Ballet Archives

Dame Ninette De Valois in 1974  when the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation ( The Dutch Cultural Institution in the Humanities) awarded her with the Erasmus prize which was only given to people or institutions that have made exceptional  contributions in culture, society or social science in Europe and the rest of the world. The Academy of Choreographic Art,  which was an all girl’s dance school Ninette De Valois established when she saw Britain didn't have the same dance culture that Paris had and she decided to change that by establishing a dance school herself. The writer W.B. Yeats, who was a poet and the co-founder of the Abbey Theater,  made the suggestion that Valois should also establish a school in  her native Ireland.  Ninette de Valois, while in Dublin,  took Yeats's words to heart and established a Dance School called Abbey School of Ballet in Dublin. She managed the programming for the school. Two students from the school would...

Ninette De Valois 1914   Ninette de Valois didn't attend regular school instead she was taught by a governess at home before later attending Lila Academy School for Children .  During this time, Ninette knew she was passionate about having a career in ballet. Ballet had not become popular in England yet so an official English ballet did not exist at that time. London was the city where French and Russian Ballet companies would tour, so perhaps because of that, England didn't see a need for their own ballet. If that was the case, Ninette De Valois didn't let it stop her from setting out to do what she wanted to do.  London Lyceum Theater is where Ninette de Valois performed as a dancer in  Pantomime  during the WWI years; she also began teaching ballet classes. Around 1917, Ninette de Valois changed her name to a more French sounding name she believed doing this would help her career as a dancer. Her mother came up with the name "Ninette de Valois"  she...

  Photo of a young Ninette De Valois from the 1920's Irish Ballerina Ninette De Valois, made the Royal Ballet  one of the top leading ballet companies in the world, without her, Britain wouldn’t have had a Ballet. Ninette De Valois was her stage name created by her Mother to sound more French and she thought having a french name could help her professionally and earn more jobs in ballet. Her real name was Edris Stannus born June 6, 1898  outside of an Irish Village near Blessingham County Wicklow, Ireland. Her Father was a British Officer and her family was living on an estate called the Baltiboys.  It was at Baltiboys  where a young Ninette De Valois was introduced to dance by one of the  estate staff members who taught her the Irish jig. She immediately took to the dance and performed it in front of her family at a party. This was her first ever live performance.  In 1905  the family relocated to England and Ninette De Valois, who loved dancing,...

  Sono Osato had many roles: ballerina, actress, wife and mother.  She was born on August 29, 1919 in  Omaha, Nebraska and was of Japanese, Irish and French Canadian descent. Her father was a photographer and her mother wanted to be an actress but it never became a reality.  Osato's first ballet memory was seeing a photograph of legendary Prima Ballerina, Anna Pavlova. Sono Osato became bewitched by ballet when her mother took her to see the Diaghilev’s Ballet,   Cleopatre . It was something she had never seen before and it was magical to her, after that performance, Sono wanted to take ballet classes.   Sono Osato from the Original Ballet Russes 1939 Sono was so immersed in the ballet  Cleopatre , that when she got home from school she acted out what she remembered from the performance. Her siblings helped her create the scenery and stage and Osato danced the steps of the ballet. Whenever Sono was depressed from home life or general school, which she ...