Jennifer Penney (born 1946) is a Canadian ballerina and a former principal dancer with the
Royal 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 ...
.
Jennifer Penney was born in 1946 in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, British Columbia, Canada. She studied there with
Gweneth Lloyd
Gweneth Lloyd, OC (September 15, 1901 - January 1, 1993) was a co-founder of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, a ballet teacher and choreographer.
Lloyd was born in Eccles, Lancashire, United Kingdom. She attended The Perse School in Cambridge, but be ...
and
Betty Farrally
Betty Farrally (May 5, 1915 – April 9, 1989) was an English-born Canadian dancer, educator and ballet director. She was co-founder of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
The daughter of Arthur Hey and Ada Sugden, she was born Betty Hey in Bradford ...
, and then at the
Royal Ballet School
The Royal Ballet School is a British school of classical ballet training founded in 1926 by the Anglo-Irish ballerina and choreographer Ninette de Valois. The school's aim is to train and educate outstanding classical ballet dancers, especially ...
from 1962–63. Penney joined the Royal Ballet in 1963 and became a principal in 1970.
Dancing one of the four lead roles in
Kenneth MacMillan
Sir Kenneth MacMillan (11 December 192929 October 1992) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer who was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977, and its principal choreographer from 1977 until his death. Ea ...
's 1980 ''
Gloria
Gloria may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music Christian liturgy and music
* Gloria in excelsis Deo, the Greater Doxology, a hymn of praise
* Gloria Patri, the Lesser Doxology, a short hymn of praise
** Gloria (Handel)
** Gloria (Jenkins) ...
'' for the Royal Ballet, the critic
Clement Crisp
Clement Andrew Crisp OBE (21 September 1926 – 1 March 2022) was a British dance critic. He served as dance critic for the ''Financial Times'' from 1956 to 2020.
Life and career
Crisp was born in Romford, Essex, in 1926, although for many years ...
wrote of "her beautiful line, her always easy technical command".
Penney retired in 1988 and returned to British Columbia.
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penney, Jennifer
1946 births
Dancers of The Royal Ballet
Canadian ballerinas
Living people
People from Vancouver