Edouard Espinosa (1871-1950). British dancer, teacher choreographer and co-founder of both the Royal Academy of Dance and the British Ballet Organization

A member of a large and influential balletic dynasty, Edouard Espinosa was born in Moscow, the son of Léon Espinosa. Léon was a brilliant dancer of Spanish origin, famous for his work, first in Paris and then in Moscow, where he collaborated closely with Marius Petipa. In 1872 the Espinosa family moved to London, and in due course Edouard worked with his father there, producing and choreographing for all aspects of the theatre. Edouard eventually became Ballet Master for the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, as well as for other theatres in London, Paris, Berlin and New York. He codified his father’s teaching, which has been claimed to be the first internationally devised dance syllabus. Edouard’s two brothers and three sisters all became dancers and teachers, and Edouard himself married Eve Louise Kelland, an actress and singer. Together they had two children who would also become deeply involved in ballet.

Edouard was a highly influential teacher in Britain, his pupils including Phyllis Bedells and Ninette de Valois. He was a co-founder of the Association of Operatic Dancing (later to become the Royal Academy of Dance), but in 1930 he broke away from that organisation and, with his wife (who in 1928 had started The Dancer magazine under the name of Louise Kay), set up the British Ballet Organization (BBO). Eve and Edouard continued to run the BBO until 1943, when Eve died. Following Edouard’s death in 1950, his son, Edward Kelland-Espinosa, took over the chairmanship, assisted by Yvette, his sister. Edouard Espinosa’s book, Syllabus of Elementary Technique, was first published in 1928. The book was based on intensive work and discussions on teaching and teachers in which he had been centrally involved since publishing a rousing article in the Dancing Times in 1916. Among other things, this article advocated the testing of ballet teachers, something unheard of in Britain at the time.