Ballerina, Television Producer. After earning praise as a performer, she was for many years a distinguised BBC producer of her art. Raised in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, she studied ballet privately and at Sadler's Wells (since 1956, Royal Ballet) School before joining the company at 17. Dale's debut came as a child in Dame Ninette de Valois' "The Emperor's New Clothes"; she appeared in many well-and-lesser known works, and gave the world premiere's of several of Frederick Ashton's early offerings, including a controversial 1941 staging of "The Wanderer" which ended painter Graham Sutherland's career as a theatrical designer. She danced in London and on tour, playing the Metropolitan Opera in 1949; among her more noted portrayals were the Diamond Fairy in Tchaikovsky's "Sleeping Beauty", Swanilda in Arthur Saint-Leon's "Coppelia", and the Sugar Plum Fairy in "The Nutcracker". Dale made her choreography bow with the 1953 "The Great Detective", a Sherlock Holmes-themed work which starred Ken MacMillan, but found that she really was not very good at that aspect of ballet. Dale joined the BBC as a producer and director in 1954, though continuing to dance with the Royal Ballet until 1957, and set about creating many highly rated productions of both classic and made-for-television works. She contracted with MacMillan for the short "Turned Out Proud", and began bringing Royal Ballet and touring presentations to the small screen; she filmed "Swan Lake" when the Bolshoi Ballet came to London in 1956, and gave the public MacMillan's "House of Birds" and a 1957 "Coppelia" with Nadia Nerina, as well as perhaps her most noted effort, a 1960 uncut airing of Ashton's "La Fille Mal Gardee". Begining in 1962, she made a series of nine one act programs with the Royal Ballet, including de Valois' "Checkmate" and "The Rake's Progress", as well as Ashton's "Les Rendezvous" and "Dream". Dale's last decade with the network saw more performance films, and also a number of documentaries; leaving the BBC in 1976, she held the dance chair at Canada's York University. Her final years were divided between England and Canada.