Dancing Fox

The World of Phyllis Haylor and Ballroom Dacing
                                           （About Phyllis Haylor）

PHYLLIS HAYLOR by Josephine Bradley, MBE

It was a great shock to myself and the whole dancing world when we heard of the death of Phyllis Haylor.

The lives of Phyllis and myself were closely intertwined. It is impossible for me to account her brilliant career without sometimes mentioning my own name.

She came to me to train to be a teacher of dancing at the beginning of the ‘twenties, at the time when I had won the first Foxtrot Competition to be held in England, with my American partner Kenneth Anderson (know as “Andy”), at the Embassy Club in Bond Street, London. The late Philip Richardson, editor then of the “Dancing Times” and a friend of Phyllis with Alec Millar, Dorothy with Bill Tacey, and Molly with Frank Ford.

They were exceptionally talented pupils and with their brilliant dancing and their ability to teach they helped me to build up a very successful school. A life-long friendship sprang up between Phyllis and Molly Spain and they, with Freda Haylor, branched out later in many well know schools directed by Phyllis.

I should explain that Phyllis was educated at St. Paul’s Girls’ School and at the end of her life, among other things, was in charge of weekly classes, wildly popular, both for juniors and seniors in her own beloved school.

When she first came to me as a girl of seventeen I think I spotted a future star. Not long afterwards she delighted me by winning the World Championship (mixed group) with Cedric Raphael, another pupil of mine whom Phyllis met in my school. Still more to my delight, she later won the most coveted of all titles among professionals, the Star Professional Championship, with Alec Millar in 1926.

These triumps led at an early age to important official appointments. Phyllis, my dear young pupil, now became a Committee Member of the Ballroom Branch of ISTD and also a Member of the Official Board.

After the retirement of Alec Miller she formed a new partnership, this time with Charles Scrimshaw. They were a terrific combination and, to my mind, they were the epitome of beautiful movement and English style which was the hallmark of the style of dancing we had originated. This always showed later in her training of students and competitors.