| Biography | Boyer and Ravel were a British dance act consisting of husband and wife Jeanne Ravel and Ronald Boyer. The couple met at the old Shilling Theatre in Putney where Ronald was appearing in a play, Shortly after they formed Boyer and Ravel.
They established themselves on the variety stage and in hotel ballroom cabaret, especially at the Mayfair and the Savoy. Influenced by the notable American duo Frank and Yolanda, they developed an act based on choreographed short stories that utilised Ronald's narrative skills, Jeanne's ballet training and their considerable bodily strengths to feature extended lifts and repeated turns.
One notable event was when Jeanne indignantly refused an offer in Bucharest, by a well-known European impresario, to organise a ballet to celebrate Hitler's triumphal entry into London (expected to take place in either 1939 or 1940).
Their act was put on hold when Ronald joined the Navy as a coxswain on a motor torpedo boat in the north Atlantic and the North Sea, but Jeanne was brought out of temporary "retirement" in 1942 to dance solo and, with another partner, in a Hippodrome production of Get A Load Of This. After the war, Boyer and Ravel re-formed in 1946 and continued to dance until the 1970s. |