The mother of British ballet: the founder of Britain's Royal Ballet, still a formidable presence at the age of ninety-five, recalls her long and illustrious career - Dame Ninette de Valois

Dance Magazine, Feb, 1994 by Margaret Willis

In 1923 de Valois received an invitation to join Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Paris. "It was a very important period in the development of classical ballet. Diaghilev was moving out of his Fokine period into his Balanchine period. He was very lucky, because he got a permanent engagement in Monte Carlo for us. We had to do the opera ballet work, but during our time there, Diaghilev was able to do other work for his own seasons and tours. I remember Balanchine producing his first ballet-I think I was in it!" she said with a giggle. "|The young George,' we used to call him. Diaghilev thought a great deal of him - and he was quite right."

After two years de Valois felt stifled by all the often-fatalistic Russian emotion. Always an independent soul, her thoughts were now intent on making dance an integral part of English theater life, an art that could stand on its own with dignity.

A good company first needed good schooling. In 1926 an advertisement appeared in the Dancing Times announcing "The Academy of Choreographic Art." For twenty-four shillings per week, it offered the following classes: "6 Operatic, 1 Character, 1 Composition, 1 Dance rehearsal, 1 Theory, 1 Costume and Scene Design and 1 Make-up." In addition, there were promises of Public performances early in the New Year."

De Valois also wrote a letter at this time that laid out her plans for a resident ballet company, and, as a result, on a summer's day in 1926, she set off across Waterloo Bridge to take a step, she recalled, the repercussions of which are to be felt today." Her historic meeting with Lilian Baylis, manager of the Old Vic Theatre, resulted first in a job - teaching and arranging dances at the theater - and later in the fulfillment of her dream: the establishment of a ballet company and school at the newly opened Sadler's Wells Theatre.

There were six pupils - all girls - in the original company, but devotion and sheer hard work soon attracted others, including Frederick Ashton, Anton Dolin, Robert Helpmann, conductor-composer Constant Lambert, Alicia Markova, Lydia Lopoukhova, and the young Margot Fonteyn.

De Valois continued indefatigably to direct, teach, and choreograph numerous new works, not only in London but in theaters in Cambridge and Dublin, where she worked with the poet William Butler Yeats. Her choreography was vivid and alive and cleverly conceived. Among her most acclaimed and long-lasting works are Job, The Rake's Progress, and Checkmate, all still performed today.

Do dancers have the same dedication and drive today?" I asked. The youth of today show tremendous courage in many ways," Madam responded. "Every century makes its demands on them. You've only got to watch them going off to work in the morning, the crowded buses, the noise, the energy. I think there's plenty of guts today. I don't see anything wrong with the young today."

World War 11 claimed many male dancers "Those that came back had lost three years of their careers - very difficult for them," Madam remembered). The company, on tour in Holland, barely escaped when the Nazis invaded. It managed to get to the coast on a rickety bus and spent fifteen hours holed up in a packed cargo boat on the rolling North Sea. "It was an expensive adventure: We lost eight major productions - the costumes and sets, plus the musical scores and orchestral parts, were all left behind."