1937 – Les Ballets Trois Arts established

John Regan had trained with Enrico Cecchetti and Nicholas Legat before he joined Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and the Markova-Dolin Ballet. In 1937 Regan formed his own group, the International Ballet Company, giving their first performance at the Grafton Theatre, London, with subsequent tours of Britain over the next two years. Regan disbanded the company at the outbreak of war in 1939, but quickly reinstated the group for a season at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in the autumn of 1939. Regan renamed the troupe Les Ballets Trois Arts, highlighting his aims that the company should be a co-operation of the highest standards between choreography, musical composition and scenic design in order to produce new ballets for the public. After 1941, the company had an intermittent existence, touring for the majority of the year. In 1944, ENSA invited the company to perform in Egypt and India, with Regan changing the company’s name to The Three Arts Ballet. Their repertoire included Les Sylphides, The Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, and The Nutcracker.