Princess Diana pursued a hobby during her marriage to Prince Charles that allowed her to feel like a kid again — she loved to dance. Anne Allan, her former ballet instructor is sharing her memories of the late Princess of Wales in a new memoir, Dancing With Diana, and why their partnership didn’t have a happy ending.
Diana began dancing with Allan in 1981 — the year she married Prince Charles — and they quickly developed a close relationship. The royal family member kept up her studies for almost a decade with private lessons — and her instructor raved about her student. “She worked very hard at technique, and she worked very hard at giving herself strength,” Allan told Closer Weekly. “But the biggest joy to me was just watching when she felt comfortable enough to just move by herself. You could see the pure joy that she got from dancing.”
John Travolta, Princess Diana.Courtesy of Everett Collection.
Besides the joy of having children around the same time, Diana reportedly confided in Allan about her marriage issues with Charles. “She loved him deeply, and she really wanted the marriage to work,” she shared. “I really think she tried as much as she could to make it work.” Still, the Camilla Parker-Bowles situation kept getting in her way and it ultimately became the reason for Diana’s divorce from Charles and the end of her private dance lessons.
The palace called Allan in 1989 to permanently cancel their weekly dance date because there were concerns about gossip leaking to the press. “I was a bit indignant. I would never say what was privately going on,” added Allan. Before the Princess of Wales wasn’t allowed to pursue her hobby, her love for dancing was showcased during her White House visit on Nov. 9, 1985, with a very famous twirl in the ballroom with John Travolta. He told ABC News in 2016 that it was “one of the highlights of my life,” and auctioneer Kerry Taylor told CNN in 2019 that the dynamic duo’s dance is a big part of royal, Hollywood, and political history.
“Here was this beautiful young woman, dancing with this Hollywood star,” Taylor explained. “She was in awe of him, he was in awe of her. Two beautiful young people, carefree, dancing with the eyes of the world upon them.” The world was still buying into the “fairytale” marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales. “It became one of the most important moments for Diana in the public eye,” Taylor added.
That is until Diana’s “childhood dream” of being a dancer was taken away from her by the palace. It’s something Allan still thinks about to this day.
