in 1963, the south african government granted subsidies to support ballet companies in the four provinces that existed at the time: the cape province, natal, orange free state and transvaal. poole was employed as ballet master of the university of cape town ballet and was responsible for staging a full-evening production of "the sleeping beauty", with choreography after marius petipa. when uct ballet became a full-time, professional company in 1965, it was renamed the cape performing arts board ballet (capab ballet). poole continued as ballet master of capab ballet (since renamed the cape town city ballet) and, upon the retirement of dulcie howes in 1969, became the artistic director in 1970. among the original works he created for the company are "the snow queen" (1961), to music by tchaikovsky, "a midsummer night's dream" (1970), to music by handel, and "variations for men" (1983), to music by khachaturian.