SUSAN Robinson, who ran the Susan Robinson School of Ballet in Byfleet, has died at the age of  73.

The school, which has been running for 45 years, has taught generations of girls and boys ballet, tap, modern and musical theatre from the ages of 2½ to 18. It is one of the few schools in the country that teaches ballet at all levels: from Pre-Primary through Graded and Vocational exams to Advanced II and Solo Seal level.

Classes are currently held via Zoom during the latest lockdown and are hoped to resume in person when restrictions are eased.

Susan's long career as a ballet teacher and choreographer was capped last year when she was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Dance, with Dame Darcey Bussell presenting her with the certificate.

She set up her school in 1975 in Byfleet with the aim of opening the world of ballet to local people who couldn’t afford to go to the well-known academies. The enterprise grew very quickly and over the past 45 years more than a thousand dancers have been taught by Susan and her teachers with many going on to have stellar careers as dancers and choreographers.

She was born on 21 March 1947 to George and Gladys (nee Jacobs) and, together with her bother Peter, moved to Byfleet.

Susan started learning ballet when she was very young and won a Surrey County Council Art Scholarship that allowed to her train at the prestigious Elmhurst ballet school, which was then based in Camberley, and The Royal Ballet School.

While at Elmhurst, Susan choreographed her first piece for a show created by her year.

One of her classmates at The Royal Ballet School was Wayne Sleep, with whom she taught alongside at the Dance Forward ballet courses.

After graduating from the RBS, Sue spent six years with the Wuppertal Ballet Company in Germany.

She returned to Byfleet to help care for her father and opened the Susan Robinson School of Ballet in 1975.

One of her early pupils was Tracy Brown, the first of many who would go on to The Royal Ballet Company and become a soloist.

Most of the teachers who Susan has employed as her school grew are former pupils, such as Catharine Lewis.

Catharine said: “Sue was an extremely talented choreographer. She created hundreds of perfectly suited solos, duets, trios and a vast range of groups from Masquerade to the Jumblies, all age appropriate for the children dancing them.  

“Sue also ambitiously adapted and choreographed ballets for the bi-annual show such as Nutcracker, Cinderella, Coppelia, Swan Lake and other shorter ballets like Hansel and Gretel and the Pied Piper. These shows, mostly held at the Rhoda McGaw Theatre in Woking, were not only a chance for every child in the school to perform on stage in a most beautiful costume but also an opportunity to raise money for many charities.”

The school has performed at The Royal Opera House, the London Palladium and the Royal Albert Hall as well as venues in and around Woking.

The young dancers were frequently chosen by a representative of the ballet impresario Victor Hochhauser to perform alongside the Bolshoi and Marinsky ballet companies. This became a tradition that was repeated most summers, with Sue attending nearly every performance.  

As well as running her ballet school, Susan was an examiner with The Royal Academy of Dance since 1976, travelling extensively around Britain and overseas.  

Susan met Cedric Jones, a local cricket umpire, in 2010 and they married four years later.

She kept several cats, including Bolshoi and Cloughie, named after Brian Clough the legendary manager of her beloved Nottingham Forest Football Club.

Jade Souter, another of the school’s teachers and a former pupil, said: “Sue will forever be known for her exquisite musicality and artistry.

“Her talent for teaching and choreography was second to none.

“She used her talent and dedication to inspire and enrich the lives of so many and her legacy lives on in everyone who was lucky enough to have known her.”