| Variations of Name | Pearl Wellman | Pearl Bernhardt |
| Biography | Pearl Argyle was a South African ballet dancer and actress. She appeared in leading roles with English ballet companies in the 1930s and later performed in stage musicals and in films.
In the mid-1920s, she appeared in London and enrolled in ballet classes at the schools of Nikolai Legat, in Colet Gardens, and Dame Marie Rambert, in Notting Hill Gate. During this time she met the emerging choreographer Frederick Ashton, who would play a significant role in her career on the ballet stage.
Argyle had left London in 1933 to go to Paris, where she danced with George Balanchine's short-lived company Les Ballets 1933, led by Tamara Toumanova and Tilly Losch. Back in London in 1934, she rejoined the Ballet Club and created the role of the barmaid in Ninette de Valois's Bar aux Folies-Bergère, inspired by the famous painting by Édouard Manet. As the Fille du Bar, Argyle shared the stage with Alicia Markova as the can-can dancer La Goulue and Frederick Ashton as her partner Valentin le désossé. Argyle also created the title role in Andrée Howard's The Mermaid, based on Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Little Mermaid," which was her last new role for the Ballet Club. She also appeared in other ballets in the company's repertory, notably Les Sylphides and The Sleeping Beauty. In 1935, Argyle left Rambert's company to join the Vic-Wells Ballet as a principal dancer. |