Timeline Event » 1947 – The Metropolitan Ballet launched
Impresario Leon Hepner (born 1904) had launched two ballet companies during the World War Two: Fortune Ballet and London Ballet (a separate company from Antony Tudor’s ensemble of the same…
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Timeline Event » 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…
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…
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…
Podcast » David Wall
David Wall was one of the greatest male dancers of his era, with an extraordinary stage charisma, range, theatricality and honesty. In this interview he talks to Frank Freeman, a…
Podcast » Beryl Grey
Beryl Grey talks to Frank Freeman about her early training, first with Madeleine Sharp and then with Phyllis Bedells before going to the Sadler’s Wells School at the age of…
Podcast » Pauline Clayden
Pauline Clayden was born in 1922. Here she talks to Patricia Linton about her student days, and moves on to her dancing life up until joining the Sadler’s Wells Ballet…
Podcast » David Vaughan
David Vaughan – unparalleled writer on the choreography of Frederick Ashton – catches moments and movements from The Royal Ballet’s history. In this interview for Voices of British Ballet, which…
Timeline Event » 1939 – The Arts Theatre Ballet established
The owner of The Arts Theatre, Harold Rubin, enlisted Keith Lester, former choreographer and dancer with the Markova-Dolin Ballet, to form The Arts Theatre Ballet as part of his mission…
Timeline Event » 1938 – London Ballet founded
Antony Tudor founded his own company, the London Ballet, after he left Ballet Rambert in 1937, giving regular performances at the Toynbee Hall in east London. The company’s repertory featured…
Timeline Event » 1937 – Premiere of Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies by Ballet Rambert
Dark Elegies was created by Antony Tudor for Ballet Rambert in London in 1937 and it premiered at the Duchess Theatre, London. In 1940 it was premiered in New York,…
Timeline Event » 1936 – Premiere of Antony Tudor’s Jardin aux lilas (Lilac Garden) by Ballet Rambert
Jardin aux lilas (or Lilac Garden as it is also titled) is a dramatic ballet in one act choreographed by Antony Tudor. The music is by Ernest Chausson and the…
Podcast » Robert Harrold
It really does seem true that dancers in the difficult years of World War Two were happy to exist on the bare minimum. The common bond was that they all…
Timeline Event » 1931 – Premiere of Frederick Ashton’s Façade by the Camargo Society
Façade was originally an ‘entertainment’ in which Edith Sitwell, from 1922, recited a selection of her poems accompanied to music composed by William Walton. This musical setting was expanded in…
Podcast » Christopher Bruce
Christopher Bruce is one of the great names in British dance. Here, in a conversation with the dance critic Mark Monahan in 2017, he describes his early days in Ballet…
Timeline Event » 1966 – Ballet Rambert, under the direction of Norman Morrice, becomes a modern dance company
Norman Morrice was born in Mexico in 1931. He studied at Marie Rambert’s school and joined Ballet Rambert in 1953, becoming a principal dancer. In 1962, Morrice travelled to the…