39 Facts About Ninette De Valois

Dame Ninette de Valois was born on Edris Stannus; 6 June 1898 – 8 March 2001 and was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director of classical ballet.

Ninette De Valois established the Royal Ballet School and the touring company which became the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Ninette De Valois is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of ballet and as the "godmother" of English and Irish ballet.

Ninette de Valois was born as Edris Stannus on 6 June 1898 at Baltyboys House, an 18th-century manor house near the town of Blessington, County Wicklow, Ireland, then still part of the United Kingdom.

Ninette De Valois was the maternal great-granddaughter of the diarist Elizabeth Grant Smith and the maternal great-great granddaughter of Scottish politician John Peter Grant.

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Ninette De Valois started attending ballet lessons in 1908, at the age of ten.

Ninette De Valois continued to study ballet with notable teachers, including Edouard Espinosa, Enrico Cecchetti and Nicholas Legat.

In 1923, de Valois joined the Ballets Russes, a renowned ballet company founded by the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev.

Ninette De Valois remained with the company for three years, performing around Europe and being promoted to the rank of Soloist, and creating roles in some of the company's most famous ballets, including Les biches and Le Train Bleu.

Later in her life, Valois said that everything she knew about how to run a ballet company she learned from working with Diaghilev.

Ninette De Valois stepped back from regular intense dancing in 1924, after doctors detected damage from a previously undiagnosed case of childhood polio.

Ninette De Valois employed de Valois to stage full-scale dance productions at both theatres and when the Sadler's Wells theatre re-opened in 1931, de Valois moved her school into studios there, under the new name, the Sadler's Wells Ballet School.

Ninette De Valois worked with music especially commissioned from Irish contemporary composers such as Harold R White's The Faun, Arthur Duff's The Drinking Horn and John F Larchet's Bluebeard.

Ninette De Valois performed its first full ballet production on 5 May 1931 at the Old Vic, with Anton Dolin as guest star.

Ninette De Valois retired fully from the stage herself in 1933, after Alicia Markova joined the company and was appointed as Prima Ballerina.

Ninette De Valois set about establishing a British repertory, engaging Frederick Ashton as Principal Choreographer and Constant Lambert as Musical Director in 1935.

Ninette De Valois choreographed a number of her own ballets, including her most notable works, Job, The Rake's Progress and Checkmate.

De Valois made sure that her company had a constant supply of talent, and in later years it had such stars as Svetlana Beriosova, Antoinette Sibley, Nadia Nerina, Lynn Seymour, and, most sensationally, Rudolf Nureyev.

Ninette De Valois invited choreographers such as Sir Kenneth MacMillan and George Balanchine to work with her company.

Ninette De Valois formally retired from the Royal Ballet directorship in 1963, but her presence continued to loom large in the company, and the same was true with the School, from which she formally retired in 1970.

De Valois acted as patron or supporter to a number of other projects, including the Cork Ballet Company and Irish National Ballet Company in Ireland.

Ninette De Valois mounted productions of the traditional classical repertoire including Coppelia, Giselle, Don Quixote, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, as well as the contemporary ballets Les Patineurs, Les Rendezvous and Prince of the Pagodas by Frederick Ashton, and her own ballets The Rake's Progress, Checkmate and Orpheus.

In 1965, de Valois produced and choreographed the first full-length work created for the new Turkish State Ballet.

Today, ballet continues to be a thriving art form in Turkey, with the ballet school that de Valois established now forming part of the State Conservatory for Music and Drama at the Ankara State Conservatory.

Ninette De Valois was his second wife; the union was childless, but de Valois had two step-sons, including Dr David Blackall Connell was born on 1930, and who, in 1955, married Susan Jean Carnegie, a daughter of John Carnegie, 12th Earl of Northesk; they had two sons and a daughter.

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De Valois kept her private life very distinct from her professional, making only the briefest of references to her marriage in her autobiographical writings.

Ninette De Valois continued to make public appearances until her death in London at the age of 102.

Ninette De Valois's chosen book was a collection of poems and her luxury item was an everlasting bottle of sleeping pills.

De Valois first established herself as a choreographer producing several short ballets for the Old Vic Theatre, London.

Ninette De Valois provided choreography for plays and operas at the theatre, all of which were performed by her own pupils.

Later, after employing Frederick Ashton as the company's first Principal Choreographer in 1935, de Valois collaborated with him to produce a series of signature ballets, which are recognised as cornerstones of British ballet.

Ninette de Valois was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1947 and was promoted Dame Commander on 1 January 1951.

Ninette De Valois became a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour on 31 December 1981 and was honoured by HM The Queen with the Order of Merit on 2 January 1992.

Ninette De Valois was appointed a knighthood of France's Legion of Honour on 1 May 1950.

Ninette de Valois received the Bronze award presented for services to Ballet from the Irish Catholic Stage Guild in 1949.

Ninette De Valois was made Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Dance on 19 July 1963 and of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing on 8 March 1964 In 1964 she received the Royal Society of Arts Albert Medal and in 1974, the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation Erasmus Prize.

Ninette De Valois received the Critics' Circle Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts in 1989 and the Society of London Theatre Laurence Olivier Award Special Award in 1992.

Ninette de Valois received Doctor of Music degrees from the University of London in 1947, the University of Sheffield on 29 June 1955, Trinity College, Dublin in 1957 and Durham University in 1982.

Ninette De Valois received DLitt from the University of Reading in 1951, the University of Oxford in 1955 and the University of Ulster in 1979.