1947 – The Metropolitan Ballet launched

Impresario Leon Hepner (born 1904) had launched two ballet companies during the World War Two: Fortune Ballet and London Ballet (a separate company from Antony Tudor’s ensemble of the same name), using Catherine Devillier and Andrée Howard as choreographers. In 1947, Hepner amalgamated his Fortune Ballet with Letitia Browne’s Anglo-Russian Ballet to create The Metropolitan Ballet, enlisted Victor Gsovsky as principal choreographer for the company, and installed Serge Perrault and Colette Marchand as principal dancers. The high standard of dancing ensured Hepner’s company sustained itself in a landscape that included many other successful companies. Hepner and Gsovsky departed the company to form a new group, Les Étoiles de la Danse, in late 1947, taking Marchand, Perrault and other dancers including Henry Danton with them. Notable artists, including Celia Franca, Erik Bruhn and Svetlana Beriosova the joined The Metropolitan Ballet, but the company closed in 1949.