Irving Davies: Tributes

Irving Davies, Paddy Stone (centre) and Beryl Kaye in the dance group "Three's Company" in 1954. They starred with Joyce Grenfell in the West End and New York, and all three dancers were featured in the 1957 British film musical of 'The Good Companions'.

Irving Davies, dancer and choreographer, was born in Barry, Glamorgan, on April 26, 1926. He died in London on October 14, 2002, aged 76. Choreographer and dancer who brought balletic style to British shows, television and films.

The Guardian: Friday October 18, 2002. Obituary by Wendy Toye

When, in 1943, I was auditioning for replacements for the West End revue Strike A New Note, which made the comedian Sid Field an overnight success, a ridiculously good-looking - no, beautiful - 16-year-old turned up and tapped up a storm for me. He later told me that I said: "What has kept you from me all these years?" The young man in question was Irving Davies, who has died of a heart attack aged 76, and he went on to become a leading choreographer for stage, television and film. We danced together over the years in many television spectaculars, were featured in the film I'll Be Your Sweetheart (1945), and played Winnie and Tommy in Annie Get Your Gun, at the London Coliseum in 1946. Irving, who was born in Barry, Glamorgan, always regretted that he had no classical background, but he picked up everything so quickly that one would have thought, especially in the numbers he choreographed to poems, that he had had a thorough ballet training. And, of course, he always used great dancers, who interpreted his work brilliantly. I suggested to Beryl Kaye, Irving and Paddy Stone that they should get an act together. When they did so, Joyce Grenfell asked them to appear in Joyce Grenfell Requests The Pleasure (London, 1954; Broadway, 1955), with huge success. Later, Gene Kelly picked Irving to play the principal part of the crooner in his film Invitation To The Dance (1956), whose stories were told through dance rather than words. The following year, Irving was with Grenfell again, as the dancer in a touring variety troupe in the film The Good Companions (1957). His work showed not only great talent, but also enormous humour. Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, whom he knew well from Strike A New Note, inspired his final choreography, for last year's unexpected West End hit, The Play Wot I Wrote. The tremendous sense of period that Irving brought to Sean Foley and Hamish McColl's tribute to Eric and Ernie won him an Olivier award nomination, and, at the time of his death, he was working on its current tour and preparations for its transfer to Broadway. He choreographed many shows - including Rock Carmen, with Elaine Paige (1972), and the National theatre musical, Jean Seberg (1983) - and staged and directed Stairway To the Stars (1989), starring Jane Russell, Gloria De Haven and Dorothy Lamour; Skate For Life, with Robin Cousins (1993); and Lust, the musical version of The Country Wife (1993). Irving's finest moment on television came as Lucentio in Kiss Me Kate, dancing 'Too Darn Hot'. The occasion of this production, with Howard Keel, Patricia Morrison and Millicent Martin, was the opening of BBC2 in 1964. Earlier this year, it was restored and screened by the National Film Theatre. Other television collaborators included Cilla Black, Tommy Steele, Engelbert Humperdink, Marty Feldman, the Muppets and Liberace. Irving also worked with Twiggy, both on stage and television, and with Anita Harris on television, in cabaret, and on the musical Bertie (1993) - in which he much appreciated the hard work put in by the dancer Victoria Beckham. The last Harris-Davies collaboration was a Broadway-style fitness video, Fizzical!, which immediately shot to the top of the Woolworth's chart. A seriously spiritual man, and a follower of the Maharishi, Irving had the great gift of putting everyone at their ease, and giving them confidence. He was respected and loved by everyone he worked with. He is survived by a brother.

The Independent: 17 October 2002

Irving Davies

Much-applauded dancer-choreographer

Irving Davies was one of England's foremost dancer-choreographers, who worked on some of the most prestigious television and stage shows of the last half-century. He also made a strong contribution to that much-maligned genre, the British film musical, both as performer and dance director. Last year he was nominated for an Olivier Award for his choreography of the hit show The Play What I Wrote and he was preparing to go to New York for the Broadway version when he suffered a fatal heart attack. The writer-director Sheridan Morley, who worked on many shows with Davies, said, He loved his work and was a joy to collaborate with – he made it all seem easy and fun. He, Gillian Lynne and Wendy Toye revolutionised dance in this country. The Welsh-born Davies, who once described his education as "entirely due to Hollywood", danced in the West End in the revues Strike a New Note (1943), which made Sid Field a star, and Noël Coward's Sigh No More (1945). His first major opportunity came when he played the role of the young Tommy Keeler in the hit musical Annie Get Your Gun (1947). Since the show's leading players Dolores Gray and Bill Johnson were primarily singers, Davies's two lively duets with Wendy Toye, "I'll Share It All With You" and "Who Do You Love, I Hope?", provided exhilarating dance interludes. Davies's first West End show as a choreographer was the last musical composed by Ivor Novello, Gay's the Word (1951), for which, with Eunice Crowther, he staged such showstoppers as Cicely Courtneidge's song "Vitality". Davies made his screen début when Gene Kelly asked him to play one of the principal roles in the film Invitation to the Dance (filmed in 1953 but not released until 1957). A three-part all-dancing film, it featured Davies in the second segment, "Ring Around the Rosy". The closest the film came to a traditional Hollywood musical, it told of a bracelet given by a husband to his wife, then changing hands until it returns to the husband. Davies portrayed a sleek crooner who had his night-club audience swooning. Given the bracelet by a vamp (Belita), he passes it to a hat-check girl (Diana Adams) with whom he does a jazzy pas de deux abounding in leaps and spins that is a highlight of the film. One of the principal dancers in Annie Get Your Gun had been the Canadian-born Paddy Stone, and in 1953 he, Davies and Beryl Kaye formed an innovative dance group called 'Three's Company', touring to acclaim in Paris, Rome, London, Chicago and New York. When Joyce Grenfell (who had been one of the stars of Sigh No More) was preparing a show built around her songs and sketches, she asked the trio to share her programme. "I wanted a dancer or male singer," she later recalled, but preferred the idea of dancing as a better contrast to my songs and monologues. In the end we engaged three talented and diverse dancers, Beryl Kaye (South African), Paddy Stone (Canadian) and Irving Davies (Welsh), who were doing an act together. As well as dancing solos, duos and trios, the three took part with Grenfell in the show-stopper that closed the first act, "Palais Dancers", in which Kaye and Grenfell played girls "mad on dancing" who go to the Palais every week, where the graceful Kaye gets an expert dancer (Stone), while the gawky Grenfell is hilariously joined by Davies in a clumsier partnership. Davies also had a vocal duet with the show's star, the touching "Ordinary Morning". Joyce Grenfell Requests the Pleasure opened in London in 1954 and was a great success, and in 1955 it was an equal hit on Broadway. Davies then did some distinguished work for the cinema. For the comedy which satirised the singer Johnnie Ray As Long As They're Happy (1955), he and Paddy Stone partnered the star Jeannie Carson for the song "Crazy Little Mixed Up Heart", a fantasy number with all three costumed in white. Davies also staged Jack Buchanan's final song in the movie (and the final musical number he ever performed on film), "I Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry Over You". The same year Davies choreographed one of the best British film musicals, The Good Companions, a film of style and zest which also encapsulates its period, the mid-Fifties, incisively. The ambitious final number, a 10-minute sequence entitled "Around the World", was particularly notable. Davies and Stone then choreographed a production number, "Toys for the Boys", in which they danced with several female partners, for the comedy Value for Money (1956) starring Diana Dors. All these numbers displayed the energy, imagination and athleticism which were Davies trademarks. When the BBC staged Kiss Me Kate, starring Howard Keel and Patricia Morison, as a spectacular launch for BBC2 in 1964, Davies was cast in the major role of Bill Calhoun, with Millicent Martin playing his sweetheart. Last year the programme was screened at the National Film Theatre, where Davies's dancing to "Too Darn Hot" brought fervent applause. Davies was to work extensively in television, choreographing hundreds of shows for such stars as Cilla Black, Cleo Laine, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tom Jones, Morecambe and Wise and the Muppets. When he staged Twiggy's television series, he shared a dance duet with her every week. In 1969 he choreographed a whole season of Liberace's show, and he devised a 17-minute ballet to 'An American in Paris' starring Hinton Battle and Ann Reinking. Three shows he choreographed won the Golden Rose at Montreux, Big Band Concert (The Ted Heath Band), The Tommy Steele Show and Marty Feldman's Comedy Hour (he also worked on Feldman's feature film The Last Remake of Beau Geste, 1977). In Europe he worked with Georges Guétary, Catarina Valente and Mireille Mathieu. "One of Irving's great qualities," said Morley, "was that he could make people who were not really musical move as if they could dance." For Yorkshire Television he choreographed the esteemed Ned Sherrin series Song by Song (1984), which featured the work of the great popular composers performed by such stars as Lena Horne, Dolores Gray, Barbara Cook and Elaine Stritch, and which are long overdue for re-screening. On stage he both directed and choreographed Rock Carmen (1966) with Elaine Paige. He also choreographed the musical about the silent-screen era The Biograph Girl (1980), starring Sheila White, a musical version of Wycherley's The Country Wife entitled Lust (1993) and the ill-fated musical Jean Seberg (1983) at the National Theatre. I met Davies for the first time in 1989 when he was staging and directing a massive charity show produced by Barry Mishon in tribute to Hollywood musicals, and one marvelled at his diplomatic control of a starry cast including Dorothy Lamour, Jane Russell, the Nicholas Brothers, Arlene Dahl, Tony Martin, Van Johnson, Kathryn Grayson and Gene Nelson. I had helped compile a selection of movie clips to be shown as a prelude to the performance and Davies remarked that, like the show itself, it had transported him back to his formative years. Davies was a Buddhist, and would travel to see the Maharishi. Though he spent much of his time in recent years abroad, he also worked on several shows with Sheridan Morley, including the enormously popular Noël and Gertie (1983). Last year his much-applauded comedic choreography for The Play What I Wrote, directed by Kenneth Branagh, necessitated his devising and rehearsing material for all the guest stars – part of the show's unique appeal.

Tom Vallance

Irving Davies

Choreographer who made his film debut with Gene Kelly - and had dancers gyrating to Spike Milligan's nonsense.

From Orson Welles, Liberace and Noël Coward to Anita Harris, Twiggy and Cilla Black, Irving Davies, the leading choreographer for television, stage and film, worked with all the stars. His creative flair saw him make great contributions to innovative and dynamic dance styles, winning numerous awards, including Best Choreography and Best Staging in the Lanson Theatre Awards. An inspiration to those who worked with him, Davies had the imagination and ability to turn ideas into reality, which led to some remarkable work, such as the successful Montreux Festival exhibit from BBC2, The Vocal Touch, which turned out to be his last appearance singing and dancing. The process of choreographing from choice of music to final performance was spotlighted, with the audience being afforded three sweeps of vision, and a military sequence involving a platoon of Welsh Guards. His versatility enabled him to encompass multiple styles of dance into a single production, including one of his favourite pieces of work, An American in Paris, a 17-minute television ballet starring Hinton Battle and Ann Rankin, a fine piece of balletic work combining true ballet with Broadway tap and jazz. Irving Davies was born in Barry, Glamorgan, in 1926, the youngest son of a clothes shop manager, from whom he gained his love of poetry and lyrics. His mother, a piano teacher, was a leading light in the local amateur operatic group. He did not enjoy his schooldays, and knew from an early age that he wanted to become a dancer. He attended the Mae Richards Dancing School in Barry and then the Slocombe School of Dancing in Cardiff. He was performing professionally from the age of 12 after auditioning as a tap dancer at a local talent contest. By the time he was eligible to leave Smith’s Nautical School in Cardiff he was already a champion clog and tap dancer, so directed his energies to forging a successful career. He began dancing regularly in local theatres, but by 18 was frequently touring the country and appearing in West End revues, such as Strike a New Note with Morecambe and Wise, and Noël Coward’s Sigh No More. After appearing in Annie Get Your Gun in 1947, he was spotted by Gene Kelly and offered his screen debut as the crooner in the MGM musical Invitation to the Dance. He then enjoyed a successful run on Broadway in a four-handed revue. The first West End show he choreographed was Ivor Novello’s Gay's the Word in 1951. Although he continued to dance and formed his own group of dancers, the Irving Davies Dancers, he started to focus on choreography in his twenties. His work covered all mediums, particularly television, where his dance sequences were seen in a myriad of shows, including The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine, where he became the first person to choreograph movement to spoken word. He subsequently choreographed his dancers to the spoken word of Spike Milligan spouting his nonsense verse. Other series he choreographed included an entire season of Liberace’s shows and a series for Twiggy, in which he shared a dance duet each week. His work for the big screen included the 1955 comedy, As Long As They’re Happy; Value for Money, starring Diana Dors, the same year; and the British film musical The Good Companions. As his career blossomed, Irving, who never married, spent much time abroad. He was a regular visitor to Italy, where he choreographed Katerina Valente’s shows, and worked frequently on Broadway. Anita Harris, who first worked with Davies in 1964, regarded him as her “golden friend”. She says: “He was a perfectionist with dynamic energy and a love for laughter; he got very cross, though, if we fooled around too much — he had a strong voice, with a good Welsh tone, when he needed it. He got the best out of everyone, and I learnt a lot from him, including when not to do things. When you’re young you tend to try too hard, overdoing movements. He came to me one day, held both my hands down at my side and said: ‘Stillness is good’. ” Away from work, Davies, who lived in Belgravia, enjoyed nothing more than to return to his home town in South Wales and swim in the sea, something he did throughout the year. He was a Buddhist, and for a long period travelled to India three times a year to meditate and be taught by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He was introduced to meditation by an American who, noticing that Davies was becoming agitated about a show he was performing, told him he could eliminate such feelings from his life simply by meditating. After returning from the US, he began meditating twice a day, and was to do so for the rest of his life. Davies remained busy in the profession and last year was nominated for an Olivier Award for his comedic choreography of the hit show The Play What I Wrote, which is currently on a five-week tour before returning to the West End; he was preparing to take the show to Broadway when he died from a sudden heart attack.