Moira Shearer King, Lady Kennedy (17 January 1926 – 31 January 2006), was an internationally renowned Scottish
ballet dancer
A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on ye ...
and actress. She was famous for her performances in
Powell and Pressburger
The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell (1905–1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988)—together often known as The Archers, the name of their production company—made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. ...
's ''
The Red Shoes'' (1948) and ''
The Tales of Hoffman'' (1951) and
Michael Powell
Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a seri ...
's ''
Peeping Tom
Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly re ...
'' (1960). She has been portrayed on screen by Shannon Davidson in the award-winning short film ''Òran na h-Eala'' (2022) which explores her life changing decision to appear in ''The Red Shoes''.
Early life
She was born Moira Shearer King at Morton Lodge in
Dunfermline,
Fife , Scotland, in 1926, the only child of civil engineer Harold Charles King and Margaret Crawford Reid, née Shearer.
In 1931 her family moved to
Ndola
Ndola is the third largest city in Zambia and third in terms of size and population, with a population of 475,194 (''2010 census provisional''), after the capital, Lusaka, and Kitwe, and the second largest in terms of infrastructure development aft ...
,
Northern Rhodesia, where her father worked as a civil engineer and where she received her first dancing training under a former pupil of
Enrico Cecchetti
Enrico Cecchetti (; 21 June 1850 – 13 November 1928) was an Italian ballet dancer, mime, and founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two dancers from Civitanova Marche, he was born in the costuming room of the ''Teatro Tordinona'' in ...
.
She returned to Britain in 1936 and trained with
Flora Fairbairn in London for a few months before she was accepted as a pupil by the Russian teacher
Nicholas Legat.
[ At his studio she met Mona Inglesby]Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
.[ She joined Mona Inglesby's International Ballet for its 1941 provincial tour and West End season before moving on to ]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-seat ...
in 1942.
Film career
Shearer first came to the public's attention as Posy Fossil in the advertisements for the Noel Streatfeild book '' Ballet Shoes'' while she was training under Flora Fairbairn, a good friend of Streatfeild's.
She achieved international success with her first film role as Victoria Page in the Powell and Pressburger
The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell (1905–1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988)—together often known as The Archers, the name of their production company—made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. ...
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 ...
-themed film '' The Red Shoes'', (1948).[ Even her hair matched the titular footwear, and the role and film were so powerful that although she went on to star in other films and worked as a dancer for many decades, she is primarily known for playing "Vicky".
Shearer retired from ballet in 1953, but she continued to act, appearing as Titania in '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'' at the 1954 ]Edinburgh Festival
__NOTOC__
This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...
. She worked again for Powell in the films ''The Tales of Hoffmann
''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died i ...
'' (1951) and ''Peeping Tom
Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly re ...
'' (1960), which was controversial at the time of release and damaged Powell's own career.
In 1972, she was chosen by the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. She also wrote for ''
...