Before setting up her school and company, de Valois was a notable Diaghilev dancer. She is seen here in Les Douanes, choreographed by her in 1932 for the Vic-Wells Ballet. Redoubtable in every way, she directed and developed British ballet for well over half a century. © Gordon Anthony/Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Vic-Wells Ballet. Redoubtable in every way, she directed and developed British ballet for well over half a century. © Gordon Anthony/Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Ninette de Valois (1898-2001) was an Irish dancer, choreographer and founding director of The Royal Ballet.In 1918 and 1919 she became principal dancer for the Beecham Opera at Covent Garden and joined Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1923 and remained there for three years. Having left Diaghilev, from whom she said she had learned everything she knew about running a ballet company, in 1926 she established the Academy for Choreographic Art in London. De Valois based her teaching methods on what she had learned from the French, Italian and Russian influences of her own training. At this time Ninette de Valois also began her association with Lilian Baylis at the Old Vic Theatre
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