protect Diana’s privacy. There was an occasion when her detectives whisked her away from class because they were concerned that she might (have been) followed, and after that we changed studios. But looking back it really is remarkable how we got away with it.
One’s 20s are usually a time of self-discovery and personal growth. Did you observe this in the princess?
Indeed. It was wonderful to see the growth of her confidence in finding her true self and having the courage to … use her voice for the things she felt passionate about. I knew early on about the difficulties in her marriage, and I could see what it often took out of Diana just by watching her in dance class. But I felt when we had to end our classes that I was leaving a woman who knew who she was.
This is not a what-the-butler-saw kind of memoir, although there are probably things you know but decided not to reveal.
Yes, that’s true. I’m just not interested in the gossip. It’s why I’ve not read any of the books about Diana that claim to tell the true story. The point of my memoir is to show the joy Diana found in dance — what dance can do for people. For Diana it brought moments of physical and emotional honesty. Dance can do that. It can help you find yourself. It can help you express yourself.