Frank Staff (1918-1971). South African-born dancer and choreographer

Frank Staff was born in Kimberley, South Africa, in 1918. He studied in Cape Town under Helen Webb and Maude Lloyd, the latter taking him to London with her, to study and dance under Marie Rambert in 1934. He was with Vic-Wells Ballet in 1935, and again from 1938 to 1939. His first choreography was The Tartans for Ballet Rambert in 1938, which was followed by a number of other ballets, also created for Rambert.

From 1939 to 1940, Staff was a member of the London Ballet, where he created the role of Julien in Andrée Howard’s La Fête étrange. Then, from the 1940 onwards, he combined dancing with choreography, in London, Paris and the United States of America. He worked with Rambert for much of the 1940s, including a season from 1947 to 1948, both in London and on tour in Australia. He also choreographed musicals in London and on Broadway.

Staff returned to South Africa in 1953, running his own South African Ballet from 1955 to 1958, and then became resident choreographer for the Cape Town Ballet. From 1966 to 1968 he was with the Transvaal Ballet, and from 1969 until his death was director of the Ballet in the Orange Free State. Frank Staff died in Bloemfontein in 1971.