1941 – Mona Inglesby’s International Ballet founded

Mona Inglesby was born in London in 1918. She studied under a range of teachers and  danced with Marie Rambert’s Ballet Club, and with Ballet Rambert.  In 1939 she joined Victor Dandré’s Russian Ballet at Covent Garden and would have stayed longer with them but for the outbreak of World War Two.

After a year spent in Civil Defence, in 1941 Inglesby decided to create a ballet company of her own. She borrowed £5,000 from her father and started off with a small orchestra and 21 dancers. The company’s first performance was at the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow, on 19 May, 1941. Acclaimed dancer and teacher Stanislas Idzikowski was ballet master, and the principals were Inglesby, Nina Tarakanova and Harold Turner.  She and her company toured Britain and Europe extensively. They were the company to launch the Royal Festival Hall in 1952 and had a huge following in a range of London theatres, as well as abroad. When the company closed, it employed 80 dancers, a full orchestra and an enviable repertoire, but International Ballet was refused an Arts Council grant, forcing it to disband in 1953. Inglesby retired, never to pursue another balletic venture.