Park, Merle Florence (1937– )

Rhodesian-born English ballerina. She joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet in 1954, and by 1959 was a principal soloist with the Royal Ballet. She combined elegance with sympathetic appeal in such roles as Cinderella. Park created the Countess Marie Larish in Kenneth MacMillan's Mayerling (1978) and the title role in his Isadora (1981). She opened her own school in 1977, and in 1983, while still the senior ballerina of the Royal Ballet, became a director of the Royal Ballet School. She was created a DBE in 1986.