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NINETTE DE VALOIS 1898 - 2001
Dame Ninette de Valois was an anglo-Irish dancer, choreographer and teacher, the founder of the Royal Ballet of Great Britain; she also participated in the creation of the national ballets of Turkey, Canada, Ierland, Australia and Iran.
She began life in Ireland as Edris Stannus. Most notably, she danced professionally with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, later establishing the Royal Ballet, one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century and still one of the leading ballet companies in the world. Later in her life, Valois said that everything she knew about how to run a ballet company she learned from working with Diaghilev. She also established the Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Royal Ballet School. She is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of ballet.
Ninette de Valois was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 1 January 1947 and was promoted Dame Commander (DBE) on 1 January 1951. She became a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) on 31 December 1981 and was honoured by HM The Queenwith the Order of Merit (OM) on 2 January 1992.
"Portrait of Ninette de Valois"
Author Rinat Kuramshin
Contemporaries of Ninette de Valois were famous composers, choreographers, ballet dancers, among them: Anna Pavlova, Sergei Diaghilev, Marie Rambert, Benjamin Britten, Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, Margot Fontaine, Rudolf Nureyev and others.
Ninette de Valois
"Sadlers Wells Theatre"
"Ninette de Valois in ballet class"
Opera house. Covent Garden
Dame Ninette de Valois made her debut in London when she was 16 years old. Following Anna Pavlova, she danced "The Dying Swan" and received the nickname «Little Pavlova».
At the age of 21, she became the prima ballerina of the Beecham Theatre's Opera Ballet Company, performing at the Theater Royal, Covent Garden. In 1923, de Valois joined the Ballets Russes, a renowned ballet company founded by the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev. Later in her life, Valois said that everything she knew about how to run a ballet company she learned from working with Diaghilev.
In 1926, she founded the Academy of Choreographic Art in London, largely based on the traditions of the Russian ballet school. Five years later, at the Sadler's Wells Theatre, Ninette de Valois organized the first ballet company in England.
After the Second World War, the overgrown Saddlers Wells Ballet moved to the Covent Garden Opera House, and in 1956 the troupe received state status and became known as the Royal Ballet of Great Britain. Elizabeth II herself became the patron of the troupe.
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After 32 years as director, Ninette de Valois retired in 1963 and was succeeded by Frederick Ashton. However, she remained closely involved with the Royal Ballet School until the early 1970s and, even after that, was frequently seen in its classrooms. In 1977, she supervised a new production of The Sleeping Beauty for the Royal Ballet.
Throughout the years, she was also a patron of the the Irish National Ballet and Iranian National Ballet. She sent trusted colleagues to help Canada, Australia and Turkey set up national ballet companies too.
She urged John Cranko to take on the directorship of the Stuttgart Ballet, and sent Celia Franca to Canada in 1951, where she founded its National Ballet. In 1963 she persuaded Peggy van Praagh to become director of the Australian Ballet.
Ninet de Valois is a chevalier of several Britain’s and foreign orders and a winner of various awards. She was awarded The Order of Merit (Britain’s highest honour). She received an Irish Community Award, a Turkish Honour of Merit, the Dutch Erasmus Prize, the French Legion of Honour and countless honorary doctorates for her contributions to culture.
Royal Opera House. London
State Opera and Ballet. Ankara
Throughout the years, she was also a patron of the the Irish National Ballet and Iranian National Ballet. She sent trusted colleagues to help Canada, Australia and Turkey set up national ballet companies too.
She urged John Cranko to take on the directorship of the Stuttgart Ballet, and sent Celia Franca to Canada in 1951, where she founded its National Ballet. In 1963 she persuaded Peggy van Praagh to become director of the Australian Ballet.
Ninet de Valois is a chevalier of several Britain’s and foreign orders and a winner of various awards. She was awarded The Order of Merit (Britain’s highest honour). She received an Irish Community Award, a Turkish Honour of Merit, the Dutch Erasmus Prize, the French Legion of Honour and countless honorary doctorates for her contributions to culture.
Ninette de Valois exerted a great deal of influence on the development of ballet in Turkey. In 1947, she was invited by the Turkish Government to research the possibility of establishing a ballet school in the country and subsequently she visited the country to open a school following the same model as her ballet school in London. At the beginning, very few people took this project seriously, but the school did become firmly established and led to development of the Turkish State Ballet. Ninette de Valois established the first ballet school in Turkey. Formed as the ballet school of the Turkish State Opera and Ballet in Istanbul, the school was later absorbed into and became the School of Music & Ballet at Ankara State Conservatory, a department of the Hacettepe University.
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In February 1955, the Iranian monarch Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, asked Dame Ninette de Valois for her counsel on the formation of a ballet company during an official state visit in London and after a command performance in his honor at the Royal Opera House.
A year later, in 1956, an Iranian official met with de Valois in London and officially asked her to visit Iran and for her assistance in establishing a national ballet company, which came to be the largest and most important ballet company in the entire Middle East. In the summer of 1958, she was visiting Türkiye, where she had founded a ballet school and was about to found the Turkish State Ballet. At the invitation of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Arts, she prolonged her trip in order to visit the National Ballet Academy of Iran and budding company in Tehran. This was the start of a fruitful journey for the art form of ballet in Iran and that laid the foundation for institutionalized dance and established a national ballet company for the country.
She was granted degrees of Doctor of Literature of Oxford and Doctor of Music at London University. Ninett de Valois organized an educational system and raised the Brittain’s Royal Ballet to a level of acknowledged ballet leaders. Having retired, Ninett de Valois actively promoted reconstruction of the Covent-Garden building. She wrote the Come Dance with me biography, the Step by Step, the Travelling to the World of Ballet, she also wrote poems and prose.