Anna Pavlova was a Russian ballerina. She was born in 1881 and died in 1931 of pneumonia. After training at the Ballet School in St Petersburg she became prima ballerina with the Russian Imperial Ballet in 1906, danced with Diaghilev's company in 1909 and afterwards performed and toured independently with her own company. Research Anna Pavlova
Clement Francois Theodore Dubois was a French musical composer. He was born at Rosnay, Marne in 1837. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Ambroise Thomas and Benott. His cantata Atala gained for him the Grand Priz de Rome in 1861. He visited Rome, and on his return to Paris he became choirmaster of St. Clotilde, and later organist at the MadeleineChurch; was appointed professor of harmony at the conservatoire in 1871, and professor of composition in 1891; and in 1896 he succeeded Ambroise Thomas as director. His compositions, although not of the first rank, nevertheless stamp him as a musician of talent. In addition to his sacred and orchestral works, he composed the oratorios Les Sept Paroles du Christ in 1867, and Le Paradis Perdu, which gained the musical prize at Paris in 1878; the comic opera La Guzla de L'Emir in 1873, the ballet Farandole in 1883, the lyrical drama Aben-Hamed in 1884, and the dramatic idyll Xaviere in 1885. Research Clement Dubois
Sir Frederick Ashton was an English choreographer. He was born in 1904 at Guayaquil, Ecuador and died in 1988. He composed his early dances for the ballet company of Marie Rambert. In 1935, he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet as choreographer and in 1963 replaced Dame Ninette de Valois as director of the company, now known as the Royal Ballet. Research Frederick Ashton
Leo Delibes was a French composer. He was born in 1836 and died in 1891. His works are mostly of a bright, graceful, and cheerful cast, and include operettas, comic operas, ballet music, etc. Research Leo Delibes
Margot Fonteyn (Peggy Hookham) was a British ballerina. She was born in 1919 and died in 1991 of cancer. She spent some of her childhood in China. When she was 14 her family returned to England and she auditioned successfully for the Vic-Wells ballet, making her debut in 1934 as a snowflake in 'Nutcracker'; her first solo role was the Young Treginnis in de Valois's 'The Haunted Ballroom'. When Markova, the company's first ballerina, left in 1935, Fonteyn worried with the rest of the dancers, and most of the audience, about who could ever replace her: over the next three years it became apparent that it would be she herself. By the time she was 16 her promise was unmistakable. By the time the war broke out in 1939 she had danced Aurora, Giselle, and Odette/Odile, and - perhaps more importantly - had already created half a dozen roles for Ashton.
After a stormy start caused by mutual incomprehension, she and the choreographer established a happy relationship which over the next 25 years produced most of her greatest roles and his greatest ballets. The company's nomadic wartime existence ended with the invitation take up residence at Covent Garden, and their opening night performance of 'Sleeping Beauty' showed how far Fonteyn, still only 26, had travelled on the path to prima ballerina. 'Symphonic Variations' and 'Cinderella' followed, and the seal on her progress from national treasure to international star was set by her triumph in New York on the company's historic opening night in 1949.
The 1950s saw her taking on Karsavina's role in 'Firebird', and creating Ondine and Chloe - the part in which Ashton said he most missed her when she gave up dancing. In 1956 she married Roberto de Arias, a diplomat from Panama, and for a time had to juggle her commitments as both ballerina and ambassador's wife. By about 1960, though, talk of possible retirement had begun to creep into reviews and interviews. Her most famous partnership - which lasted twenty years - was dancing with Nuryev after he defected from Russia in 1961. She gave her
final performance in the early 1970's, and then retired to Panama to care for her husband, who had been paralysed in a shooting incident. Research Margot Fonteyn
Maria Taglioni was an Italian dancer. She was born in 1804 at Stockholm and died in 1884. The daughter of a ballet master, she made her first appearance at Vienna when she was eighteen years old. In 1827 she appeared in Paris and proved very popular, and for the next twenty years was the most famous ballet dancer in Europe until she retired in 1847. Research Maria Taglioni
Michael William Balfe was an Irish composer, He was born in 1808 at Dublin and died in 1870. In his seventh year he performed in public on the violin, and at sixteen took the part of the Wicked Huntsman in Der Freischiitz at Drury Lane. In 1825 he went to Italy, wrote the music for a ballet La Peyrouse for the Scala at Milan, and in the following year sang at the Theatre-Italien, Paris, with moderate success. He returned to Italy, and at Palermo was given his first opera, I Rivali (1829). For five years he continued singing and composing operas for the Italian stage. In 1835 he came to England, and composed a number of operas, amongst others The Bohemian Girl (1843), Rose of Castile (1857), Satanella (1858), and The Talisman (first performed in 1874). His operas are melodious and many of the airs are excellent. Research Michael Baife
Rudolf Hametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer and choreographer. He was born in 1938 and died in 1993. A soloist with the KirovBallet, he defected to the West during a visit to Paris in 1961. Mainly associated with the Royal Ballet (London) and as Margot Fonteyn's principal partner, he was one of the most brilliant dancers of the 1960s and 1970s. Nureyev danced in such roles as Prince Siegfried in SwanLake and Armand in Marguerite and Armand, which was created especially for Fonteyn and Nureyev. He also danced and acted in films and on television and choreographed several ballets. It was due to his enormous impact on the ballet world that the male dancer's role was elevated to the equivalent of the ballerina's. Nureyev was a Tatar. He was born near LakeBaikal, on a train journey, and grew up in Ufa in extreme poverty. A love of folk dancing and the sight of professional dancers at the town's small opera house led to lessons with Anna Udeltsova, who had been a member of the Diaghilev Ballet. At the age of 17 he entered the famous
Vaganova Institute (also known as the KirovBallet School) in St Petersburg in the class of Aleksandr Pushkin, a brilliant teacher. Just three years later he joined the KirovBallet as a soloist, dancing with Natalya Dudinskaya, its top prima ballerina, for his first engagement. In 1961 the KirovBallet was in Paris on its first important tour of the West. Nureyev was highly praised but his socializing with French friends incurred the displeasure of the Soviet officials, who told him he had to return. Sensing that he would never again be allowed to leave the Soviet Union, he slipped his escort at Le Bourget Airport and sought political asylum - and a new career. In Nov 1961 he made his London debut at a gala in aid of the Royal Academy of Dancing with Poeme Tragique, a short solo composed for him by FrederickAshton, the director of the Royal Ballet, and this led to an invitation to partner Margot Fonteyn, the academy's president, in Giselle at Covent Garden. Thus began the legendary partnership and a new lease of
artistic life for Fonteyn, who was 19 years his senior. As well as dancing in the classics of the 19th century, he created many roles in modern works, most notably with Fonteyn in Ashton's Marguerite and Armand, first performed at Covent Garden 1963. He choreographed and staged ballets for nearly all the major companies, reviving works from the Russian repertoire like The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and Raymonda. In 1983 he was appointed director of the Ballet at the Opera in Paris, revitalized it, and gave much encouragement to young dancers. He appeared many times on television and in films, including the feature I Am a Dancer, shown first in 1972. Research Rudolph Nureyev
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Anna Pavlova
