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...
decade » 1920s
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 » 1920 – Founding of The Association of Operatic Dancing of Great Britain (now the Royal Academy of Dance, (RAD))
On 31 December, 1920, Philip JS Richardson and Edouard Espinosa established The Association of Operatic Dancing of Great Britain, which would later become the Royal Academy of Dancing (RAD) in 1936...
Timeline Event » 1920 – Marie Rambert opens her school
Marie Rambert (1888-1982) was a dancer, choreographer, teacher and company founder and director born in Warsaw. In 1910, she went to Geneva to study the eurhythmics of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. She...
The Sleeping Beauty (also performed as The Sleeping Princess) Often considered Marius Petipa’s masterpiece, The Sleeping Beauty, to music composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, was first performed...
Timeline Event » 1922 – Foundation of Elmhurst School in Camberley, Surrey
Founded by Helen Ida Mortimer in the grounds of a Prep School run by Miss Violet Crisp, Elmhurst Ballet School is one of the oldest vocational dance schools in Britain. It was based at premises in...
Timeline Event » 1922 – Formation of The Cecchetti Society
The Cecchetti Society was founded in 1922 to perpetuate the system of teaching established by the Italian dancer and ballet master Enrico Cecchetti (1851-1928). Based in Russia for many years,...
Timeline Event » 1926 – Ninette de Valois opens the Academy of Choreographic Art
Ninette de Valois (1898-2001) was an Irish dancer, choreographer and founding director of The Royal Ballet.In 1918 and 1919 she became principal dancer for the Beecham Opera at Covent Garden and...
Timeline Event » 1926 – Frederick Ashton choreographs A Tragedy of Fashion for the pupils of Marie Rambert
A Tragedy of Fashion was Frederick Ashton’s first work. Loosely based on a true story from the court of Louis XIV, it was performed at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in 1926, as part of a revue...
Timeline Event » 1926 – Premiere of George Balanchine’s The Triumph of Neptune by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes
The ballet was choreographed by George Balanchine to music by Lord Berners, and had its premiere on 3rd December 1926 at the Lyceum Theatre, London. Alexandra Danilova and Serge Lifar were in the...
Timeline Event » 1929 – Death of Serge Diaghilev
The death of Serge Diaghilev in Venice on 19 August, and the closure of his Ballets Russes company changed the profile of dance across Europe. It prompted a diaspora of ballet dancers and...
Timeline Event » 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...
Grace Note » …and on: Fashion & Ballet in Step
Fashion and ballet have a symbiotic relationship, each drawing on the other. Twice a year, fashion designers must cast around for hot influences. These might come from anywhere but time and again,...
Grace Note » 1930s: Art and Literature in Britain in the 1930s
Artists in Britain in the early and mid 20th Century were influenced by contemporary developments in Europe. However, they also looked back to a quintessentially native? Romanticism. There is no...
Grace Note » 1920s – 1950s: Neo-Romanticism and After
According to Virginia Woolf, ‘on or about December 1910 human character changed’. The event from 1910 she was referring to was the famous exhibition entitled ‘Manet and the...
T S Eliot was a, if not the, major figure in English literature for much of the 20th Century. Is his attempt to reconcile modern modes of expression with ancient traditions reflected in British...
Diaghilev – genius or promoter of self? In addition to being central or crucial to the history of ballet in the 20th Century, Diaghilev was also intimately involved with musical developments of the...