Metropolitan Ballet was a short lived British

ballet company A ballet company is a type of dance troupe which performs classical ballet, neoclassical ballet, and/or contemporary ballet in the European tradition, plus managerial and support staff. Most major ballet companies employ dancers on a year-round ba ...

. Founded in 1947 by Cecelia Blatch and Leon Hepner, the company performed in London and on tour in the provinces and abroad, staging shortened versions of the classics, some of the

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, pa ...

ballets, and new works by

Victor Gsovsky Victor Gsovsky (russian: Виктор Иванович Гзовский; 12 January 1902, Saint Petersburg - 14 March 1974, Hamburg) was a Russian ballet dancer, teacher, balletmaster and choreographer. Biography He studied with Mariinsky Theatre ...

(who was the company's first ballet master),

Andrée Howard Andrée Howard (3 October 1910 – 18 April 1968), originally Andrea, was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. She created over 30 ballets, of which almost nothing remains. Early life Andrée Howard was born in London on 3 October 1910. ...

Frank Staff Frank Staff (15 June 1918 – 10 May 1971) was a South African ballet dancer, choreographer, producer, and company director. He was a major figure in the history of European theatrical dance in South Africa. Early life Frank Cedric Staff was b ...

and

John Taras John Taras (April 18, 1919 – April 2, 2004) was an American ballet master, repetiteur, and choreographer. Early life and education Born on the Lower East Side of New York City to Ukrainian parents, he was sent at age 16 to study balle ...

.Koegler, Horst, ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ballet'' (1st English edition, 1977)Percival, J., ''Dance and Dancers'' (Feb. 1960 issue) The company's dancers included David Adams,

Poul Gnatt Poul Rudolph Gnatt (24 March 1923 – 15 October 1995) was a Danish dancer and balletmaster active in New Zealand. Childhood Gnatt was born in Baden, Austria. His father was Kai Gnatt, flower merchant, and his mother Kaja Olsen, both fro ...

Sonia Arova Sonia Arova ( bg, Соня Арова) (20 June 1927 – 4 February 2001), was a Bulgarian ballerina. Biography Early life Sonia Arova was born as Sophie Errio on 20 June 1927 in Sofia, Bulgaria. She grew up in Sofia, she went to a ballet sc ...

Colette Marchand Colette Janine Marchand (29 April 1925 – 5 June 2015) was a French prima ballerina and actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1952 for her performance as Marie Charlet in ''Moulin Rouge (1952 film), Mou ...

and the 16-year-old

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 B ...

. Guest artists included

Alexandra Danilova Aleksandra Dionisyevna Danilova (''Russian'': Александра Дионисьевна Данилова; November 20, 1903 – July 13, 1997) was a Russian-born prima ballerina, who became an American citizen. In 1989, she was recognized fo ...

Erik Bruhn Erik Belton Evers Bruhn (3 October 1928 – 1 April 1986) was a Danish danseur, choreographer, artistic director, actor, and author. Early life Erik Bruhn was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the fourth child and first son of Ellen (née Evers), o ...

Henry Danton Henry Danton (born Henry David Boileau Down; 30 March 1919 – 9 February 2022) was a British dancer, teacher, and stager of classical ballet. Life and career Born Henry David Boileau Down to a family with French and Scottish ancestry, Henr ...

Frederic Franklin Frederic Franklin (13 June 1914 – 4 May 2013), sometimes also called "Freddie", was a British-American ballet dancer, choreographer and director. Dancer Born in Liverpool, England, Frederic Franklin claimed that on seeing the 1924 film ...

and

Léonide Massine Leonid Fyodorovich Myasin (russian: Леони́д Фёдорович Мя́син), better known in the West by the French transliteration as Léonide Massine (15 March 1979), was a Russian choreographer and ballet dancer. Massine created the wo ...

. The company disbanded at the end of 1949 after a final televised performance of ''

Coppélia ''Coppélia'' (sometimes subtitled: ''La Fille aux Yeux d'Émail'' (The Girl with the Enamel Eyes)) is a comic ballet from 1870 originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon to the music of Léo Delibes, with libretto by Charles-Louis-Éti ...

'' Act 2 and ''Pleasuredrome'' on Dec. 19th whereupon its dancers dispersed. Beriosova joined

Sadler's Wells Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-sea ...

Theatre Ballet, moving to the Covent Garden branch of the company in 1952 where she stayed until her retirement in 1975.

References

Ballet companies in the United Kingdom {{ballet-stub