A combination of a sharp intellect, a robust body and outstanding dance skills enabled Jeanne Ravel, who has died aged 92, to become the female half of one of the most notable English ballroom and cabaret dancing couples of the 20th century.
Born Jeanne Gaunt in Edgbaston, she was the daughter of an alderman and her brother became headmaster of Malvern College, Worcestershire. The strong-willed Jeanne wanted to dance from the age of three, left school at 16 and persuaded her parents that a training in eurythmics with Emile Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva was just right for her.
Not only did her skiing, skating and dancing improve dramatically in Switzerland, but she also became an expert racing driver. On returning to Britain, Jeanne got a job as a chorus dancer, but rebelled against the pay and working conditions and was given the chance to dance solo by an exasperated management.
She met her husband-to-be, Ronald Boyer, at the old Shilling Theatre in Putney, where he was appearing in a play. A whirlwind romance led to marriage and a decision to form the dance act Boyer and Ravel.
They established themselves on the variety stage and in hotel ballroom cabaret, especially at the Mayfair and the Savoy. Influenced by the notable American duo Frank and Yolanda, they developed an act based on choreographed short stories that utilised Ronald's narrative skills, Jeanne's ballet training and their considerable bodily strengths to feature extended lifts and repeated turns.
Touring extensively pre-war, Jeanne brought back the samba steps from Rio de Janeiro before anyone could provide the music in Britain, so the dance had to wait before catching on. On another occasion, Jeanne indignantly refused an offer in Bucharest, by a well-known European impresario, to organise a ballet to celebrate Hitler's triumphal entry into London (expected to take place in either 1939 or 1940).
Their act was put on hold when Ronald joined the Navy as a coxswain on a motor torpedo boat in the north Atlantic and the North Sea, but Jeanne was brought out of temporary "retirement" in 1942 to dance solo and, with another partner, in a Hippodrome production of Get A Load Of This.
After the war, Boyer and Ravel re-formed in 1946 and caused a sensation in the Shepherd Shows, with their interpretation of the Trish Trash Polka. Recognising the future importance of television, they choreographed the first ballet for the medium - Maladie d' Amour. This was described in a press review as "the essence of television" and prompted the assertion that they were the "Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of the small screen". The samba steps were also revived for a dance sequence in a British film, Silk Noose (1950), starring Carol Landis and Stanley Holloway, although Jeanne complained that most of the dancing was cut.
Their television exposure, backed up by constant media coverage during the 1940s and 1950s, ensured constant touring engagements. They were especially popular in Japan, and were featured dancers on the Cunard liners. Their continuing hotel cabaret work attracted society audiences, including the Mountbattens and the Aga Khan, to performances in Ciro's, the Savoy and the Café de Paris, in which Jeanne endlessly swirled round her partner, apparently as light as thistledown. Their striking good looks and debonair manner invariably carried the day.
Prominent until the end of the 1970s, they retired to Eel Pie Island, where Ronnie pursued a passion for boating until he died in 1991. Although she lost the use of her legs in later years, Jeanne never complained and radiated the control and composure that characterised her dancing.
Her daughter Carole, granddaughter Gita and great grandson Lucas survive her.
· Jeanne Ravel, dancer, born November 1 1911; died January 6 2004