Hugh Laing (1911-1988). British dancer and photographer

Hugh Laing was born in Barbados in 1911 to British and Irish parents. In 1931 he travelled to London, initially to study art, but became drawn to ballet and studied under Margaret Craske, Olga Preobrajenska and Marie Rambert. He began dancing for Rambert’s Ballet Club in 1933, where he met Antony Tudor, who was to become his life-long companion. Tudor created a number of roles for Laing at Rambert in ballets including Jardin aux lilas and Dark Elegies.

In 1938, Laing left Rambert to perform with Tudor’s London Ballet, in which he danced in Tudor’s Gala Performance and The Judgment of Paris, and in 1939 both men went to New York to work for Ballet Theatre (later American Ballet Theatre). Here Laing worked with Léonide Massine on Aleko and Jerome Robbins on Facsimile, as well as with Tudor, who created further roles for him in his ballets Pillar of Fire, Romeo and Juliet, Dim Lustre and Undertow. When the company toured to London after World War Two, Laing, with his dramatic stage presence, was a leading dancer. From 1950 until 1952, Laing danced with New York City Ballet, where he worked with George Balanchine on such ballets as The Prodigal Son.

After he retired from dancing, Laing became a photographer, though continuing to assist Tudor with the mounting his ballets. He was briefly married to the New York City Ballet dancer Diana Adams from 1947 to 1953, and died in New York in 1988.