Birthday Offering
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Birthday Offering
''Birthday Offering'' is a pièce d'occasion in one scene choreographed by Frederick Ashton to music by Alexander Glazunov, arranged by Robert Irving. The ballet was created in 1956, to celebrate the Royal Ballet's 25th anniversary. The first performance took place on 5 May 1956 at the Royal Opera House, London. Original cast * Margot Fonteyn * Beryl Grey * Violetta Elvin * Nadia Nerina * Rowena Jackson * Svetlana Beriosova * Elaine Fifield * Michael Somes * Alexander Grant * Brian Shaw * Philip Chatfield * David Blair * Desmond Doyle Desmond Doyle (1924–1986) was an Irish painter and professional pianist, whose children (Evelyn, Maurice, Noel, John, Kevin, and Dermot) were taken into the custody of the Ireland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC). Back ... * Bryan Ashbridge Source: dead link Order of numbers In a sumptuous setting, seven couples make a grand entrance, then the women perform a series of seven solo variations. The men dance a ...
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Frederick Ashton
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton (17 September 190418 August 1988) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He also worked as a director and choreographer in opera, film and revue. Determined to be a dancer despite the opposition of his conventional middle-class family, Ashton was accepted as a pupil by Léonide Massine and then by Marie Rambert. In 1926 Rambert encouraged him to try his hand at choreography, and though he continued to dance professionally, with success, it was as a choreographer that he became famous. Ashton was chief choreographer to Ninette de Valois, from 1935 until her retirement in 1963, in the company known successively as the Vic-Wells Ballet, the Sadler's Wells Ballet and the Royal Ballet. He succeeded de Valois as director of the company, serving until his own retirement in 1970. Ashton is widely credited with the creation of a specifically English genre of ballet. Among his best-known works are ''Façade'' (1931), '' Symphonic Varia ...
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Elaine Fifield
Elaine Fifield (28 October 1930 - 11 May 1999) was an Australian ballerina, perhaps best known for creating the title role in John Cranko's comic ballet ''Pineapple Poll'' in 1951. Early life Elaine Fifield was born in Sydney, New South Wales on 28 October 1930. She trained at the Scully School and with Leon Kelloway, in Australia. In 1945, she won a Royal Academy of Dance scholarship, and trained at the Royal Ballet School. Career In 1947, Fifield joined Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet. Her work there included lead dancer in ''Selina'' (1948), a ballet choreographed by Andrée Howard to the music of Rossini, scenario and design by Peter Williams. She also appeared as a dancer in the 1948 Crown Film Unit film, ''Steps of the Ballet'', also with choreography by Howard, and music by Arthur Benjamin, directed by Muir Mathieson. In 1954 moved to The Royal Ballet, where the following year she danced in the Frederick Ashton ballet (to music by Benjamin Britten) ''Variations on a Theme ...
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Ballets To The Music Of Alexander Glazunov
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary. Ballet has been influential globally and has defined the foundational techniques which are used in many other dance genres and cultures. Various schools around the world have incorporated their own cultures. As a result, ballet has evolved in distinct ways. A ''ballet'' as a unified work comprises the choreography and music for a ballet production. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained ballet dancers. Traditional classical ballets are usually performed with classical music accompaniment and use elaborate costumes and staging, whereas modern ballets are often performed in simple costumes and without elaborate sets or scenery. Etymology Ballet is a French word which had its origin in Italian '' ...
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Ballets By Frederick Ashton
The following is a list, by decade, of ballets created by the English choreographer Frederick Ashton. 1920s * ''A Tragedy of Fashion'' (music by Eugene Goossens, arranged by Ernest Irving) (1926) * ''Various dances'' for a Purcell Opera Society production of ''The Fairy-Queen'': (music by Henry Purcell) (1927) * ''Pas de deux'' (music by Fritz Kreisler) (1927) * ''Suite de danses'' (music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) (1927) * ''Argentine Dance'' (music by Artello) (1927) * ''Nymphs and Shepherds'' (music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) (1928) * ''Leda'' (music by Christoph Willibald Gluck) (1928) * ''Various dances'' for ''Jew Süss'' (incidental music arranged by Constant Lambert) (1929) 1930s * ''Capriol Suite'' (music by Peter Warlock) (1930) * ''Pomona'' (music by Constant Lambert) (1930) * ''Regatta'' (music by Gavin Gordon) (1931) * ' (music by Léo Delibes) (1931) * ' (music by William Walton) (1931) * ''The Lady of Shalott'' (music by Jean Sibelius) (1931) * ' (music by Lord ...
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Bryan Ashbridge
Bryan may refer to: Places United States * Bryan, Arkansas * Bryan, Kentucky * Bryan, Ohio * Bryan, Texas * Bryan, Wyoming, a ghost town in Sweetwater County in the U.S. state of Wyoming * Bryan Township (other) Facilities and structures * Bryan House (other) * Bryan Boulevard, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA; a limited access highway * Bryan Museum, Galveston, Texas, USA; a museum * Bryan Tower, Dallas, Texas, USA; an office tower skyscraper People *Bryan (given name), list of people with this name *Bryan (surname), list of people with this name * Justice Bryan (other), judges named Bryan * Baron Bryan, a baronial title of Plantagenet England Other uses * Bryan University, Tempe, Arizona, USA; a for-profit private university See also * * * "Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan", a 1919 poem by Vachel Lindsay * Bryan Inc. (2015 TV series) construction and renovation TV series starring Bryan Baeumler * Bryan, Brown & Company, a footwear company * Bryan ...
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Desmond Doyle (dancer)
Desmond Doyle (16 January 1932 – July 1991) was a South African ballet dancer who performed in England in the 1950s and 1960s before becoming ballet master of The Royal Ballet. Early life and training Desmond Doyle was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Dulcie Howes (1908-1993), a ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher, established the University of Cape Town Ballet School in 1934. Among her most promising students during the 1940s were Johaar Mosaval and Doyle. After some years' study with her, and performing under her direction in the University of Cape Town Ballet, both of them went to London to continue their training at the Sadler's Wells Ballet School. Professional career In 1951, Doyle was accepted into the Sadler's Wells Ballet, under the direction of Ninette de Valois, and was promoted to soloist in 1953. During his years with the company, renamed the Royal Ballet in 1956, he created roles in a number of new ballets by Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, and John Cr ...
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David Blair (dancer)
David Blair (27 July 1932 – 1 April 1976) was a British ballet dancer and a star of England's Royal Ballet during the 1950s and 1960s. Early life and training Born David Butterfield in Halifax, Yorkshire, he started taking ballet lessons after watching his sister in a class at their local dance school. He won a scholarship to the Sadler's Wells Ballet School in London and began training there in 1946, when he was 14. As he was very short in comparison with many of his classmates, Blair's acceptance into the school was on the understanding that he had to grow significantly during his first term or he would receive injections of growth-inducing hormones. Although he grew enough to satisfy the staff of the school, he was still one of the shortest boys in his class. Consequently, his teachers thought that he would become a character dancer. Professional career In 1947, at the age of 15, Butterfield joined the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, changing his name to David Blair for t ...
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Philip Chatfield
Philip Chatfield (2 December 1927 – 25 July 2021) was a British born ballet dancer, choreographer and artistic director. He danced for the Royal Ballet and was artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Early life Chatfield was born in 1927 near Southampton, England, starting ballet at the age of six. He took up a scholarship to the Sadler's Wells Ballet School at the age of 11. Career Chatfield became a full-time member at Sadler's Wells (later the Royal Ballet) at the age of 15 in 1943. He became a principal dancer in 1955. He performed leading and solo roles. In 1958–1959 Chatfield toured in Europe, America, New Zealand and Australia with his ballet dancer wife, New Zealander Rowena Jackson. In 1959 Chatfield and Jackson retired from performing and left London to settle in New Zealand. That year, with other dancers such as Russell Kerr and Poul Gnatt, they formed the United Ballet Company which toured New Zealand. In the mid–1970s Chatfield became directo ...
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Brian Shaw (dancer)
Brian Shaw (28 June 1928 – 2 April 1992) was a British ballet dancer and teacher. As a leading dancer with the Royal Ballet during the 1950s and 1960s, he was widely regarded as "one of the finest classical male dancers of his generation". Early life and training Brian Earnshaw was born in Huddersfield, England, a large market town in West Yorkshire, halfway between Leeds and Manchester. Having begun his dance studies in his home town, he moved to London as a teenager and continued his training at the Sadler's Wells Ballet School. In the summer of 1943, in the midst of World War II, Londoners were "keeping calm and carrying on," as they were advised to do by the British Ministry of Information. In July, the Production Club of the Royal Academy of Dancing arranged a matinee performance of Sadler's Wells students in ''Suite of Dances'', set by resident choreographer Andrée Howard to Handel's jauntily life-affirming ''Water Music''. Among the talented students dancing that afterno ...
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Alexander Grant (dancer)
Alexander Marshall Grant (22 February 1925 – 30 September 2011) was a New Zealand ballet dancer, teacher, and company director. After moving to London as a young man, he became known as "the Royal Ballet's most remarkable actor-dancer in its golden period from the 1940s to the 1960s." Early life and training Alexander Marshall Grant was born in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of hoteliers, during the prosperous 1920s. He resolved to become a professional dancer at the age of six, when he was taught to perform a simple folk dance, a Ukrainian ''trepak'', and discovered the joy of performing. He began taking dancing lessons when he was seven and, under the tutelage of Kathleen O'Brien and Jean Horne, was an experienced amateur by age fifteen. Inspired by performances of Russian ballet troupes that he saw in Australia, he had already begun to develop the exuberant, energetic, and highly theatrical style that would become his trademark in later life. As a result, he won a scho ...
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Michael Somes
Michael George Somes CBE (28 September 191718 November 1994), was an English ballet dancer. He was a principal dancer of The Royal Ballet, London, and the frequent partner of Margot Fonteyn. Early years Somes was born in Horsley, Gloucestershire, England, the son of Edwin Joseph Somes (1882-1973), a professional musician, and Ethel M. M. Pridham (1889-1972), a schoolmistress. He had an elder brother, Laurence Joseph Somes (1913-1987). Career In 1934, he was awarded the first scholarship given to a male by the Royal Ballet (then known as the Vic-Wells Ballet). In 1938, he and Fonteyn created the principal rôles in the Frederick Ashton/Constant Lambert ballet '' Horoscope'', after which he was described as "potentially the finest British male dancer of the half century". He originated rôles in 24 ballets choreographed for the company by Ashton, and was the lead male dancer for the company from 1951 until the arrival of Rudolf Nureyev in 1962. From then on, Somes appeared in ...
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Svetlana Beriosova
Svetlana Nikolayevna Beriosova (russian: Светла́на Никола́евна Берёзова; 24 September 1932 – 10 November 1998), also spelled Beriozova or Beryozova, was a Lithuanian-British prima ballerina who danced with The Royal Ballet for more than 20 years. Early life Born in Kaunas, Lithuania, the daughter of Nicolas Beriosoff (or Nicolas Beriozoff; 1906–1996), a Lithuanian ballet master- his pupils included Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Alicia Markova; he founded the Zurich Opera Ballet School- of ethnic Russian descent who immigrated to England. Beriosova came to the United States in 1940, where she studied ballet. Her mother died in New York when she was 10 years old. Nicolas Beriosoff- called "Poppa"- then married a wardrobe mistress from his dance company; after their divorce, he married an Italian surgeon, and after another divorce married half-German Doris Catana, the same age as his daughter, who ran a ballet school in Zurich.Hopkins Career ...
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