My mother, Margaret Graham Hills, who has died aged 97, spent an astonishing 73 of those years teaching ballet, initially at the Royal Ballet School in London, and later at various studios in Los Angeles. She was fearless, funny and kind, and she had a phenomenal memory – after seeing a ballet just a few times she could teach the choreography.
Born in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, Margaret was the daughter of Ida (nee Cockshott), an amateur painter, and Ellis Hampson, an executive for the Co-op. Her beloved brother, John Graham, was nine years younger and Margaret later appropriated his middle name as her stage surname.
