Wayne Sleep

Wayne was born in Plymouth, but when he was about 7 his family moved to Hartlepool, where he went to the Muriel Carr School of Dancing, which was situated above a cycle shop. As a boy he wanted to be a song-and-dance man like Gene Kelly and entered the children's section of a song-and-dance competition at the Middlesborough Tournament, singing '5' 2" Eyes of Blue' and winning the cup for the highest marks in the children's section. But on the dance side the adjudicator told him he must learn ballet as he tapped with his feet turned out like a ballet dancer. He won a scholarship which gave him two free lessons a week at the Royal Academy of Dance in Newcastle Upon Tyne, but by the time his train fares were paid they weren't exactly free, and his working-class family--his father was a process worker at the Steetley Magnesite Company--had to be careful with their money. When he was 12 and a pupil at West Hartlepool Tech, out of 500 entrants he won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School