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…
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Podcast » John Tooley
If ever a job needed diplomacy it must be as General Director of the Royal Opera House, a post John Tooley held from 1970 until 1988. He was also Assistant…
Podcast » Joan Seaman
Joan Seaman gives us a wonderful bird’s eye view of VE Day, which she spent seeing Sadler’s Wells Ballet stars Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann dance Coppélia, and her interview…
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 » Clement Crisp
Critic and writer Clement Crisp gives a succinct and vivid summing up of the debt British ballet owes to Constant Lambert, not just as the conductor for the Vic-Wells and…
Podcast » Pamela May
This ‘voice’ of British Ballet is that of Pamela May. She was born in 1917 and after retiring as a ballerina with The Royal Ballet became the teacher par excellence…
In 1946 the Sadler’s Wells Ballet opened their first season at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with a new production of The Sleeping Beauty. The scenery and costumes were…
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,…
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…
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…