{{Short description|English ballet dancer (1930–2022)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}} {{Infobox person | image = | caption = Goldwyn in the second act of Giselle | birth_name = Beryl Fleur Goldwyn | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1930|12|31}} | birth_place = England | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2022|10|11|1930|12|31}} | death_place = | occupation = Ballet dancer | spouse = {{ubl||{{marriage|[[Andrew Karney]]<br>|1969}}}} | children = Peter Karney (b.1972) }} '''Beryl Fleur Karney''' (31 December 1930 – 11 October 2022), also known as '''Beryl Goldwyn''', was an English [[ballet]] dancer.
Born near [[London]], she started dancing at the age of three. She studied with [[Marie Rambert]] at the [[Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate]]<ref>[https://rambert.org.uk/voice/beryl-goldwyn/ "Beryl Goldwyn talks about her time studying with Marie Rambert"]</ref> alongside [[Audrey Hepburn]] and at the [[Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts]]. She attended the [[Royal Ballet School]]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/danceencyclopedi00chuj|url-access=registration|title=The Dance Encyclopedia|first1=Anatole|last1=Chujoy|first2=Phyllis Winifred|last2=Manchester|date=9 June 1967|publisher=Simon and Schuster|access-date=9 June 2018|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> and performed with [[The Royal Ballet]] in ''The Sleeping Princess'' (''[[The Sleeping Beauty (ballet)|The Sleeping Beauty]]'') with Dame [[Margot Fonteyn]] when the [[Royal Opera House]] reopened after the [[World War II]] in 1946.<ref name="guardianobit">{{cite news|last=Pritchard|first=Jane|date=26 October 2022|title=Beryl Goldwyn obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/oct/26/beryl-goldwyn-obituary|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=4 December 2022}}</ref><ref name="auto"/>
Goldwyn danced in 1946 with the Anglo Polish Ballet, a wartime troupe originally formed to provide work for Polish dancers in exile. The company was disbanded six months later, but not without first dancing at the [[Saville Theatre]] on London's [[West End theatre|West End]].
She joined the [[Ballet Rambert]] in 1949,<ref>[https://rambert.org.uk/voice/beryl-goldwyn/ "Beryl Goldwyn talks about her time with Rambert from the late 1940s to 1960"], [[Ballet Rambert]]</ref> later becoming its [[prima ballerina]]<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=-Qs7AAAAMAAJ&q=%22beryl+goldwyn ''Ballet: A Decade of Endeavor''], p. 96</ref>
[[File:Beryl Goldwyn at Baalbek.jpg|thumb|left|At [[Baalbeck International Festival]]]] Goldwyn danced numerous roles, including ''[[Les Sylphides]]'', ''[[The Nutcracker]]'', Gala Performance, and ''[[The Sleeping Beauty (ballet)|The Sleeping Beauty]]'', She was fortunate early in her career to find an ideal partner in [[Alexander Bennett (dancer)|Alexander Bennett]]. She first impressed with the chamber ballets revived as part of Ballet at Eight, the final performances of Rambert at the tiny [[Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate]]. Goldwyn got to know the choreography of [[Walter Gore]] and [[Antony Tudor]]. Her most celebrated was the part of ''[[Giselle]]''.<ref>[https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1950-01-01/1959-12-31?basicsearch=%22goldwyn%22&phrasesearch=goldwyn&publictag=theatre%20review "Beryl Goldwyn stars in ''Giselle''], ''[[The Stage]]'', 28 May 1959 – via [[British Newspaper Archive]] {{subscription}}</ref> ''[[The Times]]'' newspaper wrote that she was “the most moving Giselle that Britain can offer”, this was at a time when [[Margot Fonteyn]] was also performing the role at the [[Royal Opera House]], Covent Garden. While in ''[[The Observer]]'' Richard Buckle described what a bore it was “to have to traipse out to Sadler's Wells and see ... some girl one has never heard of in the title role”, but admitted leaving the theatre astonished.<ref name="auto">{{cite news |title=Beryl Goldwyn obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/beryl-goldwyn-obituary-n2ngcfv75 |access-date=17 December 2022|newspaper=[[The Times]] |date=17 December 2022}}</ref>
In 1954, when [[Roberto Rossellini]] staged ''Joan of Arc at the Stake'' at the [[Stoll Theatre]], London, for his wife [[Ingrid Bergman]], it was preceded by the first act of ''Giselle'', ballet critic of the ''[[Financial Times]]'' [[Andrew Porter (music critic)|Andrew Porter]] later wrote (in 1971) that "with Beryl Goldwyn as its delightful heroine, the Honegger work (''[[Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher|Joan of Ark at the Stake]]'') did not stand much of a chance".
[[File:Beryl Goldwyn, Soirée Musicale, Tyrolean dance.jpg|thumb]] When [[John Cranko]] choreographed the two ballets for Rambert: ''The Lady with her Shadow'' in ''Variations on a Theme'' (1955) and ''The Girl in Black'' in ''La Reja'' (1959), he chose Goldwyn for the lead roles. [[Robert Joffrey]] cast her as [[Marie Taglioni]] in his ballet ''Pas de Déesses''.
She performed in the UK, [[Jersey]], Ireland, Belgium, France (at [[Théâtre du Châtelet]] in Paris and at the [[Aix-les-Bains]] Festival), throughout Germany (including [[West Berlin]]), Italy (including at [[La Fenice]] in Venice, Bologna at the [[Teatro Comunale di Bologna]], Perugia and Rome at [[Teatro Eliseo]]), the United States (at the [[Jacob's Pillow]] festival), and at the [[Baalbeck International Festival]] in Lebanon, where she shared the programme with the Lebanese singer [[Fairuz]].<ref>[http://www.arabnews.com/offbeat/news/839486 "Fairuz with Beryl Goldwyn at Baalbek"], Arabnews.com; Retrieved 19 February 2018.</ref> In 1996–97, she performed again with [[The Royal Ballet]] at the [[Royal Opera House]] in ''[[Don Quixote (ballet)|Don Quixote]]'', with [[Sylvie Guillem]], fifty years after her first performance there.<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/champagne-sylvie-1156501.html "Sylvie Guillem in ''Don Quixote'' at Covent Garden"], ''[[The Independent]]''.</ref>
She represented ballet dancers on the Council of British Actors [[Equity (British trade union)|Equity]] and in this capacity, she was consulted before [[Rudolf Nureyev]] was granted his work permit to perform in the UK.
Following her retirement from the [[Ballet Rambert]] she taught ballet for the [[Inner London Education Authority]]. She also studied painting with [[Maggi Hambling]] and exhibited her works at Saint Martin's Gallery<ref name="guardianobit" /><ref name="auto"/> in London in May 1991. She also studied [[flamenco]] dancing in [[Seville]] with {{ill|Milagros Mengíbar|es}}, the celebrated flamenco dancer.
For the 90th birthday celebrations of the Ballet Rambert, she took part in the "Rambert at 90 Oral History Project".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rambert.org.uk/explore/rambert-voices|title=Rambert Voices Archive: Beryl Goldwyn|publisher=[[Ballet Rambert]]|access-date=9 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817025959/http://www.rambert.org.uk/explore/rambert-voices/|archive-date=17 August 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Vimeo|233625166|Rambert Voices: an interview with Beryl Goldwyn}}, 13 September 2017</ref>
==Personal life and death== In 1969, she married scientist, engineer and businessman [[Andrew Karney]]; their son Peter was born in 1972.<ref name="guardianobit" /><ref name="auto"/> Goldwyn died of cancer on 11 October 2022, at the age of 91.<ref name="guardianobit"/><ref name="auto"/><ref>[https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/beryl-goldwyn-nachruf-a-b149ccd7-8040-40ab-be0b-d5db0db8a195 Beryl Goldwyn Obituary Der Spiegal]</ref><ref>[https://rambert.org.uk/explore/stories/news/beryl-goldwyn-obituary-2024/ Beryl Goldwyn Rambert Obituary]</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[http://www.karney.com/beryl.htm Beryl Goldwyn Karney], [[Andrew Karney]]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldwyn, Beryl}} [[Category:1930 births]] [[Category:2022 deaths]] [[Category:English ballerinas]] [[Category:People educated at the Royal Ballet School]] [[Category:British prima ballerinas]] [[Category:Prima ballerinas]] [[Category:Rambert Dance Company dancers]]