1929 – Nicolas Legat sets up his school

Nicholas Legat  was a Russian dancer, choreographer and teacher who was born in St Petersburg. In 1888 he joined the Maryinsky Ballet, where he was an outstanding dancer and partner, as well as a teacher and choreographer. As a teacher he looked to the earlier, gracious French style rather than to the technical advances of Enrico Cecchetti, who had come to the Maryinsky in 1887.  Legat left Russia in 1914 to tour abroad, eventually leaving Russia forever in 1922 settling in London to dance in music halls and to teach. In 1925 Legat became ballet master of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris and Monte Carlo, but returned to England in 1926. Nicholas Legat then became a legendary teacher at 46 Colet Gardens, Hammersmith, where those taught by him included Ninette de Valois, Frederick Ashton, Margot Fonteyn, Anton Dolin and André Eglevsky, and he was also associated with the Camargo Society.