Podcast » Monica Ratcliffe
Monica Ratcliffe, one of British ballet’s earliest voices, shares a wonderful collection of memories and anecdotes with Patricia Linton. She talks about her years, in the 1920s, at Ninette de...
companies » Vic-Wells Ballet
Podcast » Wendy Toye
The dancer and choreographer Adam Cooper introduces this wonderful interview with the dancer, choreographer, stage and film director Wendy Toye who begins by recalling chatting to Serge Diaghilev at...
The ballet writer Gerald Dowler is joined in a special episode of Voices of British Ballet by Monica Mason (former Royal Ballet student, principal dancer and director), Jane Pritchard (curator of...
Timeline Event » 1906 – Phyllis Bedells makes her London debut
Phyllis Bedells (1893-1985) was a British dancer and teacher, and founder of the Royal Academy of Dance. She rose to ballerina level using her own English name at a time when Russian names were...
The Vic-Wells Ballet gave its first full evening of ballet on 5 May 1931 at the Old Vic, with Anton Dolin as guest star. Ballets performed included de Ninette de Valois‘ Les Petits Riens, Danse...
Timeline Event » 1932 – The Vic-Wells Ballet dances Act II of Swan Lake
This was the first performance of classical choreography by the Vic-Wells Ballet. Swan Lake is a ballet with music by Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky with choreograhy created by Marius Petipa (Acts I and...
Timeline Event » 1933 – Nicholas Sergeyev stages Coppélia for the Vic-Wells Ballet
In March 1933, the company performed the first two acts of Coppelia, the ballet created by Arthur Saint-Léon, with Lydia Lopokova as Swanilda for the first two performances. Ninette de Valois then...
Frederick Ashton choreographed Les Rendezvous for the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1933, with Alicia Markova and Stanislas Idzikowski as its first stars (their roles were later taken over by Margot Fonteyn...
The Rake’s Progress was first performed by the Vic-Wells Ballet at the Sadler’s Wells on 20 May, 1935. It is a ballet in six scenes with music by Gavin Gordon and sets and costumes by Rex...
Frederick Ashton choreographed Les Patineurs for the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1937. A group of 15 dancers ‘skate’ their way through this exuberant one-act ballet. An icy pond on the edge of a snowy...
Checkmate is one of the only two ballets by Ninette de Valois to survive in the repertoire. It makes allegorical use of a chess game to represent a battle between love and death. Arthur Bliss, the...
First performance of The Sleeping Princess by the Vic-Wells Ballet, with choreography by Marius Petipa staged by Nicholas Sergeyev, music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and designs by Nadia Benois. The...
Timeline Event » 1940 – Premiere of Ninette de Valois’ The Prospect Before Us by the Vic-Wells Ballet
In July 1940, Ninette de Valois created a comedy character ballet called The Prospect Before Us. Full of wit and finely drawn characterisations, it required a full range of acting, as well as dancing...
Timeline Event » 1941 – The Vic-Wells Ballet renamed Sadler’s Wells Ballet
By 1935, the Vic-Wells Ballet had stopped dancing regularly at the Old Vic for a variety of reasons, not least the expense and confusion of moving between the Old Vic and Sadler’s Wells, where the...
Timeline Event » 1948 – Alan Carter’s The St James’ Ballet formed
Alan Carter joined the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1936. After war service with the RAF from 1941 to 1946, Carter returned to join Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, then left the company to dance in the...