After the war ended in 1945, Audrey moved to Amsterdam, where Hepburn took ballet lessons for three years with Sonia Gaskell, arguably the leading figure in Dutch ballet. In 1948, she appeared for the first time on film, as an air stewardess in an educational travel film made by Charles van der Linden and Henry Josephson, Dutch in Seven Lessons. Gaskell provided an introduction to Marie Rambert, and in 1948 Hepburn traveled with her mother to London to study ballet at the Ballet Rambert. She supported herself with part-time work as a model. Around that time she decided to drop "Ruston" from her double-barreled surname. When Hepburn asked Rambert about her future, Rambert assured her that she could continue to work there and have a great career, but her relatively tall height of 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)] coupled with her poor nutrition during the war would keep her from becoming a prima ballerina. Hepburn trusted Rambert's assessment and decided to pursue acting. After Hepburn became a star, Rambert said of her, "She was a wonderful learner. If she had wanted to persevere, she might have become an outstanding ballerina."
Hepburn's mother worked menial jobs in order to support them but Hepburn needed to find employment. Since she had trained in theatre all her life, working as a London chorus girl seemed sensible. "I needed the money; it paid ₤3 more than ballet jobs." She performed in the musical theatre revues High Button Shoes (1948) at the London Hippodrome and Cecil Landeau's Sauce Tartare (1949) and Sauce Piquante (1950) at the Cambridge Theatre in the West End. Through her theatrical work, she realised her voice was not strong and needed to be developed; she therefore took elocution lessons with the actor Felix Aylmer.
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After being spotted by an ABPC casting director in Sauce Piquante, Hepburn registered with the British film studio as a freelance actress while still working in the West End. The unknown Hepburn appeared in minor roles in the 1951 films One Wild Oat, Laughter in Paradise, Young Wives' Tale and The Lavender Hill Mob before playing her first major supporting role in Thorold Dickinson's The Secret People (1952), in which she played a prodigious ballerina and performed all of her own dancing sequences.
Hepburn was then offered a small role in the film being shot in both English and French Monte Carlo Baby (Nous Irons à Monte Carlo) (1951). While Hepburn was filming on location, the French novelist Colette happened to be on the set, on an international search for the right actress to play the title character in her Broadway play Gigi. Upon first glance of Hepburn, Colette supposedly whispered, "Voilà," indicating Hepburn, "there's your Gigi." Hepburn supplemented her rehearsals with hours of private coaching. On 24 November 1951, Gigi opened at the Fulton Theatre and Hepburn's name was hoisted above the title of the play on the theatre marquee. The play ran for 219 performances, and finished on 31 May 1952. This debut on Broadway earned Hepburn aTheatre World Award. She also reprised this role in the US tour of the play which began 13 October 1952 in Pittsburgh and visited Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Washington and Los Angeles before closing on 16 May 1953 in San Francisco.