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The Prospect Before Us (ballet)
''The Prospect Before Us'' is a one act comic ballet in seven scenes, choreographed for the Vic-Wells Ballet by Ninette de Valois to music by William Boyce arranged by Constant Lambert. Overview With its premiere in 1940, the first year of the war, de Valois set out to produce a light-hearted and jolly piece of escapism. Inspired by an eponymous 18th century engraving by Thomas Rowlandson, it has an intricate plot about the rivalry of two 18th century theatrical managers who fight over a troupe of dancers that includes Didelot, Noverre, and Vestris. The final scene with Robert Helpmann as Mr. O'Reilly doing a "drunk dance" is well known. Premiere cast * Robert Helpmann as Mr. O'Reilly of the Pantheon * Claude Newman as Mr. Taylor of the King's Theatre * Frederick Ashton as Monsieur Noverre * Alan Carter as Monsieur Didelot * John Hart as Monsieur Vestris * John Field * Deryk Mendel * Michael Somes * Leslie Edwards * Pamela May Source:Wearing, ''The London Stage 1940-1949,'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninette De Valois
Dame Ninette de Valois (born Edris Stannus; 6 June 1898 – 8 March 2001) was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director of classical ballet. 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 one of the leading ballet companies in the world. She also established the Royal Ballet School and the touring company which became the Birmingham Royal Ballet. She is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of ballet and as the "godmother" of English and Irish ballet. Life Early life and family Ninette de Valois was born as Edris Stannus on 6 June 1898 at Baltyboys House, an 18th-century manor house near the town of Blessington, County Wicklow, Ireland, then still part of the United Kingdom. A member of a gentry family, she was the second daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Stannus DSO,Montgomery-Massingber ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballets By Constant Lambert
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Historical Ballet Characters
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union club Other uses * Angle of list, the leaning to either port or starboard of a ship * List (information), an ordered collection of pieces of information ** List (abstract data type), a method to organize data in computer science * List on Sylt, previously called List, the northernmost village in Germany, on the island of Sylt * ''List'', an alternative term for ''roll'' in flight dynamics * To ''list'' a building, etc., in the UK it means to designate it a listed building that may not be altered without permission * Lists (jousting), the barriers used to designate the tournament area where medieval knights jousted * ''The Book of Lists'', an American series of books with unusual lists See also * The List (other) * Listing (di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pamela May
Pamela May OBE (30 May 1917 – 6 June 2005) was a Trinidad-born British dancer and teacher of classical ballet. Most noted as one of the earliest members of The Royal Ballet, she was regarded as a versatile dancer; dancing all the established 19th-century classical repertoire, and creating roles in new ballets by Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton. After retiring from professional ballet, she became a teacher at the Royal Ballet School, and also served as vice-president of the Royal Academy of Dance. Biography Pamela May was born Doris May, in the city of San Fernando, Trinidad, on 30 May 1917. Her parents were British, but had moved to the Caribbean for the purposes of her father's work as an oil engineer. The family returned to London when May was four-years-old. May began studying ballet with Freda Grant. At the age of 16, she progressed to the Sadler's Wells Ballet School, where she studied under the direction of Ninette de Valois. A year later in 1934, she made her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leslie Edwards
Leslie George Edwards (6 August 1916 – 8 February 2001) was a British ballet dancer and ballet master. He was one of the final links with Ninette de Valois's original pre-war Vic-Wells Ballet. Apart from two years of military service during the Second World War, his entire 60-year career was effectively spent with what became the Royal Ballet organisation, until his final retirement from the stage in 1993. Early years Edwards was born on 6 August 1916 and trained with Marie Rambert after leaving school at the age of 15. He then joined the Vic-Wells Ballet School. He also trained with Margaret Craske, Stanislav Idzikowski and Vera Volkova. He debuted at Rambert's Ballet Club in 1932. Performing career Edwards was a cast member in the original production of Antony Tudor's ''Jardin aux Lilas'' in 1936. He first danced with the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1933, however, he only officially joined the company in 1937. With the Vic-Wells Ballet, he was a member of the first cast of Freder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deryk Mendel
Deryk Mendel (1920 – 28 May 2013) was a British ballet dancer, choreographer, actor and director. He was a friend of Samuel Beckett, who wrote the one-act mime ''Act Without Words I'' for him in 1956. Music was by his cousin John S. Beckett. Mendel performed the premiere on 3 April 1957 at the Royal Court Theatre in London. On 14 June 1963, Mendel directed the premiere of Becket's ''Play'' (as ''Spiel'') at the Ulmer Theatre in Ulm-Donau, Germany. On 13 April 1966, Beckett’s sixtieth birthday, Mendel appeared as Joe in the premiere of ''Eh Joe'' by Süddeutscher Rundfunk, Stuttgart, the first time that Beckett himself had directed. In 1968, Mendel directed one of the first English performances of Beckett's ''Come and Go'' at the Royal Festival Hall, with Adrienne Corri Adrienne Corri (born Adrienne Riccoboni; 13 November 1931 – 13 March 2016) was a Scottish actress. Early life She was born Adrienne Riccoboni in Glasgow in November 1931, the daughter of an Englis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Field (dancer)
John Field (22 October 1921 in Doncaster – 3 August 1991 in Esher) was an English ballet dancer, choreographer, director and teacher. He was a renowned member of the Vic-Wells Ballet and Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet and was also artistic director of the La Scala Theatre Ballet. Biography Born John Greenfield in Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1921, Field began training in dance with Edna Slocombe and Shelagh Elliott-Clarke in Liverpool. He made his stage debut with the Liverpool Ballet Club in 1938, before moving to London, where he trained at the Sadler's Wells Ballet School under Ninette de Valois. He joined the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1939 and danced with the company for two years before leaving to serve in the Royal Air Force during World War II. On returning to the company, he was promoted to the rank of Principal Dancer, partnering many of the leading British ballerinas of the 20th century, including Dame Beryl Grey, Dame Margot Fonteyn and Svetlana Beriosova. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hart (dancer)
Francis John Hart CBE (4 July 1921 – 8 February 2015), was an English ballet dancer, choreographer and artistic director of Ballet West from 1986 to 1997. Early life Francis John Hart was born in London on 4 July 1921, the son of Frank L. Hart and Ivy Hart. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dancing with Judith Espinosa. He was awarded the RAD Adeline Genée Medal. In 1938, he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet, dancing lead roles by the age of 21. Career He created a role in Ninette de Valois' 1940 ''The Prospect Before Us'', before leaving to serve in the Royal Air Force from 1942 to 1946. He returned as a principal dancer, creating roles in Frederick Ashton's '' Sylvia'' (1952) and ''Homage to the Queen'' (1953). In 1955, Hart was appointed ballet master, and was assistant director of the Royal Ballet from 1962 to 1970. He resigned in 1970, and took up a position as head of the dance division of the United States International University. In 1972 he served as artistic director ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Carter (dancer)
Alan Carter (24 December 1920 – 30 June 2009), was an English ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher, and company director, active in numerous countries in Europe and the Middle East. Perhaps best remembered for his work in films, notably ''The Red Shoes'' and ''The Tales of Hoffmann'', he was known in his later years as a ballet master and as a gifted painter, pianist, composer, and writer. Early life and training Born in London on Christmas Eve of 1920, Alan Carter became interest in ballet in his boyhood. When he reached his early teens, he began training at Serafina Astafieva's Russian Dancing Academy at The Pheasantry on King's Road in Chelsea. Astafieva had danced with the Mariinsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg and with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes before opening her school in London, where she was highly regarded as a teacher. Carter then moved on to advanced classes with Nikolai Legat, another well-known Russian teacher, who had danced with the Imperial Russian Ballet for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claude Newman
Claude Newman was a British ballet dancer with the Vic-Wells Ballet. He had lead roles in Frederick Ashton's ''The Wise Virgins'' and Ninette de Valois' ''The Prospect Before Us''. By 1943, Newman was the company's ballet master. In 1943, he danced The Lepidopterist in de Valois' ''Promenade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...''. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Claude British male ballet dancers Year of birth missing Place of birth missing Ballet masters ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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