Walter Gore (1910–1979). British dancer, director and choreographer
Walter Gore was born in Scotland in 1910 to a theatrical family. He studied acting at the Italia Conti School in London from 1924 and also studied dance with Léonide Massine and Marie Rambert. It was with Rambert and her company that he was to work, albeit off and on, for the next 20 years.
Gore was one of the first men to make his reputation as a great character artist at The Ballet Club, and he continued to dance for Rambert until 1935 when he briefly danced with the Vic-Wells ballet and created the role of The Rake in Ninette de Valois’ The Rake’s Progress. He later started to choreograph as well as dance for West End musicals, returning to Rambert 1938. This was also the year he created his first ballet for Rambert, Valse Finale. World War Two interrupted his choreographic career, but he returned to Ballet Rambert as a soloist and choreographer after war service in the Navy. He remained there until 1950, producing many ballets and dancing most of the Rambert repertoire.
From 1952, when he was guest choreographer with the Ballet des Champs Élysées, he began to lead a peripatetic life, travelling the world and taking on ventures with great passion and creativity. He went to Australia in 1952 with his wife and muse, the ballerina Paula Hinton, and again in 1955. Also during the decade he set-up two short-lived companies of his own, in 1952 and 1955, for which he choreographed many works.
As well as choreographing for a range of companies throughout the 1950s, including Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet and Western Theatre Ballet, Gore was guest choreographer with companies in Amsterdam and Paris. He was director of ballet in Frankfurt from 1956 until 1958, and then founded another company, The London Ballet from 1961, which ran until 1963. Gore was ballet master at the Norwegian National Ballet from 1963 to 1965, ballet master at the Gulbenkian Ballet in Lisbon from 1965 to 1969, and ballet master in Augsburg from 1971 to 1972. Throughout the 1960s he continued to create ballets for many companies around the world.
During his lifetime Gore created more than 80 ballets, many of which were lauded at the time, but none of which have survived. It is often said that had he put down roots and not worked with so many groups for such short periods of time, he would have found a deeper appreciation from the ballet world. Walter Gore died in Pamplona, Spain, in 1979.