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110-518: Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton (17 September 1904 – 18 August 1988) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He also worked as a director and choreographer in opera, film and revue . Determined to be a dancer despite the opposition of his conventional middle-class family, Ashton was accepted as a pupil by Léonide Massine and then by Marie Rambert . In 1926 Rambert encouraged him to try his hand at choreography, and though he continued to dance professionally, with success, it

220-522: A Dominican school . When they returned to Guayaquil in 1914, he attended a school for children of the English colony. One of his formative influences was serving as an altar boy, which inspired in him a love of ritual, as demonstrated in The Wise Virgins . Another, still more potent, influence was being taken to see Anna Pavlova dance in 1917. He was immediately determined that he would become

330-446: A "pure" ballet, in which the interest is wholly concentrated upon the dance and its relation to the music. That the new ballet holds one's attention from the first motionless tableau until the dancers sink into repose again at the end is a measure of Mr. Ashton's success. The Times on Symphonic Variations , 1946 After the end of the war David Webster invited de Valois to move her company from Sadler's Wells to be resident at

440-941: A celestial order", and recalled that she and her fellow New York critics were "struck speechless by this luminous ballet". In the late 1940s and early 1950s Ashton worked more frequently for other ballet companies, creating works for the Ballets de Paris ( Le Rêve de Léonor , 1949, to Britten 's Bridge Variations ) and the New York City Ballet ( Illuminations , 1950, to Britten's Les Illuminations , and Picnic at Tintagel , 1952, to Bax 's The Garden of Fand ). He created dances for films, including The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) and The Story of Three Loves (1953), and directed operas at Glyndebourne (Britten's Albert Herring , 1947) and Covent Garden ( Massenet 's Manon , 1947, and Gluck 's Orpheus , 1953, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli with Kathleen Ferrier in

550-500: A change to the leadership of the two companies. Georg Solti , musical director of the opera company, was keen to concentrate on his new post as conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , and did not wish to renew his Covent Garden contract when it expired in 1971. Ashton had frequently told colleagues how he looked forward to his own retirement, but nonetheless was hurt by the abruptness with which his departure

660-545: A choreographer." Nonetheless Nijinska must have truly excelled as a dancer. When only a young student, her prowess on the dance floor had been recognized by top professionals. "If Marius Petipa patted her approvingly on the head and Enrico Cecchetti placed her, at age eight, front and center in his class between two prima ballerinas, she must have been good." Yet before the Great War of 1914 her brother's legendary dance skills had overshadowed her own. Years later, however,

770-557: A competing revue to the undergraduates, called variably Revue and Integration or Revue and Imitation. The Moira Stuart Cup is competed for annually at the United Hospitals Comedy Revue, by all five of the University of London Medical Schools . It has been won by all medical schools at least once, with RUMS (UCL Medical School) and St George's Hospital Medical School achieving the most victories, winning

880-652: A continued embrace of a unifying authorial presence in this seemingly scattershot genre, much as was earlier the case with Ziegfeld, Carrol, et al . With different artistic emphases, the revue genre is today above all upheld at traditional variety theatres such as the Le Lido , Moulin Rouge and Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin, as well as in shows in Las Vegas. It is a current and fairly longstanding tradition of medical, dental, engineering, legal and veterinary schools within

990-505: A corps de ballet of peasants ( Sylvia 1952), to junior dancers (a pair of dancing artichokes in the ... vegetable ballet he made for the 1979 film "Stories from a Flying Trunk"), or to a minor character (Moth in The Dream , 1964). Often the eye is distracted from it by action elsewhere onstage. In each instance, it is changed in some aspect (particularly its conclusion), so that the entire step seems metamorphosed. Ashton himself danced

1100-465: A dancer. Dancing was not a career acceptable to a conventional English family at that time. Ashton later recalled, "My father was horrified. You can imagine the middle-class attitude. My mother would say, 'He wants to go on the stage.' She could not bring herself to say 'into the ballet.'" Ashton's father sent him to England in 1919 to Dover College , where he was miserable. Homosexual, and with an accent that his classmates laughed at, he did not fit in at

1210-490: A great influence on Ashton—most particularly Bronislava Nijinska 's ballet Les biches . In 1930 Ashton created an innovative ballet, Capriol Suite , using Peter Warlock 's 1926 suite of the same name . The music was based on 16th-century French music, and Ashton researched the dances of the earlier era, and created a period piece with " basse danse , pavane , tordion , and bransle —smoothly mixing robust masculine leaps with courtly duets." The following year Rambert founded

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1320-493: A hurry, and Walton later said that it was not much of a success from anyone's point of view. It had a theme of knightly chivalry, though Walton observed that Helpmann in the lead looked more like the Dragon than St George. As with the 1940 Ashton-Walton collaboration The Wise Virgins , the music has survived but the ballet has not. Mr. Frederick Ashton has devised a ballet for six dancers without drama and without characterisation –

1430-492: A minor public school of the early 1920s. He was not academically inclined, and his father decided that, upon leaving the school in 1921, Ashton should join a commercial company. He worked for an import–export firm in the City of London , where his ability to speak Spanish and French as well as English was an advantage. In January 1924, George Ashton committed suicide. His widow was left financially dependent on her elder sons, who ran

1540-472: A mother and father who danced on stage and were regularly traveling on tour, the children acquired an intrepid attitude and a physical prowess in everyday life. The two parents encouraged their children's athletic development and, while scolding misbehavior, were not punitive. Curiosity drove Vatsa to explore his frequently-new neighborhoods, sometimes crossing parental lines. His bravery and daring on rooftops impressed Broni. How Vatsa loved to climb! Whenever he

1650-570: A multi-year program. As with Vaslav's acceptance, her mother had enlisted support from various people linked to ballet, including Stanislav Gillert and Cecchetti. Present at the entrance examination were 214 candidates ready to demonstrate their dance abilities. Legendary ballet master Marius Petipa participated in the trials, as did Cecchetti and Sergei Legat . Twelve girls were accepted. Bronislava graduated in 1908, taking 'First Award' for achievement both in dance and in academic subjects. Seven women graduated that year. In addition to her diploma she

1760-726: A new ballet company in London: Saison Nijinsky. Bronislava offered her assistance, yet learned there was only a short time to prepare for its premiere performance. Vaslav had signed a contract to open at a dance hall , the London Palace Theatre , in four and a half weeks (March 2). Nijinska quickly decided to return to Russia to recruit the cast, but Warsaw was where the experienced dancers were found. She with others explained her brother's innovative choreographies. She directed rehearsals, as musicians and scores, sets and costumes were arranged. Nijinska herself

1870-754: A permanent member of his newly formed company, Ballets Russes . In 1912 she had married fellow dancer Aleksander Kochetowsky, and gave birth to their daughter Irina in 1913. Here initially Nijinska danced in the corps de ballet , e.g., in Swan Lake (the Czardas), in Les Sylphides (the Mazurka), and in Le Spectre de la Rose . As she developed on the professional stage she was promoted, and eventually given significant parts. Her brother coached her for

1980-444: A poor show". Nevertheless, Ashton was by now recognised as a choreographer of considerable talent and had gained a national, though not yet international, reputation. In 1933 Ashton devised another work for de Valois and her company, the ballet-divertissement Les Rendezvous . Robert Greskovic describes the work as a "classically precise yet frothy excursion showcas[ing] big skirted 'ballet girls' and dashing swain partners". The piece

2090-658: A short time. In 1908, Nijinska was admitted to the Imperial Ballet (then also known as the Mariinsky Ballet and later known as the Kirov Ballet). She followed in her brother's footsteps. In the corps de ballet her first year, she performed in Michel Fokine 's Les Sylphides . Under Fokine's gaze and leadership, she was able to directly experience the choreographic vision of this master on

2200-584: A signature step, known to dancers as "the Fred step". It is defined by David Vaughan as " posé en arabesque, coupé dessous, small développé a la seconde, pas de bourrée dessous, pas de chat ". Adrian Grater has enlarged the definition to include the transitional movements; this in Benesh notation is transcribed thus: It was based on a step used by Anna Pavlova in a gavotte that she frequently performed. Alicia Markova recalled in 1994 that Ashton had first used

2310-509: A successful business in Guayaquil. She moved to London to be with Ashton and his younger sister, Edith. Despite family disapproval (and at first in secret) Ashton pursued his ambition to dance professionally. He auditioned for Léonide Massine ; at the unusually late age of twenty he was accepted as a pupil. After Massine left London, Ashton was taken on as a student by Marie Rambert . She encouraged him to try choreographing. His first attempt

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2420-412: A traveling caravan of musicians, headed by Bob Dylan , that took place in late 1975 and early 1976. Towards the end of the 20th century, a subgenre of revue largely dispensed with the sketches, founding narrative structure within a song cycle in which the material is culled from varied works. This type of revue may or may not have identifiable characters and a rudimentary storyline but, even when it does,

2530-481: A trifle as Mr Playfair's modish establishment leads you to expect." The costumes and scenery were by Sophie Fedorovitch , who continued to work with Ashton for more than twenty years, and became, in his words, "not only my dearest friend but my greatest artistic collaborator and adviser". Rambert sought to widen her students' horizons, taking them to see London performances by the Diaghilev Ballet. They had

2640-587: A vocabulary of the spectacular. Burlesque , itself a bawdy hybrid of various theatrical forms, lent to classic revue an open interest in female sexuality and the masculine gaze. Revues enjoyed great success on Broadway from the World War I years until the Great Depression , when the stock market crash forced many revues from cavernous Broadway houses into smaller venues. (The shows did, however, continue to infrequently appear in large theatres well into

2750-544: Is creating his Faune by using me as his model. I am like a piece of clay that he is molding   ..." Yet these appearance became clearly auxiliary to her new, 'second career' working as the choreographer . From 1921 to 1924, 1926 with Ballets Russes, Nijinska nonetheless took prominent roles in many of her own dance designs. Accordingly, she performed as the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty (1921),

2860-539: Is no one to replace you. You are the only one who can perform this dance, only you, Bronia, and no one else!" Nancy Van Norman Baer in her book on Nijinska writes, "Between 1911 and 1913, while [her brother] Nijinsky 's fame continued to soar, Nijinska emerged as a strong and talented dancer." Author and critic Robert Greskovic describes a common understanding of her gifts, "Nowhere near the beauty and exemplar of her art that Pavlova and Spessivtseva were, Bronislava Nijinska (1891–1972) instead began to make her mark as

2970-519: Is so disturbing and so bleak". In 1941 Ashton was called up for war service. He was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Air Force , at first analysing aerial photographs and later as an intelligence officer. While in the RAF he was granted occasional spells of leave to carry on his work with the ballet. His collaboration with Walton continued with The Quest (1943). It was created and staged in

3080-609: The London Festival Ballet rather than at Covent Garden. In October 1956 Elizabeth II granted Sadler's Wells Ballet a charter, giving it the title of "the Royal Ballet" with effect from 15 January 1957. This recognised the eminence the company had achieved: internationally it was widely regarded as "the leading company outside Russia". De Valois remained the director of the company, with Ashton as principal choreographer. One of Ashton's most celebrated ballets

3190-969: The Order of Merit (OM) in 1977. His honours from other countries included the Legion of Honour (France, 1960) and the Order of the Dannebrog (Denmark, 1964). He received the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award from the Royal Academy of Dance in 1959. He was awarded the Freedom of the City of London (1981), and received honorary doctorates from the universities of Durham (1962), East Anglia (1967), London (1970), Hull (1971) and Oxford (1976). Revue Owing to high ticket prices, ribald publicity campaigns and

3300-644: The Petipa 's classic The Sleeping Princess . Although a money loser, it was popular, and well designed and danced. Nijinska performed the roles of the Hummingbird Fairy and Pierette, for which she received "high critical praise". In 1922, following a personal request by Diaghilev, she performed the title role in Nijinsky 's L'Après-midi d'un Faune during its Paris revival. She had helped her brother with its choreography for its 1912 premier. "Vaslav

3410-594: The Royal Opera House , Covent Garden alongside the new opera company he was establishing. Ashton's first ballet for the company in its new home was Symphonic Variations (1946). The historian Montague Haltrecht writes of it, "It is a masterpiece created for the Opera House and for the company's dancers, and almost of itself defines a style of English dancing." Although the Covent Garden stage

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3520-510: The 1913 ballet The Rite of Spring . She developed her own art in Petrograd and Kiev during the Great War, Revolution and Civil War. While performing in theaters, she worked independently to design and stage her first choreographies. Nijinska started a ballet school on progressive lines in Kiev. She published her writing on the art of movement. In 1921 she fled Russian authorities. Rejoining

3630-563: The 1920s. She then enjoyed continuing successes in Europe and the Americas. Nijinska played a pioneering role in the broad movement that diverged from 19th-century classical ballet . Her introduction of modern forms, steps, and motion, and a minimalist narrative, prepared the way of future works . Following serious home training, she entered the state ballet school in the Russian capital at

3740-561: The 1930s and 1940s, with films such as "Frau meiner Träume" being made. Revues took advantage of their high revenue stream to lure away performers from other media, often offering exorbitant weekly salaries without the unremitting travel demanded by other entertainments. Performers such as Eddie Cantor , Anna Held , W. C. Fields , Bert Williams , Ed Wynn , the Marx Brothers and the Fairbanks Twins found great success on

3850-586: The 1934 ballet based on Hamlet per Liszt: the title role. She performed into the 1930s, at venues in Europe and the Americas. As Nijinska reached her forties, her performance career neared its end. What caused her trouble, and hastened the close of her performance art, was an injury to her Achilles tendon suffered in 1933 while at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Her qualities as a dancer, of course, are distinct from her more celebrated choreography. Comments by several professional colleagues were collected by

3960-494: The 1950s.) The high ticket prices of many revues helped ensure audiences distinct from other live popular entertainments during their height of popularity (late 1910s–1940s). In 1914, the Follies charged $ 5.00 for an opening night ticket ($ 130 in 2020 dollars); at that time, many cinema houses charged from $ 0.10 to 0.25, while low-priced vaudeville seats were $ 0.15. Among the many popular producers of revues, Florenz Ziegfeld played

4070-660: The 1960s for The Royal Ballet in London, she staged revivals of her Ballets Russes-era creations. Her Early Memoirs , translated into English, was published posthumously. Bronislava Nijinska was the third child of the Polish dancers Tomasz [Foma] Nijinsky and Eleonora Nijinska (maiden name Bereda), who were then traveling performers in provincial Russia. Bronislava was born in Minsk , but all three children were baptized in Warsaw . She

4180-623: The American theatre. Rodgers and Hart , one of the great composer/lyricist teams of the American musical theatre , followed up their early Columbia University student revues with the successful Garrick Gaieties (1925). Comedian Fanny Brice , following a brief period in burlesque and amateur variety, bowed to revue audiences in Ziegfeld's Follies of 1910 . Specialist writers and composers of revues have included Sandy Wilson , Noël Coward , John Stromberg, George Gershwin , Earl Carroll , and

4290-488: The Americas. Among them were Teatro Colón, Ida Rubinstein, Opéra Russe à Paris, Wassily de Basil, Max Reinhardt, Markova-Dolin, Ballet Polonaise, Ballet Theatre, the Hollywood Bowl, Jacob's Pillow, Serge Denham, Marquis de Cuevas, as well as her own companies. Due to war in 1939 she relocated from Paris to Los Angeles. Nijinska continued working in choreography and as an artistic director. She taught at her studio. In

4400-532: The Ballet Club, forerunner of the Ballet Rambert , with Alicia Markova as prima ballerina and Ashton as the main choreographer and one of the leading dancers. Ashton's ballets of the early 1930s included La péri (1931), The Lady of Shalott (1931), Façade (1931), Foyer de danse (1932) and Les Masques (1933). He also contributed to West End revues and musicals, including The Cat and

4510-530: The Ballets Russes, Diaghilev appointed her the choreographer of the influential ballet company based in France. Nijinska thrived, creating several popular, cutting-edge ballets to contemporary music. In 1923, with a score by Igor Stravinsky she choreographed her iconic work Les noces [The Wedding]. Starting in 1925, with a variety of companies and venues she designed and mounted ballets in Europe and

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4620-615: The British team Flanders and Swann . In Britain predominantly, Tom Arnold also specialized in promoting series of revues and his acts extended to the European continent and South Africa. With the introduction of talking pictures, in 1927, studios immediately began filming acts from the stage. Such film shorts gradually replaced the live entertainment that had often accompanied cinema exhibition. By 1928, studios began planning to film feature-length versions of popular musicals and revues from

4730-530: The Chosen Maiden role, she carefully follow Nijinsky's instructions as to movement and pose, as the ballet choreography slowly developed. Yet when she became aware of her pregnancy, she told him she'd have to withdraw and miss its opening performance, angering her brother. In 1914 she danced for Saison Nijinsky (see section above). After Saison Nijinsky, Bronislava returned to Russia. She continued her ballet career as danseuse, with Sasha her husband as

4840-458: The Country ), Michael Somes ( Cinderella and Symphonic Variations ), Alexander Grant ( La fille mal gardée and Façade ), Antony Dyson ( Enigma Variations and Monotones ), and Brian Shaw ( Les Patineurs and Rendezvous ). Rights to most of his other ballets were left to his nephew, Anthony Russell-Roberts , who was Administrative Director of the Royal Ballet from 1983 to 2009. To perpetuate

4950-647: The Festival, with St. George's Medics Revue having been performing annually at the Fringe for 18 years and have sold-out their show for the last nine years. The BSMS Medic Revue has performed sellout shows in the Brighton Fringe Festival since 2008. The MDs Comedy Revue performed at the Fringe for the first time in 2015, to a sell-out audience, repeating this feat their second show in 2016 and their third in 2018. The Cambridge clinical school also now run

5060-628: The Fiddle (1932) for C. B. Cochran , and Gay Hussar (1933), in which The Manchester Guardian singled out the "spirited and lovely choreography in the classic manner". Ashton's association with Ninette de Valois , founder of the Vic-Wells Ballet , began in 1931, when he created a comic ballet , Regatta for her. It received mixed reviews; The Times thought it successful as "a piece of flippant amusement", but The Manchester Guardian considered that "it completely fails ... definitely

5170-981: The Fox in Le Renard (1922), as the Hostess in Les Biches (1924), as Lysandre in Les Fâcheux (1924), and as the Tennis Player in Le Train Bleu (1924). Subsequently, for her own ballet companies and for others, she danced in roles of her own inventions: in Holy Etudes , Touring , Le Guignol , and Night on Bald Mountain (all 1925); for Teatro Colón in Estudios religiosos (1926); in her Capricio Espagnole per Rimsky-Korsakoff in 1931; and in

5280-537: The New York ballet critic and author Lynn Garafola : "She was a very strong dancer, and danced very athletically for a lady, and had a big jump," commented Frederic Franklin , a dancer and ballet master. "She had incredible endurance, and seemed never to be tired," recalled Anatole Vilzak, who was a principal dancer in many of her mature choreographies. English dancer Lydia Sokolova , noting her lack of makeup, thought she appeared "a most unfeminine woman, though there

5390-452: The Prince, Alexander Grant as the jester, and Ashton and Helpmann en travesti as Cinderella's stepsisters. Some critics have commented that Ashton was not yet fully in control of a full-length ballet, with intermittent weaknesses in the choreography, but the comedy of the stepsisters was, and has remained, a favourite with audiences. The ballet critic Laura Jacobs called it "slapstick of

5500-713: The Theater's dismissal of her brother Vaslav, chiefly because his star performances in Paris were making ballet-world headlines. As a result, Nijinska was deprived of her rights respecting the title 'Artist of the Imperial Theaters' and its associated income. Nijinska appeared in the Sergei Pavlovitch Diaghilev 's first two Paris seasons, 1909 and 1910. After leaving the Mariinsky, she became

5610-670: The UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia to put on revues each year, combining comedy sketches, songs, parodies, films and sound-bites. One of the most notable and funniest is the Australian National University's "Arts Revue". As well as performing at their respective universities, shows will often be performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe . The Cambridge Medics Revue, St George's Medics Revue, and Birmingham Medics Revues have all performed at

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5720-453: The US, to stage both new and old works. The ballet critic John Percival considered that despite the numerous glories of the company under Ashton's directorship, he was unsuited to and uninterested in management, and lacked de Valois' gift for strategic planning (though better in both these regards than his successor as director, Kenneth MacMillan ). Percival believed that this weakened the company in

5830-624: The US. When de Valois retired in 1963, Ashton succeeded her as director. His time in charge was looked on as something of a golden age. Under him, the corps de ballet was recognised as rivalling and even excelling the best anywhere else in the world. He continued to add to the repertoire with his own new productions, he persuaded his former mentor Bronislava Nijinska to revive her Les biches and Les noces , and he presented Mam'zelle Angot by his other mentor, Massine. He also brought in Antony Tudor , his English contemporary, better known in

5940-496: The Vic-Wells as a richly productive period: "His Apparitions in 1936 was by many compared favourably with Massine's Symphonie Fantastique on a similar theme, and that year saw also the touching Nocturne to Delius 's Paris . These works have vanished, but the following year's witty A Wedding Bouquet and Les Patineurs are still with us." In 1936–37, his homosexuality notwithstanding, Ashton had an affair with an American heiress and socialite, Alice von Hofmannsthal . After

6050-769: The affair ended, her love for him continued, though she had two subsequent marriages, both to gay Englishmen. As the 1930s progressed, Ashton's career began to extend internationally. In 1934 he choreographed Virgil Thomson 's opera Four Saints in Three Acts in New York, and in 1939 he created his first ballet for a foreign company: Devil's Holiday ( Le Diable s'amuse ) for the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo . He continued to create dances for other forms of theatre, from revues such as The Town Talks and Home and Beauty , to opera, including Clive Carey 's production of Die Fledermaus at Sadler's Wells , and film, notably Escape Me Never , another collaboration with William Walton , following Façade four years earlier. Shortly before

6160-531: The age of nine. In 1908 she graduated as an 'Artist of the Imperial Theatres'. An early breakthrough came in Paris in 1910 when she became a member of Diaghilev 's Ballets Russes. For her dance solo Nijinska created the role of Papillon in Carnaval , a ballet written and designed by Michel Fokine . She assisted her famous brother Vaslav Nijinsky as he worked up his controversial choreography for L'Après-midi d'un faune , which Ballets Russes premiered in Paris in 1912. Similarly, she aided him in his creation of

6270-414: The ballet film The Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971). Ashton was born in Guayaquil , Ecuador, the fourth of the five children of George Ashton (1864–1924) and his second wife, Georgiana (1869–1939), née Fulcher. George Ashton was manager of the Central and South American Cable Company and vice-consul at the British consulate in Guayaquil. In 1907, the family moved to Lima , Peru, where Ashton attended

6380-443: The bandwagon and produced expensive revues such as Harmony Heaven ( British International Pictures , 1929), Elstree Calling (BIP, 1930), and The Musical Revue Of 1959 (BI P, 1960). Revues are often common today as student entertainment (with strong traditions in many universities in UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Denmark). These use pastiche , in which contemporary songs are re-written in order to comment on

6490-418: The college or courses in a humorous nature. While most comic songs will only be heard within the revue they were written for, sometimes they become more widely known—such as "A Transport of Delight", about the big red London bus, by Flanders and Swann , who first made their name in a revue titled At the Drop of a Hat . The Rolling Thunder Revue was a famed U.S. concert tour in the mid-1970s consisting of

6600-414: The company in solidarity with him. During a 1913 Ballets Russes tour in South American, Vaslav Nijinsky married Romola de Pulszky . It created controversy in the company and in ballet stories from the tour. As Nijinska explains in her memoirs, Vaslav was very reserved and, other than herself, had few confidants or even close colleagues in the dance world. He was a young man alone on the tour when he wed. He

6710-471: The company's downfall to Vaslav's erratic emotional tendencies, which had intensified after his recent marriage and his dismissal from Ballets Russes. Brother and sister became separated for seven years, first by World War I, then by the Russian Revolution, followed by the Russian Civil War. There was little chance for communication as mail service first became irregular and then was discontinued. In 1921 they met again in Vienna, where they remained together for

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6820-448: The cutting-edge. Both she and her brother Nijinsky, however, left Russia during the summers of 1909 and 1910 to perform for Diaghilev 's company in Paris. Nijinska danced with the Mariinsky Ballet for three years. However, the growth and insights acquired at Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, which was then unexpectedly revolutionizing the ballet world, clearly exceeded that at Mariinsky Theater. Then, suddenly, she felt compelled to resign after

6930-412: The danseur. During the war and then the revolution, she went on stage in experimental works as well as in classics. In Petrograd the 1915 theatre program listed "ballet by the prima ballerina-artist of the State Ballet Bronislava Nijinska". The program included music by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Borodin. She performed in her own choreographed solos, Le Poupee or Tabatierr, and Autumn Song. Her dance savvy

7040-404: The famous dancer [is] herself an execellent dancer endowed with a profoundly artistic nature." After helping her brother Vaslav for many months in his laborious design of the 1913 ballet The Rite of Spring (music by Stravinsky), she found she'd become pregnant. She could not then take to the stage to perform the star role as the sacrificial maiden. Frustrated, Vaslav then screamed at her, "There

7150-404: The greatest role in developing the classical revue through his glorification of a new theatrical "type", "the American girl". Famed for his often bizarre publicity schemes and continual debt, Ziegfeld joined Earl Carroll , George White , John Murray Anderson , and the Shubert Brothers as the leading producing figure of the American revue's golden age. Revues also had a presence in Germany during

7260-408: The last time. He then continued on the road alone as a dancer. On a prior trip to Finland, he had become involved with another ballet dancer. Eventually this led to a permanent separation from his wife. His relationships with his children suffered; he saw them infrequently. Eleonora on her own established the family's permanent residence in Saint Petersburg. For years she had struggled with being on

7370-417: The legacy of Ashton and his ballets, the Frederick Ashton Foundation was set up in 2011. It is independent of, but works closely with, the Royal Ballet. Ashton was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1950 Birthday Honours , knighted in the 1962 Birthday Honours , appointed Companion of Honour (CH) in the 1970 Birthday Honours for services to the ballet, and appointed to

7480-403: The long term. Ashton's works for the company while he was director included The Dream (1964) (for Anthony Dowell and Antoinette Sibley ), the pas de trois Monotones II (1965), Jazz Calendar (1968) and Enigma Variations (My Friends Pictured Within) (1968). Webster, due to retire in 1970 as general administrator of the Royal Opera House, decided that his departure should be accompanied by

7590-460: The maiden role in Rite . Nonetheless, Baer writes: Although Bronislave Nijinska is often identified as the sister of the celebrated Vaslav Nijinsky, she was a major artist in her own right and a key figure in the development of twentieth-century ballet. ... As one of twentieth-century's ballet's great innovators, she transformed the art. When her brother suddenly married, Diaghilev terminated his position at Ballets Russes. Bronislava Nijinska left

7700-404: The most finicky of gods and the most demanding of balletomanes". Ashton's third full-length ballet was Romeo and Juliet for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1955. It was a considerable success, but Ashton resisted attempts to present it at Covent Garden, which he thought too large a theatre and stage for his intimate treatment of the story. It was not seen in London until 1985 when it was produced by

7810-431: The movements. When Nijinsky created L'Après-midi d'un Faune [ Afternoon of the Faun ] in 1912 he used Nijinska to rehearse it in secret, to follow with her body his description of the steps one by one. She similarly assisted him in creating The Rite of Spring . Yet due to her pregnancy, Nijinska withdrew from the role of the Chosen Maiden. Prof. Garafola, however, characterizes it as her brother 'evicting' her from

7920-416: The occasional use of prurient material, the revue was typically patronized by audience members who earned more and felt even less restricted by middle-class social norms than their contemporaries in vaudeville . Like much of that era's popular entertainments, revues often featured material based on sophisticated, irreverent dissections of topical matter, public personae and fads, though the primary attraction

8030-626: The outbreak of the Second World War Ashton was offered a position in New York with what was to become the American Ballet Theatre . He declined, and returned to de Valois' company, soon renamed "Sadler's Wells Ballet". He created some works along more sombre lines, including Dante Sonata , which symbolised the unending struggle between the children of darkness and the children of light. In Ballet magazine, Lynette Halewood commented in 2000, "No other work by Ashton

8140-550: The premiere. Ashton's last years were marred by the death of his partner, Martyn Thomas, in a car crash in 1985 – a blow from which Ashton never fully recovered. He died in his sleep on 19 August 1988, at his country home in Suffolk, and was buried on 24 August at St Mary's Church, Yaxley, Suffolk . Ashton created more than eighty ballets. In his Who's Who entry, he identified his best-known works as: Other notable Ashton ballets include: Ashton included in many of his ballets

8250-570: The revue stage. One of Cole Porter 's early shows was Raymond Hitchcock 's revue Hitchy-Koo of 1919 . Composers or lyricists such as Richard Rodgers , Lorenz Hart , Irving Berlin , and George M. Cohan also enjoyed a tremendous reception on the part of audiences. Sometimes, an appearance in a revue provided a key early entry into entertainment. Largely due to their centralization in New York City and their adroit use of publicity, revues proved particularly adept at introducing new talents to

8360-466: The road continuously while caring for her three children. A large flat she rented and opened a pension . Bronislava (Broni) records that her brother Vaslav (or Vatsa) became bitter and years later turned against his father because of the suffering endured by his mother. "By nature Vaslav [Vatsa] was a very lively and adventurous boy." In her book Early Memoirs Nijinska writes about the adventures of young Vatsa, older than her by 22 months. Living with

8470-610: The role of Papillon [the butterfly] in Fokine 's Carnaval (1909). In part danced with feet and hands fluttering in a coordinated rhythm at an accelerated prestissimo tempo , she eluded Pierrot, played in pantomime by Vsevolod Meyerhold . The role of the Ballerina Doll in Petruchka (1912) was also transformed. By changing the doll's demeanor from theatrical in a tutu to realistic in street clothes, Nijinska modernized

8580-455: The role of the captured princess; her children Vatsa and Broni watched her perform it. Tomasz choreographed "two very successful ballets", the other being Zaporozbeskaya Tcharovnitza . Nijinska implies that their small troupe prospered, but that has been questioned. In addition to renting theaters for his shows, Tomasz contracted with 'café chantants', popular nightspots where patrons dined while being entertained with music and dance. Family life

8690-409: The role on toe, but I would dance it in my bare feet." She used a liquid body make-up. For Ta-Hor she received treasured compliments from other artists, both for her dance art and for her dramatic interpretation. The next year she performed in her brother's Jeux (Games). Nijinska assisted her brother Vaslav in his creation of the ballet The Rite of Spring , which premiered in 1913. Particularly for

8800-680: The role. She also continually kept in character rather than slipping back into the default look of classical ballet. Among others, the pseudo-Hindu dance of the Bayadere Enivree in Le Dieu bleu she did, but did not care for. She struggled and grew as an Odalisque in the popular ballet Scheherazade . In the 1912 production of Cléopâtre , she at first danced the Bacchanale (replacing Vera Fokine). Then she switched roles, being awarded Karsavina 's role of Ta-Hor. "Karsavina danced

8910-508: The songs remain the focus of the show (for example, Closer Than Ever by Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire ). This type of revue usually showcases songs written by a particular composer or songs made famous by a particular performer. Examples of the former are Side By Side By Sondheim (music/lyrics Stephen Sondheim ), Eubie! ( Eubie Blake ) Tom Foolery ( Tom Lehrer ), and Five Guys Named Moe (songs made popular by Louis Jordan ). The eponymous nature of these later revues suggest

9020-785: The stage. The lavish films, noted by many for a sustained opulence unrivaled in Hollywood until the 1950s epics, reached a breadth of audience never found by the stage revue, all while significantly underpricing the now-faltering theatrical shows. A number of revues were released by the studios, many of which were filmed entirely (or partly) in color. The most notable examples of these are The Show of Shows ( Warner Brothers , 1929), The Hollywood Revue of 1929 ( Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , 1929), Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 ( Fox Film Corporation , 1929), Paramount on Parade ( Paramount , 1930), New Movietone Follies of 1930 (Fox, 1930), and King of Jazz ( Universal , 1930). Even Britain jumped on

9130-625: The step as the timorous sister in Cinderella , and later he and Fonteyn danced a gentle version of it together in Salut d'amour , created by Ashton for her sixtieth birthday gala at Covent Garden. The Royal Ballet has a demonstration of the step on its website, explained by the company's ballet mistress, Ursula Hageli and danced by Romany Pajdak. Ashton left the rights to many of his ballets to friends and colleagues, including Fonteyn ( Daphnis and Chloe and Ondine ), Dowell ( The Dream and A Month in

9240-574: The step in a short ballet that concluded Nigel Playfair 's 1930 production of Marriage à la Mode . It is not seen in Ashton's 1931 Façade , but after that, it became a feature of his choreography. The critic Alastair Macaulay writes: [T]he Fred step is often tucked away. He may give it to the ballerina ( Antoinette Sibley as La Capricciosa in Varii Capricci , 1983) or to supporting dancers ( Symphonic Variations , 1946). He may give it to

9350-590: The term was proprietary to Ziegfeld until his death in 1932. Other popular proprietary revue names included George White's "Scandals," Earl Carroll 's "Vanities" and John Murray Anderson 's Greenwich Village Follies . Revues are most properly understood as having amalgamated several theatrical traditions within the corpus of a single entertainment. Minstrelsy 's olio section provided a structural map of popular variety presentation, while literary travesties highlighted an audience hunger for satire. Theatrical extravaganzas , in particular, moving panoramas, demonstrated

9460-419: The title role). Ashton's second full-length ballet for de Valois' company was Sylvia (1952). Ashton's biographer Kathrine Sorley Walker considers that it works "even less well" than Cinderella , but contemporary reviews praised it with little or no reservation. In 2005, reviewing a New York revival, the critic Jennie Schulman called it a "blockbuster", "radiant" with "choreographic abundance to please even

9570-897: The trophy six times each. The cup is not officially endorsed by Moira Stuart herself. a. In 2019, the judges ironically declared Imperial College School of Medicine the winners, because they could not decide which of The MDs Comedy Revue or The Zebraphiles were the funnier. b. The 2002 UH Revue was a showcase of each Medical School's Revue societies, with the competition element brought in from 2003. Bronislava Nijinska Bronislava Nijinska ( / ˌ b r ɒ n ɪ ˈ s l ɑː v ə n ɪ ˈ ( d ) ʒ ɪ n s k ə / ; Polish : Bronisława Niżyńska [brɔɲiˈswava ɲiˈʐɨj̃ska] ; Russian : Бронисла́ва Фоми́нична Нижи́нская , romanized :  Bronisláva Fomínična Nižínskaja ; Belarusian : Браніслава Ніжынская , romanized :  Branislava Nižynskaja ; January 8, 1891 [ O.S. December 27, 1890] – February 21, 1972)

9680-540: The work, "He adhered closely to the original scenario, but created deliciously inventive new choreography that was the happiest amalgam of classical ballet and English folk-dance, while Osbert Lancaster 's delightful designs were firmly related to French country life." It was an immediate success, and has been regularly staged since, not only by the Royal Ballet, but by companies in ten other European countries and in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Africa and

9790-642: Was a Russian ballet dancer of Polish origin, and an innovative choreographer . She came of age in a family of traveling, professional dancers. Her own career began in Saint Petersburg . Soon she joined Ballets Russes which ventured to success in Paris . She met war-time difficulties in Petrograd and revolutionary turbulence in Kiev . In France again, public acclaim for her works came quickly, cresting in

9900-463: Was able to draw on this rich experience in her choreographic works. Broni Nijinska was not quite four when she made her theatrical debut in a Christmas pageant with her brothers in Nizhny Novgorod . She always seemed familiar with being on stage, in children's skits or to make brief appearances on the adult stage. Her aunt Stepha, her mother's elder sister, had retired from performance but

10010-561: Was alone because her pregnancy had kept her in Europe. Nijinska speculated that, behind the scenes, business decisions had motivated events. By getting rid of Nijinsky, Diaghilev managed to secure financing and the return of the choreographer Fokine to the company. The break left emotional scars, and a sense of betrayal. Diaghilev dismissed Vaslav for reasons other than his September marriage: artistic quarrels over ballet design, his military draft status, and his demand for payments in arrears. In early 1914 Vaslav Nijinsky on his own started

10120-488: Was an immediate success, has been revived many times, and at 2013 remains in the Royal Ballet 's repertoire eighty years after its creation. In 1935 de Valois appointed Ashton as resident choreographer of her company, where he worked alongside Constant Lambert , the musical director from 1931 until 1947, and a company including Markova, Anton Dolin and Robert Helpmann . The Times describes Ashton's first years with

10230-593: Was arranged and announced by Webster. He stood down in July 1970 after a farewell gala organised by Michael Somes, John Hart and Leslie Edwards. After his retirement, Ashton made several short ballets as pièces d'occasion , but his only longer works were the cinema film, The Tales of Beatrix Potter made in 1970 and released in 1971, and A Month in the Country (1976), a one-act piece, lasting about forty minutes, freely adapted from Turgenev 's comedy of manners . The piece has been revived regularly, in every decade since

10340-755: Was as a choreographer that he became famous. Ashton was chief choreographer to Ninette de Valois , from 1935 until his retirement in 1963, in the company known successively as the Vic-Wells Ballet, the Sadler's Wells Ballet and the Royal Ballet . He succeeded de Valois as director of the company, serving until his own retirement in 1970. Ashton is widely credited with the creation of a specifically English genre of ballet. Among his best-known works are Façade (1931), Symphonic Variations (1946), Cinderella (1948), La fille mal gardée (1960), Monotones I and II (1965), Enigma Variations (1968) and

10450-549: Was at the top of a tree, on a high post, on the swing, or on the roof of our house, I noticed a rapturous delight on his face, a delight to feel his body high above the ground, suspended in midair. Vatsa investigated the strange streets of different towns and cities where the family's theatrical life took them. Along the way he was training his body. It became an instrument of extraordinary strength and balance. Seemingly without fear he relished his freedom. His mind took innovative turns, which his body followed, or vice versa. Often Broni

10560-419: Was created for the Royal Ballet in 1960: La fille mal gardée . The first ballet of that title had been presented in France in 1789, and several later versions had been staged in the 19th century, using music by various composers. Ashton did his customary careful research and decided to make use of Ferdinand Hérold 's music (1828), arranged, with additions from other versions, by John Lanchbery . Walker says of

10670-492: Was enlisted as an 'Artist of the Imperial Theatre'. It was a government formality which assured her of financial security, and of the privileged life of a professional dancer. Perhaps her brother Vaslav Nijinsky had the greatest influence on Bronislava Nijinska and her career. In Nijinska's memoir several times she describes that Vaslav from a young age followed his overwhelming curiosity. Although his dancing skill

10780-503: Was found in the frank display of the female body. Revue comes from the French word for "review," as in a "show presenting a review of current events." George Lederer 's The Passing Show (1894) is usually held to be the first successful American "review." The English spelling was used until 1907 when Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. popularized the French spelling. "Follies" is now sometimes (incorrectly) employed as an analog for "revue," though

10890-408: Was in 1926 for a revue staged by Nigel Playfair and Rambert's husband Ashley Dukes . The Observer commented on "an engaging little ballet called A Tragedy of Fashion: or The Scarlet Scissors , which Mr. Eugene Goossens has set most suitably to music. Miss Marie Rambert, as an impudently vivacious mannequin, and Mr. Frederick Ashton as a distracted man modist, lead the dancing. It is as chic

11000-529: Was invited along. From Vatsa's adventures she, too, acquired a body unusually trained for dance. Her parents not only were dancing on stage; they also taught ballroom dancing to adults and had special dance classes for children. Early on they instructed their daughter in folk dances: Polish, Hungarian, Italian, and Russian. She learned ballet, together with all kinds of different dance steps. She picked up some acrobatic techniques from her father, who would 'talk shop' and trade skills with circus performers. Later she

11110-610: Was lauded. In Kiev in addition to dancing, she established her ballet school and began to choreograph programs. She danced in solos while costumed in tunics, e.g., Etudes (Liszt), Mephisto Valse (Liszt), Nocturnes (Chopin), Preludes (Chopin), Fear or Horror (in silence, costume by Exter), and in company performances, e.g., Twelfth Rhapsody (Liszt), Demons (Tcherepnine), March Funebre (Chopin). In 1921 she left Russia, never to return. Rejoining Ballets Russes in Paris, Nijinska first worked in Diaghilev's ill-starred 1921 London revival of

11220-527: Was much larger than that at Sadler's Wells, Ashton confined himself to six dancers, led by Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes . The work, which remains in the repertoire as at 2013, was a success from the outset. Another plotless ballet was Scènes de ballet (1947), which remains a repertoire piece. In 1948, at the urging of de Valois, Ashton created his first major three-act ballet for a British company, his version of Prokofiev 's Cinderella . The original cast included Moira Shearer as Cinderella, Somes as

11330-546: Was nothing particularly masculine about her character. Thin but immensely strong, she had iron muscles in her arms and legs, and her highly developed calf muscles resembled Vaslav's; she had the same way of jumping and pausing in the air." Alicia Markova , a prima ballerina absoluta of Britain, concluded that Nijinska "was a strange combination, this terrific strength, and yet there was a softness." The composer Igor Stravinsky , to whose music she created several fine choreographic works, wrote that "Bronislava Nijinska, sister of

11440-426: Was performing as a star principal dancer. As his pupil she became the first person to know and be influenced by his radically new ideas regarding dance and his desire to substitute a rigorously stylized form of movement for the classical ballet tradition. She describes his innovations in creating a new Blue Bird role for the ballet The Sleeping Princess in 1907: how he changed the restrictive costume and energized

11550-411: Was praised in school and he learned several musical instruments, she notes his low academic performance; she attributes it to his disinterest and impatience. Instead he'd set off with daring to explore the neighborhoods and test his physical limits. This contributed to his becoming an incredible dancer. At Mariinsky Theater he quickly rose and at Ballets Russes he became famous almost overnight. Soon Vaslav

11660-430: Was surrounded by artists at work and at home. Her father "loved to be with painters, writers, actors, and musicians." Two touring African-American tap dancers, Jackson and Johnson, visited their home, and gave Nijinska her first lessons. In the past Tomasz had forgone opportunities, turning down dance offers because of his family obligations. In 1897 near Saint Petersburg, Eleonora and Thomasz danced on stage together for

11770-653: Was teaching dance in Vilno ; she helped Broni. Dancers with her parents would give her lessons or tips. After their parents' separation, her brother Vaslav Nijinsky entered the Imperial Theatrical School . When she was about nine years old, Broni began ballet lessons with the famous Enrico Cecchetti. He quickly recognized her skills. In 1900, Bronislava was accepted into the state-sponsored school for performing arts . Her brother Vaslav had entered it two years before. Located in Saint Petersburg , it offered

11880-865: Was the younger sister of Vaslav Nijinsky , a ballet star of world renown. Each of their parents had begun dancing careers in Warsaw at the Teatr Wielki (the Grand Theater). When they later met each was already a ballet professional with the Setov troupe based in Kiev . With the troupe they performed in provincial capitals of the then Russian Empire. They were married in Baku . Tomasz [Russian: Foma] Nijinsky, five years younger, had risen to be premier danseur and ballet master . His wife Eleonora Bareda, orphaned at seven, had followed her elder sister into ballet, and

11990-399: Was then dancing as a first soloist . The father Tomasz Nijinsky, by his skills as ballet master, managed to form and direct his own small troupe of a dozen dancers, plus students. He created a ballet pantomime , and performed in circus-theaters, using Polish and Russian music. In 1896 he staged The Fountain of Bakhchisarai , from an 1823 poem by Pushkin . The mother Eleonora danced

12100-486: Was to perform, e.g., with Vaslav in Le Spectre de la rose . Its anticipated premiere was well received. Vaslav's brilliant dancing drew prolonged applause. After performing for two weeks, however, a business dispute developed. It arose when Nijinsky became sick and unable to perform for a few days. It led the theater owner Alfred Butt to cancel the company's season. Nijinsky managed to pay his dancers. Some attributed

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