My father, Donald McAlpine, who has died aged 91, set up the McAlpine Dance School in south London in the early 1970s with my mother, Phyllida.
Generations of local children and their parents had cause to thank him for his enthusiastic and inclusive teaching style, which focused as much on the artistry of dance and appreciation of music as it did on nurturing technical excellence. His enthusiasm for dance remained undimmed across the years, and he often appeared on stage with his young proteges in the school’s annual shows, even up to the year of his death.
