John Cranko (1927–1973). South African-born dancer, choreographer and director

John Cranko was born in the South African Transvaal in 1927. He studied under Dulcie Howes in Cape Town and began choreographing at Cape Town University (with A Soldier’s Tale in 1942) and working in the University of Cape Town Ballet. In 1946 he went to London, to the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School and joined the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, for whom he had already choreographed, in 1947.

From then until 1960, Cranko poured out a host of ballets: Sea Change (1949), Pineapple Poll (1951) and The Lady and the Fool (1954), all for Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet; Bonne Bouche (1952), The Shadow (1953), The Prince of the Pagodas (1957) and Antigone (1960) for the Sadler’s Wells (later Royal) Ballet; and other works for New York City Ballet, Ballet Rambert, the Paris Opéra Ballet and the Ballet of La Scala, Milan. Cranko also worked on his own theatrical revues such as Cranks! (1955), and in opera, notably with Benjamin Britten on A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1960.

Following a prosecution for homosexual activity (then still illegal in Britain), Cranko left London in 1961 to become director of the Stuttgart Ballet, where he helped transform the company into an ensemble of international standing. In Stuttgart, in 1962 Cranko re-staged his version of Romeo and Juliet originally made for La Scala, and choreographed Onegin (1965) and The Taming of the Shrew (1969). From 1968 until 1970 he was also director of the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich. Cranko also invited his former colleague, Kenneth MacMillan, to create works for the Stuttgart company, including Las Hermanas (1963) and Song of the Earth (1965).

By 1973 Cranko was successful and in demand both in Europe and the United States of America. Tragically, it was while he was on a flight home with the Stuttgart Ballet back from a tour to Philadelphia in 1973 that he died suddenly. Cranko is honoured in Stuttgart, where the State Ballet School is named after him.