Ninette de Valois

Dame Ninette de Valois, born Edris Stannus, was an Irish-born British ballet dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director. She performed with Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and went on to found The Royal Ballet, a leading 20th-century company, along with the Royal Ballet School and the touring group that became the Birmingham Royal Ballet. She is considered a hugely influential figure in ballet history and the “godmother” of English and Irish ballet.

De Valois was born on 6 June 1898 at Baltyboys House, an 18th-century manor near Blessington, County Wicklow, Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom. She came from a gentry family, the second daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Stannus DSO, a British Army officer, and Elizabeth Graydon Smith, a glassmaker known as “Lilith Stannus.” She was the maternal great-granddaughter of diarist Elizabeth Grant Smith and great-great-granddaughter of Scottish politician John Peter Grant. Through her mother, she was also the great-grandniece of Sir John Peter Grant and a first cousin twice removed of Lady Strachey. In 1905, she moved to England to live with her grandmother in Kent, and began ballet lessons at age ten in 1908.

At thirteen, she trained at the Lila Field Academy for Children, changed her name to Ninette de Valois, and made her professional debut as a principal dancer in pantomime at the Lyceum Theatre in London’s West End. In 1919, at 21, she became principal dancer of the Beecham Opera at the Royal Opera House, and studied with teachers including Edouard Espinosa, Enrico Cecchetti, and Nicholas Legat.

In 1923, she joined Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, staying three years, performing across Europe, and rising to Soloist. She created roles in ballets like *Les biches* and *Le Train Bleu*, and mentored the young Alicia Markova, later a Prima Ballerina Assoluta. De Valois later said she learned everything about running a ballet company from Diaghilev. She reduced her dancing in 1924 after doctors found damage from undiagnosed childhood polio.

After leaving the Ballets Russes in 1927, she founded the Academy of Choreographic Art in London and the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet in Dublin. Her goal was to create a repertory ballet company with dancers trained in a British style. Students gained experience performing at The Old Vic, where she choreographed short ballets. Lilian Baylis, who owned the Old Vic, also acquired Sadler’s Wells Theatre in 1928. When it reopened in 1931, de Valois moved her school there, renamed the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School, and formed the Vic-Wells Ballet company. These became the predecessors of today’s Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and Royal Ballet School.

In Dublin, poet W. B. Yeats suggested a ballet school in May 1927, and from around November she set up and programmed the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet. This first of several Irish national ballet projects ran until June 1933; seven of sixteen final students continued dancing, and two founded the next project, the “Abbey School of Ballet.”

During these years, she choreographed several ballets yearly, often to music commissioned from Irish composers like Harold R. White, Arthur Duff, and John F. Larchet. The Vic-Wells Ballet started with six female dancers, de Valois as lead dancer and choreographer. Its first full ballet was on 5 May 1931 at the Old Vic, with Anton Dolin as guest star, followed by its first Sadler’s Wells performance on 15 May 1931. The company’s success led her to hire new dancers and choreographers. She retired fully from the stage in 1933 after Alicia Markova joined as Prima Ballerina. Under her direction, the company flourished in the 1930s, becoming one of the first Western companies to perform the classical Russian repertoire. She built a British repertory, engaging Frederick Ashton as Principal Choreographer and Constant Lambert as musical director in 1935. She also choreographed her own notable works, including *Job* (1931) and *The Rak*.