Alice Dalgarno, who died on October 22nd, aged 84, was the most celebrated dancer in Dublin of her time.
She stayed at the top of her profession for decades, as leader of the Royalettes and as a brilliant choreographer.
She was a native of Aberdeen and attended the Miss Hendry School of Dancing there. She did not come from a show business family, although a paternal uncle was a tenor. Her father, James Dalgarno, was a grocer. Her mother, Nellie Castle, played the piano. At Miss Hendry's, Alice Dalgarno became principal dancer in the school shows at His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen.
When she was 22 she left to join one of the then famous troupes of Tiller Girls. There she met Babs de Monte who was to be her great friend and business partner. She toured England with Vi Hindle's troupe of dancers. In 1938 they came to Dublin where the troupe was known as the Violettes. When Vi Hindle left, Alice Dalgarno took over and the Violettes became the Royalettes. They were synonymous with the Theatre Royal for decades.
Alice Dalgarno was the choreographer and principal dancer. Babs de Monte was the costume designer, producing beautiful, handpainted costumes for the Royalettes and for other shows with which they were involved. The Royalettes worked extremely hard. They had an extraordinary degree of discipline and precision about their dancing - but it was gained at a price. They put on three performances a day between films, and each morning, practised their routines for the following week.
Alice Dalgarno later spoke to her sister, Marie, of the extreme tension she felt every morning at the prospect of getting a new routine perfected in time.
She choreographed a famed production of Finian's Rainbow with Maureen Potter, Jimmy O'Dea and Milo O'Shea in 1957. When the Theatre Royal closed in 1962, she moved to the Gaiety Theatre with Babs de Monte. She also produced award-winning shows for amateur companies in Dublin and Belfast. Her choreography of The King and I for the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society greatly impressed those who saw the production.
People who remember Alice Dalgarno and Babs de Monte in their heyday talk of their beauty and of the many men who worshipped them from afar.
In the late 1970s Babs De Monte retired to a cottage in the village of Ancaster in Lincolnshire. Alice Dalgarno stayed on in their flat in Lower Dorset Street, Dublin, but followed a couple of years later. They had little contact with Dublin after that, enjoying instead their cottage and their garden.
Alice Dalgarno is survived by her sister, Marie.
Alice Dalgarno: born 1916; died October, 1999