Pauline Myers: 'I moved to Yorkshire in the 90s - my London mindset quickly evaporated'

Arriving here to join the Janet Smith Dance Company in the early nineties – Janet is still a remarkably close personal friend, I’m delighted to say.

We were rehearsing a show called The World outside my Window, which opened in Wakefield, and went on to tour nationally, but the beginnings of it were at the much-lamented Bretton Hall.

I think that as a lass from Hackney, and then Lewisham and Kentish Town colleges, I had a very “London mindset,” but that very quickly evaporated.

What’s your favourite part of the county?

I’m a great lover of walking and hiking these days, and one of my special spots is Trollers Gill, a limestone gorge up near Appletreewick in the Dales.

What’s your idea of a perfect day out in Yorkshire?

Out in the open air, around Whernside, Ingleborough, Kettlewell – and, perhaps a little closer to home, RSPB St. Aiden’s Nature Reserve, just a walk out of the city centre, and a place which I discovered when lock-down was imposed upon us.

Do you have a favourite walk?

The Leeds Country Way, which runs for some 62 miles around the city, taking you through the outskirts to places that you’d never believe still existed.

The incredible thing about Yorkshire is that we have several big cities, and you can be out of each of them into wonderful countryside, within about 15 minutes.

The Country Way takes in Golden Acre Park, around the back of the Harewood Estate, and you can always find a good pub somewhere along the stretch you’re walking.

Which Yorkshire stage or screen star, or past or present, would you like to take for dinner?

Sir Patrick Stewart, whom I first saw in Star Trek, and I later learned was an outstanding classical actor, with long associations with the RSC.

I know that he has had close links with the Leeds Playhouse, and that is Chancellor of Huddersfield University, so I really do hope that our paths might cross one day.

If you had to name your Yorkshire ‘hidden gem,’ what would it be?

Not really a hidden gem but I love books, and reading, so for me it is the Leeds Library, in the centre of the city.

If you could own one thing in Yorkshire for a day, what would it be?

One of my favourite spaces – we’re back at St. Aiden’s Nature Reserve. But I would not wish to be selfish, I’d tell everyone how close it is to the city centre, and then beg them to make their own minds up when they visit.

What do you think gives Yorkshire its unique identity?

The beauty of the landscape, accessed so quickly, the kindness and generosity, the fact that most of the folk here want the best outcome of anything and everything, and the fact that there’s compassion here, and integrity, and that people communicate with each other.

Those who come to visit are sometimes perplexed that, when we get off a bus, we say “thank you.” That’s not just courtesy or manners, it’s heartfelt. Someone has done their job, and done it well.

Do you have a favourite restaurant, or pub?

There used to be the most wonderful place on Stainbeck Lane in Chapel Allerton, called the Bricklebank Bar, which was a haven for me, and only a short walk away.

They inexplicably it closed, and it shows no sign of returning to life, which is maddening and so sad.

I fear that it’s a sign of these awful economic times, where so many good pubs are facing, or reacting to, hard financial times.

Do you have a favourite food shop?

Leeds Markets, but then I also rely on dear old M&S on Briggate.

It’s so pleasing that people today are experimenting more and more with food and interesting dishes – and as a child I remember family members bring back all sorts of ingredients from Barbados so that the family could create familiar dishes so extremely far from ‘home’

How do you think that Yorkshire has changed, for better or for worse, in the time that you’ve known it?

I’ve always been suspicious of those gushing town planners who tell us that they want to make Leeds “the London of the North.”

Why? We want to make Leeds the Leeds of the North, not for it to slavishly copy somewhere else. It has its own vibrant identity, so let’s encourage and revitalise that.

What I’m so pleased with is the regeneration of parks and public spaces, and the restoration of so much of the Leeds to Liverpool canal. That’s just wonderful, and such a treasure. There’s far more to Leeds than students and finance, however important they may be.

Who is the Yorkshire person that you most admire?

Janet Smith the dancer, choreographer and former principal of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. She was my mentor, she is my friend, and she remains my inspiration.

She is, above all of that personal stuff, an exceptionally talented lady, an exemplar of openness and generosity.

Has Yorkshire influenced your work?

In every way. It constantly demands that I re-evaluate my work, and that I do the best that I can offer, not always in the most perfect of circumstances.

Times have not been so easy, but that only requires that you offer more and more of yourself. They don’t suffer and nonsense up here in Yorkshire, but you know where you stand. There’s no faffing about.

Name your favourite Yorkshire book/author/artist/CD/performer.

Pulp, Jarvis Cocker, and Britpop. Happy days.

If a stranger to Yorkshire only had time to visit one place, it would be?

Whernside, the highest mountain in the Dales. Just stand up there, after the climb, and see the view across to Morecambe Bay. It is so wonderful that you can actually taste the fresh air. Spectacular.

Nine-sixteenths, a multi-media theatre about the infamous Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction which briefly derailed her career, is at Slung Low, The Warehouse in Holbeck on Saturday May 9, then on tour across the UK.

www.slunglow.org