Gillian Lynne was a famous choreographer (born Pyrke; February 20, 1926, died July 1, 2018).
She was a hopeless case at school. It was in the 1930’s and the school wrote to parents: “We think Gillian has a learning disability”. She couldn’t concentrate, she was constantly fidgeting. This is called ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) today. But that was in the 1930’s and ADHD was not yet “defined” at the time; it was not an “available” diagnosis. People were not aware that they were allowed to have such a disease.
But Gillian’s mother took her to a specialist. The girl sat for 20 minutes while the doctor talked to her mother about all the problems she had at school. She disturbed others, was late with homework, and so on. Eventually the doctor sat down next to her and said, “Gillian, I’ve heard everything your mother told me and now I have to talk to her alone, wait here, we’ll be back soon”. They went out and left her in the room, alone. As they were leaving, the doctor turned on the radio on his desk. When they came out, he told her mother, “Just wait and see”. The moment they left the room, Gillian got up and started playing to the beat of the music. They watched her for a few minutes, and then the doctor turned to her mother and said: “Mrs. Lynne, Gillian is not sick, she is a dancer. Take her to dance school.”
Her mother took Gillian to dance school. It was wonderful for her there, she remembers: “I can’t describe to you how wonderful it was. We entered a room full of people like me. People who could not sit still, who had to move to think. They danced ballet, jazz, contemporary dance”. Later, Gillain was admitted to the Royal Ballet School, became a soloist and had a great career. When she graduated, she founded her own dance group, met Andrew Lloyd Weber… She is credited with some of the most successful theater productions in history (musicals “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera”), gave joy and enjoyment to millions of people and became a multi-millionaire. It also received the title of DBE (Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) and today a theater in the West End is named after her; before her, no woman of non-royal descent had a theater named after her, in that prestigious place.
Some other doctor would prescribe Gillian tranquilizers!
This one prescribed her to dance and… the rest is history!
Try dancing as a medicine, it can only be joy and enjoyment.
And it can become something much more than that 😉
Text about Gillian Lynne is taken from: https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity/transcript#t-898565
