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Come Dance With Me: A Memoir, 1898-1956
'This book is a testament to her status in the world of dance and her Irish background' - Cork Examiner
NINETTE DE VALOIS, the world-famous prima ballerina, was born Edris Stannus in 1898 and raised at Baltiboys in County Wicklow. In this autobiography, first published in 1957 and now appearing in a new paperback edition, she writes about her extraordinary career - the vivid memories of home in Ireland; her first London engagement at the Lyceum pantomime in 1914; her tour of the Continent with Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes in 1923; her time with the Abbey Theatre in the late 1920s, and the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells in the 1930s, touring in America with the latter and moving it to Covent Garden in 1946; her travels in Yugoslavia and Turkey where she established a ballet school in 1947; and her founding of The Royal Ballet in 1956, from which she retired as director in 1966.
This compelling ballet success story, illustrated with over fifty photographs, is enlivened by sketches of Yeats, Lennox Robinson, Oliver St John Gogarty, Tyrone Guthrie, Lilian Baylis, Margot Fonteyn, Lydia Lopokova, Frederick Ashton and Constant Lambert, among others. Linking her childhood to incidents from later life, she writes with fluidity and ease, lending focus and depth to a memorable self-portrait.
DAME NINETTE, still a celebrated and lively figure living in London, has written a foreword welcoming a return to her beloved Irish origins: 'May another generation in Ireland honour me by reading and enjoying this new edition. I do hope that my country will find it interesting: it plays a big part in the original inspiration for my life of dancing.'
Family historian HARRY MCDOWELL contributes a fascinating Appendix on the Stannus and elizabeth Grant Smith (great-grandmother) family connections, tracing the author's ancestry back to political, military, and theatrical antecedents in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland over three hundred years.
NINETTE DE VALOIS, the world-famous prima ballerina, was born Edris Stannus in 1898 and raised at Baltiboys in County Wicklow. In this autobiography, first published in 1957 and now appearing in a new paperback edition, she writes about her extraordinary career - the vivid memories of home in Ireland; her first London engagement at the Lyceum pantomime in 1914; her tour of the Continent with Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes in 1923; her time with the Abbey Theatre in the late 1920s, and the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells in the 1930s, touring in America with the latter and moving it to Covent Garden in 1946; her travels in Yugoslavia and Turkey where she established a ballet school in 1947; and her founding of The Royal Ballet in 1956, from which she retired as director in 1966.
This compelling ballet success story, illustrated with over fifty photographs, is enlivened by sketches of Yeats, Lennox Robinson, Oliver St John Gogarty, Tyrone Guthrie, Lilian Baylis, Margot Fonteyn, Lydia Lopokova, Frederick Ashton and Constant Lambert, among others. Linking her childhood to incidents from later life, she writes with fluidity and ease, lending focus and depth to a memorable self-portrait.
DAME NINETTE, still a celebrated and lively figure living in London, has written a foreword welcoming a return to her beloved Irish origins: 'May another generation in Ireland honour me by reading and enjoying this new edition. I do hope that my country will find it interesting: it plays a big part in the original inspiration for my life of dancing.'
Family historian HARRY MCDOWELL contributes a fascinating Appendix on the Stannus and elizabeth Grant Smith (great-grandmother) family connections, tracing the author's ancestry back to political, military, and theatrical antecedents in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland over three hundred years.
234 pages, Paperback
First published December 12, 1980
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August 24, 2018
I watched a brilliant BBC documentary about Ninette De Valois, who despite her exotic name was Anglo Irish. She was instrumental in forming the English Royal Ballet and the documentary was about their early years during world war two and the Blitz when ballet began to attract larger audiences, perhaps as a means of escape. She was an innovative choreographer who had previously danced with Diaghilev.
Unfortunately, the florid, rather antiquated writing style of her memoir wasn't to my taste. Without question, a fascinating woman. She fraternised with Yeats, the Bloomsbury crowd, including Virginia Woolf and especially Maynard Keynes who was married to the Russian ballerina, Lydia Lopokova. Her company, including a very young Margot Fonteyn, was in Holland on tour when the Nazis attacked. And she was introduced to a very young Audrey Hepburn who she was fascinated by. I suspect a biography of her might be a much more riveting and informative read. Ballerinas often seem adept at deflecting emotion and Valois fits this bill. For all her florid writing it was a cold book and she tells us very little about herself.
Unfortunately, the florid, rather antiquated writing style of her memoir wasn't to my taste. Without question, a fascinating woman. She fraternised with Yeats, the Bloomsbury crowd, including Virginia Woolf and especially Maynard Keynes who was married to the Russian ballerina, Lydia Lopokova. Her company, including a very young Margot Fonteyn, was in Holland on tour when the Nazis attacked. And she was introduced to a very young Audrey Hepburn who she was fascinated by. I suspect a biography of her might be a much more riveting and informative read. Ballerinas often seem adept at deflecting emotion and Valois fits this bill. For all her florid writing it was a cold book and she tells us very little about herself.
Displaying 1 of 1 review