Suzelle Poole

In 2019 she gave a TedXTalk called Dancing Beyond All Limits.

In 2017 she was featured in the BBC Three series Amazing Humans.

Poole was married to Jonathan William Poole, an English opera singer. John died in 2003. She has two children.

Poole moved to South Africa and obtained an Associate Montessori International Diploma. She worked as a director of a Montessori school in South Africa and lectured on music pedagogy at the University of Cape Town. She also spent time in Germany teaching dance and music. In 1986 she moved to Dallas and worked as a dance teacher and choreographer and lectured part-time at the University of Dallas.

Suzelle Poole, also known as Madame Poole, (née Engelsmith; born 1940) is an English ballet dancer, dance teacher, and poet. She is a former soloist with Houston Ballet and is known for continuing to perform ballet in her seventies.

Poole was born Suzelle Engelsmith in Chelsea, London in 1940. Her father, George Englesmith, was an architect for the Ministry of Works and her mother, Lydia Englesmith, was a French linguist. Growing up during World War II, the back steps of her house were hit during The Blitz. She was inspired to start training in classical ballet after seeing Margot Fonteyn perform. After the war, her family moved to Canada. She began dancing classical ballet when she was seven years old, training in the Cecchetti method.