📍Dunfermline, Fife, UK
1926 – 1936“I was born Moira Shearer King in January 1926 at Morton Lodge in Dunfermline, the old royal burgh in Fife, the only child of Harold King, a civil engineer, and Margaret, whose family name, Shearer, I later used on stage. Dunfermline was a town of linen mills, coal and history, with its ancient abbey and palace, and it was the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie, whose gifts to the town were everywhere. In 1931, when I was five, my father's work took us to Ndola, in Northern Rhodesia, where I had my first dancing lessons, from a teacher who had trained with the great Enrico Cecchetti. My mother was determined that I should dance, and I took to it easily, though I loved reading and music just as much. When I was about ten we came back to Scotland, and I went to Dunfermline High School and then to Bearsden Academy near Glasgow. I continued my training in London with Nikolai Legat, the Russian master who had taught Nijinsky, and at fourteen I joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet School. I joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet, and in 1948 I starred as Victoria Page in the film The Red Shoes, which made me famous around the world and inspired countless girls to dance. I also danced in The Tales of Hoffmann and acted on stage. After I married the broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy, I became a writer and lecturer. Dunfermline is proud to count me among its famous children, alongside Carnegie and other dancers born in the town.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today