Georgina Parkinson

Georgina Parkinson (20 August 1938 – 18 December 2009) was an English ballet dancer and ballet mistress. She joined The Royal Ballet in 1957 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1962. Best known for dancing 20th-century works, she was a frequent collaborator of choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, and had also created roles for Frederick Ashton. In 1978, she accepted the invitation to become a ballet mistress at the American Ballet Theatre for a year, before assuming the position permanently in 1980. She also performed character roles with the American Ballet Theatre.

Early life Parkinson was born on 20 August 1938 in Brighton, England. She went to a convent school in Rottingdean, where she took weekly ballet classes. The nuns at the school noticed the shape of her feet and encouraged her parents to send her to pursue ballet training outside of the school. She trained with a local teacher before entering the Sadler's Wells Ballet School (now The Royal Ballet School) on scholarship, after an audition with Ninette de Valois, the founder of The Royal Ballet. At her graduation performance, she danced the role of Odette in Swan Lake. She created roles in some of Kenneth MacMillan's earlier works,

Personal life and death Parkinson was married to photographer Roy Round. Their son, Tobias, is married to Leanne Benjamin, a former Royal Ballet principal dancer.

In 2009, Parkinson was diagnosed with cancer. On 18 December the same year, she died from the disease in Manhattan. She was 71.