people » Laura Connor

David Wall is the central figure in this photograph like tableau in Jerome Robbins’s Dances at a Gathering (1969), amid left to right – Laura Connor, Ann Jenner (her arm in Wall’s), Rudolf Nureyev, and Anthony Dowell. Dances at a Gathering joined the Royal Ballet’s repertory in 1970, with these five dancers part of an illustrious cast that also included Antoinette Sibley, Lynn Seymour, Monica Mason and Michael Coleman. © Anthony Crickmay/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Laura Connor (1946-). British ballerina and teacher

Laura Connor was born in Portsmouth in 1946. She studied at The Royal Ballet School, and joined The Royal Ballet in 1965, becoming a principal in 1972. Connor danced in a wide range of ballets and styles and created the role of Mitzi Casper in Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling in 1978. She also danced in a number of ballets by Jerome Robbins, including Dances at a Gathering, Afternoon of a Faun and The Concert. After several years teaching at The Royal Ballet School, Connor then spent the next 25 years as a freelance teacher in Central London, giving daily classes to dancers from all over the world.

Timeline Event » 1970 – The Royal Ballet dances Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering for the first time

Dances at a Gathering, which had been created for New York City Ballet in 1969, represented the first work by Jerome Robbins to enter The Royal Ballet’s repertoire. Danced to music by Frédéric...

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Timeline Event » 1978 – Premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling by The Royal Ballet

With his fourth three-act ballet, Mayerling, Kenneth MacMillan cemented his legacy for reinvigorating the full-length narrative ballet for the modern age. Mayerling, first performed by The Royal...

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