Beryl Drusilla de Zoete, also known as Beryl de Sélincourt (July 1879 – 4 March 1962) was an English

ballet 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 ...

dancer, orientalist, dance critic, and dance researcher. She is also known as a translator of

Italo Svevo Aron Hector Schmitz (19 December 186113 September 1928), better known by the pseudonym Italo Svevo (), was an Italian writer, businessman, novelist, playwright, and short story writer. A close friend of Irish novelist and poet James Joyce, Svevo ...

and

Alberto Moravia Alberto Moravia ( , ; born Alberto Pincherle ; 28 November 1907 – 26 September 1990) was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation and existentialism. Moravia is best known for his d ...

. Born in London of Dutch descent, she lived there for most of her life. She studied English at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

. In 1902, a year after she graduated, she married

Basil de Sélincourt Basil de Sélincourt (19 August 1876 – 16 February 1966) was a British essayist and journalist. In 1902 he married the orientalist Beryl de Zoete, but the marriage failed, and in 1908 he married the writer Anne Douglas Sedgwick (1873–1935). ...

, though the marriage lasted for only a few years.Papers of Beryl de Zoete
at Special Collections and University Archives,

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

Libraries. She published poems in the modernist magazine ''The Open Window''. She entered into a lifelong relationship with the Orientalist and translator

Arthur Waley Arthur David Waley (born Arthur David Schloss, 19 August 188927 June 1966) was an English orientalist and sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Among his honours were th ...

, whom she met in 1918 but never married. She traveled extensively, particularly in

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

and

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...

Marie Rambert Dame Marie Rambert, Mrs Dukes DBE (20 February 188812 June 1982) was a Polish-born English dancer and pedagogue who exerted great influence on British ballet, both as a dancer and teacher. Early years and background Born to a liberal Lithuan ...

, 'Miss Beryl de Zoete: Eastern Dance and the Ballet', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 19 March 1962 In the field of dance, she taught

eurhythmics Dalcroze eurhythmics, also known as the Dalcroze method or simply eurhythmics, is one of several developmental approaches including the Kodály method, Orff Schulwerk and Suzuki Method used to teach music to students. Eurhythmics was developed ...

, investigated

Indian dance Dance in India comprises numerous styles of dances, generally classified as classical or folk. As with other aspects of Indian culture, different forms of dances originated in different parts of India, developed according to the local tradi ...

and theatre traditions, and collaborated with

Walter Spies Walter Spies (15 September 1895 – 19 January 1942) was a Russian-born German primitivist painter, composer, musicologist, and curator. In 1923 he moved to Java, Indonesia. He lived in Yogyakarta and then in Ubud, Bali starting from 1927, whe ...

on ''Dance and Drama in Bali'' (1937), which is still a standard reference for traditional Balinese dance and theatrical forms. She studied dance, at least in part with

Emile Jaques-Dalcroze Emil or Emile may refer to: Literature *''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life *''Emil and the Detective ...

in 1913 and 1915, and subsequently taught dance until sometime in the 1920s. She wrote on dance at various times for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', the ''

New Statesman and Nation The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members o ...

'' and ''Ballet'' (edited by

Richard Buckle (Christopher) Richard Sandford Buckle CBE (6 August 1916 – 12 October 2001), was a lifelong English devotee of ballet, and a well-known ballet critic. He founded the magazine ''Ballet'' in 1939. Early life Buckle was the only son of Lieute ...

). She published books on dance in

(1938),

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

(1953) and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

(1957). According to

Harold Acton Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton (5 July 1904 – 27 February 1994) was a British writer, scholar, and aesthete who was a prominent member of the Bright Young Things. He wrote fiction, biography, history and autobiography. During his stay in Ch ...

, she had a tendency to overstretch the hospitality of her friends: when

Paola Olivetti Paola is a female given name, the Italian form of the name Paula. Notable people with the name include: People In arts and entertainment *Paola Del Medico (born 1950), Swiss singer *Paola e Chiara, pop music duo consisting of two sisters born i ...

, a little vexed, went away from one of her villas, Beryl stayed on; she left only when the cook told her he was going on vacation.H. Acton, More memoirs of an aesthete, Methuen, London, 1970

References

External links

* *Beryl de Zoete by

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the theat ...

bromide print on white card mount, 1941
*Beryl de Zoete by Ray (Rachel) Strachey,
oil on board, 1925-1937
English ballerinas Italian–English translators Dance writers 1879 births 1962 deaths Literary translators Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford {{England-actor-stub

References

Further reading

External links