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Next year in May, we will be celebrating 100th anniversary of birth of one of the most fascinating ballet personalities in Britain, Mona Inglesby, a ballerina, a choreographer, an artistic director, and an immensely gifted person, the one who "brought ballet to the masses", the one who preserved Nikolai Sergeev's archive that is invaluable for any work aimed at "reconstructing" spectacles of Russian Imperial ballet. A few years ago Ismene Brown produced a BBC Radio 4 program devoted to Inglesby. My sincere wish is to awake interest and awareness among the ballet public, and garner popular support for having next year some events that properly honour her life and achievements. Personally, my dream would be to bring back to stage one of her "charming" little ballets.

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I remember International Ballet - they came to Coventry in 1950 and I attended a performance of the  Sleeping Princess there with my mother.  It led to a lifelong love of ballet and I still have the programme!  One of my ballet books from that time has some lovely photos of her.

 

 

 

 

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Margaret, the book you are mentioning is it  Mona Inglesby, ballerina and choreographer, by Geoffrey Handley-Taylor, published in 1947? That book contains some of the most enchanting photos representing a ballerina, ethereally beautiful and noble.

 

If you can make a high resolution scan of the programme and post it somewhere, I will be the first one to thank you.

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The book is called 'Girl's Book of Ballet' and was edited by A H Franks of the Dancing Times.  My copy is dated 1954.  I've just found the programme from 1950 - it is really a general booklet with lots of photos and a history of the company up until 1950, it doesn't list the dancers performing.  I also have a programme from a visit in 1953 of the company performing Swan Lake - with June Summers as Odette and Robert Blake as the Prince.  If that is of interest to you I can easily scan and send to you, the other might take some time!

 

I hadn't looked in my box of old programmes for some time, so many happy memories.

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10 hours ago, jm365 said:

One of the odder facts I know about this company is that Maurice Bejart was briefly a member.  Unfortunately I never saw the company - or him.

 

For me the only "odd" thing about it is that such a company, and a uniquely gifted person, like Mona Inglesby, who at the age of 22 organized it, has been purposefully marginalized in collective "ballet memory" of the nation.

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A bit like Markova's achievements seem to be airbrushed from British ballet history.  Fonteyn, glorious and wonderful though she was, wasn't our first great British ballerina.  Were she still alive she would be the first to say exactly that.

Edited by Two Pigeons
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5 minutes ago, Two Pigeons said:

A bit like Markova's achievements seem to be airbrushed from British ballet history.  Fonteyn, glorious and wonderful though she was, wasn't our first great British ballerina.  Were she still alive she would be the first to say exactly that.

 

I wouldn't say that, I have at least four books about her and remember attending her 90th birthday gala.  Markova was far more of an international ballerina than Fonteyn, dancing with a variety of companies starting with Diaghilev's.  Together with Dolin she started a company too.  Much of Markova's best work was in the US, e.g. Antony Tudor's Romeo and Juliet.

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I am far from convinced that Inglesby's comparative obscurity today has anything to do with a deliberate attempt to expunge her from the historical record. I am not sure that there is great interest in history in general in this country the one exception to this is the Tudors. Now not only do we seem to have a collective national agreement about the general irrelevance of history unless it is about empathy and the experience of the people we have an agreement that ballet is an elite art form and therefore of no general interest. Publisher produce books which they hope will sell. I am not sure that someone who sent a manuscript biography about Inglesby to a publisher other than Dance Books would get it published. She is an obscure subject  for a very limited readership.Not so long ago libraries were removing books from their stock which were not being borrowed and I seem to recall that there were several people who posted about the availability of major works by eminent dance historians which were suffering that fate. That suggests to me that there may not be much of a readership for books on dance history.. 

 

 There are very few books about ballet readily available to the general reader and those there are tend to be written by Americans and not surprisingly they are written from an American perspective.Even if they purport to be general histories they tend to concentrate on the development of ballet in the US and have chapters on Balanchine, Robbins et al and very little about what was happening elsewhere. In addition in this country there is considerable reluctance to treat the performing arts as worthy of serious scholarly treatment  except in learned journals which means that such work as has been undertaken on a subject like Inglesby is unlikely to reach the public in books intended for a specialist market let alone a general readership. If you do not believe that there is a market for books about the development of British ballet you are not that likely to have books written on the subject and even less likely to have books written on the subject by local authors.The few books which I have read recently about the development of British ballet have been written by American authors.  I suspect that if Darcey Bussell could be persuaded to front a series of ghost written books about ballet history they would sell like hot cakes but I am not sure that they would necessarily be read. 

 

Unfortunately the idea that history is bunk and the concept that books need to provide a decent  return on the investment of resources made in them by the publisher became the accepted idea at roughly the time that those who were involved in the pioneering work of establishing ballet as an art form in Britain were dying off and the dance boom was in its terminal stages. The result is that we tend to see books and programmes about the same limited group of people Fonteyn and Nureyev and little else.As far as the BBC is concerned I think that because there is so much material that has to be produced by external programme makers there is little room for someone like John Drummond to make programmes about ballet that you ought to see and everything is directed towards making programmes on subjects which are likely to be popular which strangely also turn out to be Fonteyn and Nuryev. It is not a conspiracy it is a combination of the state of interest in dance as an art form, the idea that the past is an irrelevance and an obsession with popularity and the present. If Inglesby's obscurity was the result of deliberate action  it would at least suggest that somebody actually cared about the history of the development of British ballet sufficiently to want to influence the collective memory on the subject.

Edited by FLOSS
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I didn't mean "conspiracy", FLOSS, I meant "hostility" of the establishment in the 1940-ies and 1950-ies. I am saying this cautiously, making any claims requires being thoroughly informed and I am not (not yet), I have encountered in a variety of accounts pointers to that hostility, however.

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There was a programme on the TV a few years ago about her and the International Ballet.  I cant remember the name of it but it bought up those same sentiments that she was overlooked and written as a footnote in the history of British Ballet. 

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There was a book published in 2008 called Ballet in the Blitz: the history of a ballet company by Mona Inglesby with Kay Hunter which should be available in some libraries or is available on Amazon. I read it a few years ago and it was a really interesting read.

Edited by Pulcinella
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Assoluta,

When I used the word " conspiracy" I did so colloquially rather than as a legal term as to write about  "purposeful  marginalisation " by the establishment suggests that a large number of people have been engaged in this activity over the years. I will repeat what I said before  "If Inglesby's obscurity was the result of deliberate action then it would at least suggest that somebody cared about the history of British ballet sufficiently to want to influence the collective memory on the subject". Unfortunately I think that she is the victim of laziness and a general indifference to history and ballet history in particular.

 

If Ismene Brown felt so strongly about the lack of recognition of Inglesby and her achievements why has not she written a book about her or a book about the pioneering work undertaken in this country after Diaghilev's death to establish ballet as a serious art form with local roots? Why is it that we are so dependent on American scholarship to tell us about our ballet history? After all the recently published book about ballet in this country during the war and the recent biography of Markova were both written by Americans,

 

If the establishment were as actively engaged in burying Inglesby's memory as some would like to suggest then I would have thought that by now we would have seen a biography of Dame Ninette who, far from being some batty Irish woman, had the most impeccable establishment credentials as the daughter of an Anglo Irish career officer in the British army and thus part of the Irish Ascendancy. While there are at least three books which de Valois  penned about herself; a study written by Sorley-Walker; a study of a ballet she created for the Ballet Club and some information about her in a study of the Irish diaspora's influence on theatre there is nothing comparable to the biographies of Ashton and MacMillan. If the establishment, or the ballet establishment were so keen on deliberately maintaining Inglesby's obscurity I should have expected far more activity to have been undertaken to ensure that all the information about an establishment figure like de Valois was somewhat more readily available in book form than is actually the case. It would be a tome as not only is there her ballet career dancing and creating companies there is all the experimental theatre work which she undertook in her early years working in her cousin's theatre in Cambridge and staging Yeat's plays in Dublin to his complete satisfaction.

 

The fact that no such biography exists and that a biography of Constant Lambert has only recently appeared suggests to me, at least, that indifference and lack of funds are the real barrier to us knowing more about Inglesby. Here are the names of some other people who were significant in the development of ballet in this country and who have not had the benefit of biographies  Andre Howard. Walter Gore, Frank Staff all of whom were important choreographers.There is a very old biography of Cranko but nothing more recent and then there are the designers.Has anyone written anything about the designers Sophie Fedorovitch and William Chappell or about Osbert Lancaster as a stage designer?

 

 

 

Edited by FLOSS
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What an interesting thread.  I have been a ballet fan since I was very young, but although I knew the name, I'd forgotten that she achieved as much as she did.  

 

I have a question for people with better memories than mine.  Two or three years ago BBC4 showed a programme about ballet during the blitz.  Did the programme focus entirely on de Valois and her company, or did they talk about Inglesby and International Ballet as well?  

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As far as I remember it was all about Sadler's Wells ballet through to Birmingham Royal Ballet as the direct descendent as a touring company. 

 

I don't remember Mona Inglesby being mentioned but if I am wrong I apologise.

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4 hours ago, FLOSS said:

If the establishment were as actively engaged in burying Inglesby's memory as some would like to suggest then I would have thought that by now we would have seen a biography of Dame Ninette who, far from being some batty Irish woman, had the most impeccable establishment credentials as the daughter of an Anglo Irish career officer in the British army and thus part of the Irish Ascendancy. While there are at least three books which de Valois  penned about herself; a study written by Sorley-Walker; a study of a ballet she created for the Ballet Club and some information about her in a study of the Irish diaspora's influence on theatre there is nothing comparable to the biographies of Ashton and MacMillan. If the establishment, or the ballet establishment were so keen on deliberately maintaining Inglesby's obscurity I should have expected far more activity to have been undertaken to ensure that all the information about an establishment figure like de Valois was somewhat more readily available in book form than is actually the case. It would be a tome as not only is there her ballet career dancing and creating companies there is all the experimental theatre work which she undertook in her early years working in her cousin's theatre in Cambridge and staging Yeat's plays in Dublin to his complete satisfaction.

 

The fact that no such biography exists and that a biography of Constant Lambert has only recently appeared suggests to me, at least, that indifference and lack of funds are the real barrier to us knowing more about Inglesby. Here are the names of some other people who were significant in the development of ballet in this country and who have not had the benefit of biographies  Andre Howard. Walter Gore, Frank Staff all of whom were important choreographers.There is a very old biography of Cranko but nothing more recent and then there are the designers.Has anyone written anything about the designers Sophie Fedorovitch and William Chappell or about Osbert Lancaster as a stage designer?

 

 

 

 

A very interesting thread!

 

I think gender is one factor in the lack of biographies for de Valois and Inglesby, compared with Ashton and MacMillan. I'd be interested to know if there are published biographies of Marie Rambert.

 

I have checked the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. It gives entries for Chappell, Gore and Lancaster (not Staff), but none for Inglesby, Howard or Fedorovitch. Historically, men in any field of achievement seem more likely than women to be the focus of biographers' attention. The Oxford DNB has made serious efforts to redress the balance in recent years, by commissioning entries for women in particular fields of achievement. Maybe one day they will cover women choreographers!

 

Slightly off topic - it saddens me that there is no Oxford DNB entry for Lydia Sokolova (Hilda Munnings), who seems to hold a very significant place as a British woman in dance history.

Edited by Josephine
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Well. Ashton and MacMillan, deserve that separate treatment due to the nature of their achievement. You are mentioning Marie Rambert in your post, Josephine, but you may not be aware that Rambert herself may very well bear at least part of responsibility for the hostility towards Inglesby and her marginalization by the British ballet establishment in the 1940-ies and the early 1950-ies.

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2 hours ago, Josephine said:

Slightly off topic - it saddens me that there is no Oxford DNB entry for Lydia Sokolova (Hilda Munnings), who seems to hold a very significant place as a British woman in dance history.

 

Sokolova is the author of a book of memoirs called Dancing for Diaghilev, in my view one of the very best accounts of the Ballet Russe ever written.  She knew the great man well and paints rather a different picture than the accepted image, it's a terrific read.  I believe there is a biography of Rambert.  If you contact David at Dance Books he would probably know the exact title. 

 

There are interviews with both Rambert and Sokolova in John Drummond's book Speaking of Diaghilev, well worth a read.

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33 minutes ago, assoluta said:

Well. Ashton and MacMillan, deserve that separate treatment due to the nature of their achievement. You are mentioning Marie Rambert in your post, Josephine, but you may not be aware that Rambert herself may very well bear at least part of responsibility for the hostility towards Inglesby and her marginalization by the British ballet establishment in the 1940-ies and the early 1950-ies.

 

That's quite an accusation, do you have evidence?

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No, that's not "quite an accusation". That is almost explicitly stated in the book published in 1947 that I mention in one of my earlier posts. I would like to stress that I am not interested in idle speculations, generic arguments and fantasies. Anything I write is based on investigating sources, in this case the sources I have been collecting in my private studies of Inglesby.

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4 hours ago, Josephine said:

 

A very interesting thread!

 

I think gender is one factor in the lack of biographies for de Valois and Inglesby, compared with Ashton and MacMillan. I'd be interested to know if there are published biographies of Marie Rambert.

 

I have checked the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. It gives entries for Chappell, Gore and Lancaster (not Staff), but none for Inglesby, Howard or Fedorovitch. Historically, men in any field of achievement seem more likely than women to be the focus of biographers' attention. The Oxford DNB has made serious efforts to redress the balance in recent years, by commissioning entries for women in particular fields of achievement. Maybe one day they will cover women choreographers!

 

Slightly off topic - it saddens me that there is no Oxford DNB entry for Lydia Sokolova (Hilda Munnings), who seems to hold a very significant place as a British woman in dance history.

Josephine in answer to your question regarding biographies of Rambert. I have read this one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Mim-personal-memoir-Marie-Rambert-Brigitte-Kelly/1852731273

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I have a wonderful book - "Dancers of Mercury, The Story of Ballet Rambert", written by Mary Clarke.  It was first published in 1962 and so ends before Rambert Company's transformation into a contemporary company.  It is a great read about Marie Rambert's early life, her time with Diaghilev and her influence on the development of British ballet.

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20 hours ago, MAB said:

 

Sokolova is the author of a book of memoirs called Dancing for Diaghilev, in my view one of the very best accounts of the Ballet Russe ever written.  She knew the great man well and paints rather a different picture than the accepted image, it's a terrific read.  I believe there is a biography of Rambert.  If you contact David at Dance Books he would probably know the exact title. 

 

There are interviews with both Rambert and Sokolova in John Drummond's book Speaking of Diaghilev, well worth a read.

 

Thanks so much for all this information MAB. Very useful indeed!

 

Yes, I do know about Lydia Sokolova's wonderful memoir. I recently found a link to a downloadable version of the first chapter. I'll post it later if I can find the link again.

 

I am very glad to learn about the interviews in John Drummond's book, and hope to locate a copy at some point. Thanks again.

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18 hours ago, Pas de Quatre said:

I have a wonderful book - "Dancers of Mercury, The Story of Ballet Rambert", written by Mary Clarke.  It was first published in 1962 and so ends before Rambert Company's transformation into a contemporary company.  It is a great read about Marie Rambert's early life, her time with Diaghilev and her influence on the development of British ballet.

 

Thank you for this Pas de Quatre. This book sounds fascinating.

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21 hours ago, assoluta said:

Well. Ashton and MacMillan, deserve that separate treatment due to the nature of their achievement. You are mentioning Marie Rambert in your post, Josephine, but you may not be aware that Rambert herself may very well bear at least part of responsibility for the hostility towards Inglesby and her marginalization by the British ballet establishment in the 1940-ies and the early 1950-ies.

 

Yes, of course Ashton and MacMillan's achievements are immense, and biographical focus on them is hugely deserved. I mentioned them simply as examples, following on from the earlier mention by Floss.

 

My apologies if I have blundered by mentioning Marie Rambert. I know relatively little about her life, and really have no knowledge of the context of ballet politics in the 1940's-50's. 

 

But I do look forward to learning much more about Mona Inglesby and her work as her centenary draws near.

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On 5/24/2017 at 17:13, assoluta said:

No, that's not "quite an accusation". That is almost explicitly stated in the book published in 1947 that I mention in one of my earlier posts. I would like to stress that I am not interested in idle speculations, generic arguments and fantasies. Anything I write is based on investigating sources, in this case the sources I have been collecting in my private studies of Inglesby.

 

Assoluta, I have the Handley-Taylor book you have mentioned and looking through it I'm puzzled to understand what you say here. I looked in vain for any indication of hostility from Rambert to Inglesby, and I can only think you must be referring to this passage:

 

"Somehow I [the author] cannot quite believe that it was just an oversight on the part of the editor of 'Ballet Rambert 1926 -1946" that so celebrated a pupil of the Ballet Rambert should not even be mentioned among the list of the famous artistes who trained at this school and danced at the Ballet Club."

 

Is this what you're thinking of? If so, I think you're seeing a slight where none was even thought of! The 'list' consists of photographs of 'Some Principal Artistes' of the company and it would surely be inappropriate to include Inglesby there?

 

 

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Mona Inglesby was initially a student of Marie Rambert, danced in Rambert's own company (for example, she was cast in early Ashton productions and Fokine revivals), but thought not highly of her methodology, she was meanwhile traveling to Paris, was taking classes with Kshessinskaya; there are clear indications that on her trips back to London, probably not very diplomatically, she might have been making comments about finding "true" ballet and superior ballet training ("There," she says, "it was like a door opening, the sunlight coming in."). This alone could alienate Rambert, such things are not easily forgotten, especially that Nikolai Sergeev was delighted by the fact that Inglesby became a champion of Russian ballet school in Britain (this led to a lasting relation between Sergeev and Inglesby, that would be a worthy subject of investigation by a ballet historian). And indeed, the passage you quoted, Jane, can be construed as a clear indication of resentment that Rambert felt towards Inglesby, not speaking of the obvious fact that the successful existence of Inglesby's company provided a direct challenge to her own. Even a casual reader of the book by Handley-Taylor will notice a disproportionate amount of space devoted in that book to the hostility of the British ballet establishment towards Inglesby and hercompany. Not a single name is explicitly mentioned but the British ballet world was then small, interconnected, and Marie Rambert was one of its firmly established and most influential personalities. The book by Handley-Taylor makes an impression of having been written primarily as an attempt to counter that hostility.

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