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Berta Lynn Seymour (née Springbett), dancer, director and choreographer (born 8 March 1939 in Wainwright, AB; died 7 March 2023). She is considered one of the greatest dramatic ballerinas of the 20th century.
Education
Berta Lynn Seymour studied at the Rosemary Deveson School and with Nicolai Svetlanoff in Vancouver before entering the Sadler's Wells School in England in 1954.
Career Highlights
By 1959 Berta Lynn Seymour was a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet. Famed for her fluent, impetuous movement, extraordinary musicality and intense dramatic power, Seymour is best known in works created for her by Sir Frederick Ashton (The Two Pigeons, A Month in the Country, Five Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan) and by Sir Kenneth MacMillan (The Burrow, The Invitation, Romeo and Juliet, Anastasia, Mayerling).
Ballerina of the Deutsche Opera Ballet (Berlin, 1966–69) and director of the Bavarian State Opera Ballet (Munich, 1978–79), Seymour is also a talented choreographer. She has appeared in Canada with the Royal Ballet, Western Dance Theatre and National Ballet of Canada. Her autobiography, Lynn, was published in 1984.
