This Is Your Life: Ninette de Valois

Dame Ninette DE VALOIS DBE (1898-2001)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Ninette de Valois, ballet teacher, choreographer and former dancer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the London home of choreographer Frederick Ashton, having been led to believe she was meeting friends, before being taken to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where the programme was then recorded.

Ninette, who was born in County Wicklow, Ireland, trained as a dancer after moving to England and performed in pantomime, variety and revue before dancing professionally with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in the 1920s. In 1926, she opened her own ballet school and later worked as a choreographer for the Festival Theatre in Cambridge and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

In 1931, she founded the Vic-Wells Ballet, based at the Sadler's Wells Theatre, which would become The Royal Ballet, one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century and one of the leading ballet companies of the world. In addition, she established the Royal Ballet School and the touring company, which became the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

programme details...

Edition No: 253
Subject No: 253
Broadcast date: Thu 9 Apr 1964
Broadcast time: 8.50-9.15pm
Recorded: Sun 5 Apr 1964
Venue: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Series: 9
Edition: 27

on the guest list...

Sir Frederick Ashton
Robert Helpmann
Phyllis Bedells
Jean Newton
Jennifer Newton
Dorothy Coxon
Violetta Elvin
Antonio Savarese
Clive Molloy
Antoinette Sibley
Lynn Seymour
Merle Park
Dame Margot Fonteyn
Rudolf Nureyev
Dame Adeline Genée
Alicia Markova

production team...

Researcher: Nickola Sterne
Writer: Nickola Sterne
Director: Michael Goodwin
Producer: Vere Lorrimer
Executive Producer: T Leslie Jackson

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

with thanks to Anna Meadmore, curator of The Royal Ballet's White Lodge Museum, for her contribution to this page

related pages...

A Dancer's Life

from ballet to ballroom

The Big Red Book

the programme's icon

Alicia Markova

Interviews

Anna Meadmore, curator of The Royal Ballet's White Lodge Museum, discusses Ninette de Valois and her appearance on This Is Your Life in an exclusive interview recorded in April 2013

Ninette de Valois This Is Your Life Big Red Book

Photographs of Ninette de Valois This Is Your Life - and a photograph of Ninette de Valois's big red book

Series 9 subjects