Adventures of a Ballet Historian

by Ivor Guest, Mary Clarke (Foreword), Selma Landen Odom (Technical Editor)

A historian's task is a voyage of discovery, and in these personal reminiscences Ivor Guest allows the reader to share the romance of recreating times past. Since his first published article appeared in the 1940s he has vastly expanded and enriched our knowledge of ballet in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through more than a score of books, many of them definitive works, that are a rare blend of scrupulous scholarship and readability. The story of his involvement in the world of ballet is a romance in itself. When he was drawn to the study of ballet history, comparatively little serious research had been done, and he found himself working in virtually virgin soil - the fulfillment of an historian's dream. The Paris Opera, with its library and archives, became his mecca, where he returned year after year to unearth the material on which were based his classic chronicles of the French ballet. In time his pre-eminence was to be recognised when he - an Englishman - was commissioned to write the official history of the Paris Opera Ballet. For him all this was a labour of love - almost in a literal sense, for as he reconstructed the lives of long-dead ballerinas through his patient research and deductive sleuthing, he fell under their spell like a man in love. His biographies are written with an easy style that conceals the toil that went into them, but in this book he tells of his quests for characters who were often maddeningly elusive, such as his 'first love', Fanny Cerrito. The account of his search for the date of her death is told with a touch of fine comedy, and culminates in the discovery of her descendants. These 'Adventures' are concerned mainly with Ivor Guest's work as a writer, but this is by no means the whole story. He played a crucial part in the creation of Frederick Ashton's 'La Fille mal gardée', discovering the early scores from which the music for this evergreen ballet was adapted, and his marriage to Ann Hutchinson led him up new paths as they combined their talents, hers as a specialist in dance notation, to recreate several choreographic gems from the past, including Fanny Elssler's famous Cachucha. And, to emphasise that his life is not all spent at his desk or in dusty archives, he tells the story of his involvement with the Royal Academy of Dance, as Chairman of its Executive Committee from 1969, when it was on the verge of bankruptcy, to the 1980s when it was riding high as the largest and most vital association of ballet teachers in the world. These reminiscences illuminate an aspect of the dance world that seldom comes into the limelight, yet is of great importance for its cultural significance. Scholars and writers who lift the curtain on the past work quietly in the background. This book tells the story of one of them, who in the field of dance scholarship is internationally recognised for his work.

Hardcover

First published March 22, 2011

Reviews

[Nora Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Few dance historians have covered the depth and breadth of ballet history. Written with a charming insouciance, Guest describes his research methods, his relationships with other balletomanes and his marriage to Ann Hutchinson, Dance notator.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed it, the memoir of a man whose ballet history books and biographies I have been reading for the last 28 years. It was Guest's The Dancer's Heritage which got me hooked on ballet history at the age of 15; I read it so many times it literally fell apart and I had to buy a new edition. One of my most treasured purchases is my copy of his biography of Fanny Elssler which caught my eye in the 10 pence box outside a secondhand bookshop in Rye many years ago. Ten pence - they did not know what a prize they had! And I will never forgive my local library for getting rid of their perfectly good condition copy of his biography of Adeline Genne! If you have read any of his books and enjoyed them then you will get great pleasure from this interesting account of the first half of his writing and researching career, spending literally all his spare time and holidays buried under documents in the archives of the Paris Opera and trawling through newspapers at Colindale. He's led the life I would dearly have liked to lead!

[Nora Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful memoir by one of the premiere British dance historians, Guest relates the methods of his research as well as his activities in some of the organizations that represent and further knowledge of ballet in England.