Irish Dancers - Irish Ballet Dancers, Ninette de Valois, Leigh Alderson, Monica Loughman (Paperback)

Chapters: Irish Ballet Dancers, Ninette de Valois, Leigh Alderson, Monica Loughman. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 24. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Dame Ninette de Valois, OM, CH, DBE (6 June 1898 8 March 2001) was an Irish born British dancer, teacher, choreographer and director of classical ballet. Most notably, she danced professionally with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, later establishing The Royal Ballet, one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century and one of the leading ballet companies in the world today. She also established the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Royal Ballet School. As one of the creators of modern British ballet, she is widely regarded as one of the most influential personalities in ballet history. Born Edris Stannus in Baltiboys House, Blessington, County Wicklow, Ireland, Ninette de Valois was the second daughter of a British army officer and Lillith Graydon-Smith, a renowned glassmaker. She moved to England in 1905, where she lived with her grandmother in Kent. De Valois started attending ballet lessons in 1908 at the age of 10, later training professionally at the Lila Field Academy for Children, aged 13. It was at this time that she legally changed her name to Ninette de Valois and made her professional debut as a principal dancer in pantomime at the Lyceum Theatre in the West End. In 1919, at the age of 21, she was appointed principal dancer of the Beecham Opera, which was then the resident opera company at the Royal Opera House. She continued to study ballet with notable teachers, including Edouard Espinosa, Enrico Cecchetti and Nicholas Legat. In 1923, de Valois joined the Ballets Russes, a renowned ballet company founded by the Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev. She remained with the company for three years, being promoted to the...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=192464