Sir Anton Dolin (27 July 190425 November 1983) was an English ballet dancer and choreographer.

Biography

Dolin was born in

Slinfold Slinfold is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. Geography The village is almost west of Horsham, just off the A29 road. The parish covers . The 2001 Census recorded a population of 1,647 people living ...

in Sussex as Sydney Francis Patrick Chippendall Healey-Kay but was generally known as Patrick Kay or "Pat" to his friends. He was the second of three sons of Henry George Kay (1852-1922) and his wife, Helen Maude Chippendall Healey (1869-1960), from Dublin. He trained at Serafina Astafieva's school at

The Pheasantry The Pheasantry, 152 King's Road, Chelsea, London, is a Grade II listed building that was home to a number of important figures in 1960s London and a small music venue in the 1970s where a number of bands were able to play their first gigs. Early ...

in London's

King's Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...

.Decharne, Max. (2005) ''King's Road: The Rise and Fall of the Hippest Street in the World''. London:

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld a ...

, p. 23. He joined

Sergei Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pat ...

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. A ...

in 1921, was a principal there from 1924, and was a principal with the

Vic-Wells Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...

in the 1930s. There he danced with

Alicia Markova Dame Alicia Markova DBE (1 December 1910 – 2 December 2004) was a British ballerina and a choreographer, director and teacher of classical ballet. Most noted for her career with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and touring internation ...

, with whom he went on to found the Markova-Dolin Ballet and the

London Festival Ballet English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottis ...

. He joined

Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, it is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. Through 2019, it had an annual ei ...

when it was formed in 1940 and remained there as a dancer and choreographer until 1946. Dolin wrote several books, including the autobiography ''Ballet Go Round'' (1938) and ''Alicia Markova: Her Life and Art'' (1953). He was

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

ed in 1981. He is featured in the documentary film '' A Portrait of Giselle''. He was the subject of '' This Is Your Life'' in April 1978 when he was surprised by

Eamonn Andrews Eamonn Andrews, (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ A ...

at London's Royal Academy of Dance. Upon Dolin's death, dancers

Jelko Yuresha Jelko Yuresha (9 May 1937 – 8 July 2020) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He and his wife, ballerina Belinda Wright, toured internationally as “Ambassadors of Dance” for the United Kingdom from 1966 to 1977. In 1959 he p ...

and Belinda Wright inherited the rights to his choreography of ''Giselle'', ''Pas de Quatre'', and his acclaimed original ballet, ''Variations for Four''. Yuresha and Wright danced—and later staged—productions of these ballets with dance companies around the world, designing original costumes and sets for those performances. In 2017, rights holder Jelko Yuresha and Philip Ronald Kay (Dolin's nephew and heir) founded the Sir Anton Dolin Foundation in Berlin, Germany, with the aim of protecting Dolin's legacy. Since then, all rights to Dolin's works are the property of the Sir Anton Dolin Foundation.

Filmography

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

National Library of Australia photographsImages of Anton DolinAnton Dolin at Andros on Ballet

Concise Encyclopædia Britannica entry
* *Th
Anton DolinCuttings Books
are held by the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

Theatre and Performance Department.
Sir Anton Dolin Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dolin, Anton 1904 births 1983 deaths American Ballet Theatre dancers Ballet choreographers Ballets Russes dancers Dancers of The Royal Ballet English male ballet dancers English choreographers English National Ballet Knights Bachelor Rambert Dance Company dancers English autobiographers People from Slinfold