Looking just now for some papers about St Augustine’s I came across this intriguing envelope

My father was always very careful to date everything, and so he wrote Basia’s performance in the Albert Hall. 18 March 1961. I was very curious about this envelope, so hurriedly opened it to find this souvenir programme. Yes, almost exactly 64 years ago I danced in the Albert Hall. I have never forgotten the experience, but I hadn’t realised that here there is living proof of it.

It was an international dance festival , and I was dancing in the children’s group under the tutelage of Mrs Irena Różycka, who was a most formidable and energetic teacher, of Polish dance for many years, and then as a headmistress in a primary school in Ealing. I know many people will remember her with great joy, as not only was she very enthusiastic about everything, she was also very beautiful and kind.

I remember practising for the shoemakers’ dance which involved a lot of kneeling on one leg and drumming on my partner’s knee. That presupposes a sense of rhythm and timing. Oh dear.

The festival dancers were mainly adults, but we Polish children were allowed to sit lining the arena, against the wall. We had a perfect view. I cant remember any of the dances until it was out turn. i knew my parents were in the audience. I knew what to do and when to do it. I liked the music. (I can still hear the knocking ( mocking ) sound in my head – taunting me. ) Pani Różycka chivvied us into the centre. We started dancing. We hopped left. We jumped right. We knelt. We knocked. We tapped, We smiled. And then suddenly everything – or rather I – went wrong. Oh, how the tears flowed as I was led to the edge so as not to disturb the rest of the patterns.

This festival captured my imagination – and my parents’ – because of the limbo dancing which followed the Polish ones. I can remember a party my parents had where they set up a limbo dancing pole and all the guests had to have a go. I seem to remember it was very competitive, and that my mother was one of the best – she was small and lithe!