1930 – The Ballet Club opens at the Mercury Theatre, London

Marie Rambert married English playwright Ashley Dukes in 1918. In 1928, Dukes purchased a disused church hall in Notting Hill Gate and converted it into the Mercury Theatre. This provided a permanent home to Rambert’s school and performers. Rambert founded The Ballet Club at the Mercury Theatre in October 1930, beginning with an experimental season that developed into regular Sunday performances. The theatre became an unexpectedly ideal nursery for choreographers, seeing the first ballets by Antony Tudor, Andrée Howard and early works by Frederick Ashton. Rambert renamed her group of dancers Ballet Rambert in 1935.