Coordinates	33°55′31″N18°25′26″N
Name	Sir Robert Helpmann
Birth date	April 09, 1909
Birth place	Mount Gambier, South Australia, Australia
Death date	September 28, 1986
Death place	Sydney, Australia }}

Sir Robert Helpmann CBE (9 April 190928 September 1986) was an Australian dancer, actor, theatre director and choreographer.

Early years

He was born Robert Murray Helpman (spelt with one "n") in Mount Gambier, South Australia and also boarded at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide. From childhood, Helpman had a strong desire to be a dancer. This was an unusual ambition in provincial Australia of the 1920s. In a 1974 interview he recalled that he was taught the moves and dances of a girl because his dance teacher had no prior experience teaching boys.

In the Margot Fonteyn biography, he is described as being dark haired, pale, and having large dark eyes. Helpman had a younger sister Sheila Helpman, and a younger brother Max, or Maxwell Helpman, and he welcomed them both into his theatrical world, both of them becoming part of it like audience members and then becoming involved into his style of work as actors themselves.

Career

Early career

In 1926 he joined the touring dance company of the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. The introduction came via his father, who was on a business trip to Melbourne, where he met Pavlova who was dancing there. One of the many versions of the cause for his decision to change his surname from Helpman to Helpmann, was that Pavlova, a devotee of numerology, suggested that he should change his surname to avoid his name Robert Helpman having 13 letters. In 1927 Helpmann first appeared professionally, in Sydney, but opportunities to dance at any serious level in Australia were limited. By 1930 he was headlined in a J. C. Williamson production of ''The New Moon'' then as "Bobby Helpman, burlesque dancer" in Hugh D. McIntosh revues. In 1932 he choreographed the burlesque ''Business a la Russe''. In 1933 he went to London to study under Ninette de Valois at the Vic-Wells Ballet Ballet School and was soon in the corps de ballet of ''Coppelia'', then as an understudy to Anton Dolin. Soon he was principal dancer with Vic-Wells Ballet (which later became Sadler's Wells and now the Royal Ballet. Here he formed his great professional partnership with (later Dame) Margot Fonteyn. Together they created many roles in ballets choreographed by Frederick Ashton, including the comical "ugly stepsisters" in the pantomime-style ballet ''Cinderella''.

The highpoint of Helpmann's career as a dancer was the Sadler's Wells Ballet tour of the United States in 1949, with Fonteyn and Helpmann dancing the leading roles in ''The Sleeping Beauty''. The production caused a sensation, which made the names of both the Royal Ballet and its two principals; public and press alike referred to them affectionately as ''Bobby and Margot''. Although Helpmann was past his best as a dancer, the tour opened doors for him in the United States as an actor and director.

Later career

In the 1940s, as he passed his peak as a dancer, Helpmann turned to production and to acting. He produced his own ballets — ''Comus'' (1942), ''Hamlet'' (1942), ''The Birds'' (1942), ''Miracle in the Gorbals'' (1944), ''Caravan'' (1946), ''Adam Zero'' (1946) and ''Elektra'' (1963). He performed roles from Shakespeare at the Canadian Stratford Shakespeare Festival and at the Old Vic theatre company in London, playing the title role in ''Hamlet'' two years after having danced the same part.

Helpmann also appeared in many films, including the two Powell and Pressburger ballet films ''The Red Shoes'' (1948), for which he was the choreographer, and ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (1951). In 1942 he played the Dutch Quisling in the Powell/Pressburger film ''One of Our Aircraft Is Missing'' (1942) and later played the Chinese Prince Tuan in ''55 Days at Peking'' (1963).

After his return to Australia as co-director of The Australian Ballet, he continued to appear in films. Notable productions included one of his most recognized screen roles, the sinister Child Catcher in the family classic ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' (1968). His performance in the film rating in Empire magazine as among the 100 most frightening ever filmed. Another family film he starred in was ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1972), in which he portrayed the Mad Hatter. And for The Australian Ballet he co-directed with Rudolf Nureyev the ballet-film ''Don Quixote'' (1973), in which he also played the title role.

The Australian Ballet

In 1965 Helpmann returned to Australia to become co-director of the Australian Ballet. Since he was gay and flamboyant, his arrival in what was at that time a very conservative country caused some consternation. Australians were proud of his international fame, but not sure what to make of him personally. He did not endear himself with the comment: "I don't despair about the cultural scene in Australia because there isn't one here to despair about."

His most significant contribution to the development of dance in Australia was his time with The Australian Ballet. Here he joined Dame Peggy van Praagh at the helm of the fledgling company, as her co-director until 1974 and sole director until 1976. He choreographed ballets including ''Yugen'' (1965), ''Elektra'' (1967, revised from the original version created for the Royal Ballet in 1963), ''Sun Music'' (1968),, ''Perisynthyon'' (1974) and produced and directed ''The Merry Widow'' (1975). This was not his first encounter with ''The Merry Widow'' – he had directed a production of the operetta in His Majesty's Theatre in London in 1944, with Madge Elliott as "Anna" and Cyril Ritchard as "Danilo". In the 1930s he had also danced in a production with Gladys Moncrieff as "Anna".

The avant-garde nature and sexual overtones of much of his work unsettled many Australians. His most controversial work was ''The Display'' (1964), with music by Malcolm Williamson. Helpmann claimed that this was the "first one hundred per cent Australian ballet to have been choreographed", however it was predated by several works and the true first all-Australian ballet was Edouard Borovansky's ''Terra Australis'' which premiered in Melbourne on 25 May 1946. ''The Display'' used the courtship dance of the lyrebird as a metaphor for Australian male attitudes. Helpmann dedicated the ballet to his friend American actress Katharine Hepburn, who wanted to see a male lyrebird dancing during her visit to Australia in 1955. The novelist Patrick White wrote the scenario, but Helpmann disliked it intensely. It was rejected, causing a furious row between these two extremely opinionated artists. Both the subject matter and the presentation of the ballet were well in advance of Australian tastes at the time.

The Australian Opera and later work

In 1981 Helpmann worked with the Australian Opera, directing ''Alcina'' by Handel, a production later re-staged with Joan Sutherland in the title role. In 1983 he celebrated his sixtieth year in theatre with involvement in productions in the three main auditoriums of the Sydney Opera House: in the Concert Hall he directed Anson Austin and Glenys Fowles in Gounod's ''Roméo et Juliette'' for the Australian Opera; in the Opera Theatre he re-choreographed ''The Display'' for the Australian Ballet.

In the Drama Theatre he starred for the Sydney Theatre Company in the world premiere of Justin Fleming's play ''The Cobra''. Helpmann's portrayal of the elderly Lord Alfred Douglas, reflecting bitterly on his notorious youthful relationship with Oscar Wilde, was unforgettable. He also played the man servant in the stageplay ''Stardust'', with Googie Withers and John McCallum.

Helpmann directed the London production of the stage musical ''Camelot'', with designs by John Truscott.

He also did work on a short family cartoon film, ''Don Quixote of La Mancha'', where he provided the voice of the main character Don Quixote.

Personality

According to the novel based upon the life of Margot Fonteyn, Helpmann is characterized as being a very hard man, but also a very kind one. Fonteyn said herself that out of all her partners, Helpmann was her favourite. He was also extremely confident and always pushed Fonteyn to her highest potential. The novel also says that Helpmann would stand up to anyone, and that he could look into the face of the devil himself and laugh.

Personal life

In 1938, Helpmann met a young Oxford undergraduate while fulfilling an invitation to dance at the university. He was immediately drawn to the handsome and intelligent Michael Benthall, and the pair formed a relationship that was to last for 36 years until Benthall's death in 1974. The couple lived and often worked together quite openly for the time. Although devastated by the loss of his longtime companion and collaborator, "Sir Bobby" continued to act, direct and produce with his legendary theatrical flair until his death.

Death

Sir Robert Helpmann died in Sydney in 1986. His obituaries in the Australian media were suitably laudatory, but also reserved. The country paid him the highest final recognition it could by honouring him with a state funeral in Sydney, the eulogy calling him "a genius, an outstanding communicator of unique inspiration and insight. He asserted his rights to pursue a path that improved the quality of life of the nation, and defeated the common herd of detractors".

An obituary in ''The Times'' in London characterised his appearance as "strange, haunting and rather frightening", and portrayed him as "a homosexual of the proselytizing kind" whose impact upon a company was "dangerous as well as stimulating", creating fresh headlines in Australia.

Honours

In 1964 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). In 1965 he was named "Australian of the Year", and in 1968 he was appointed a Knight Bachelor.

By the 1970s, Australia had grown used to Helpmann's flamboyant persona. His appointment as Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts from 1970 to 1976 was well-received. People of Melbourne honoured him as their 1974 ''King of Moomba''.

Posthumous recognition

The Helpmann Academy in South Australia was named in his honour; it is a partnership of the major visual and performing arts education and training institutions in South Australia offering award courses for people seeking professional careers in the arts. The Helpmann Awards were instituted 2001, and recognise distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in Australia's live performing arts sectors.

''Lyrebird (Tales of Helpmann)'', a play about the life and career of Helpmann, has been performed in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The play premiered in the United States in 2009.

Further reading

Kathrine Sorley Walker, ''Robert Helpmann, An Illustrated study of his work'', 1957

Elizabeth Salter, ''Helpmann : The Authorised Biography of Sir Robert Helpmann'', 1978

Frank Van Straten, OAM, "Helpmann: A Knight To Remember"

Anna Bemrose,"A Servant of Art: Helpmann in Australia", PHD Thesis, 2003, University of Queensland.

Tyler Coppin, "Lyrebird: Tales of Helpmann", A play

Mary Helpmann, "The Helpmann Family Story 1796–1964", 1967

Caryl Brahams, "Robert Helpmann (Choreographer)", 1943

Gordon Anthony, "Studies of Robert Helpmann", 1946

References

External links

The Helpmann Awards The Australian Entertainment Industry Association's annual awards are named in Helpmann's honour.

Robert Helpmann (1909–1986) – Australia Dancing

Helpmann files in the NLA PROMPT collection / National Library of Australia

A Dash of Helpmann – NLA News

Frederick Ashton's "Cinderella" ballet

Josef Weinberger: The Creation of The Merry Widow Ballet

"The Display" (1964) – Australia Dancing

Category:1909 births Category:1986 deaths Category:Australian ballet dancers Category:Australian choreographers Category:Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:Australian film actors Category:Australian stage actors Category:Australian theatre directors Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Danseurs Category:Gay actors Category:LGBT people from Australia Category:Actors awarded British knighthoods Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Australian knights Category:Australian of the Year Award winners Category:People educated at Prince Alfred College Category:Choreographers of The Royal Ballet Category:Dancers of The Royal Ballet Category:Jubilee 150 Walkway *Helpmann, Robert

es:Robert Helpmann fr:Robert Helpmann it:Robert Helpmann no:Robert Helpmann sv:Robert Helpmann tr:Robert Helpmann

:''For the mathematician, see Arthur T. Benjamin'' Arthur Leslie Benjamin (18 September 189310 April 1960) was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of ''Jamaican Rhumba'', composed in 1938.

Biography

Arthur Benjamin was born in Sydney, but at age 3 his parents moved to Brisbane. At the age of six he made his first public appearance as a pianist and his formal musical training began three years later with the Brisbane City organist, George Sampson. In 1911, Benjamin won a scholarship from Brisbane Grammar School to the Royal College of Music (RCM), where he studied composition with Charles Villiers Stanford, harmony and counterpoint with Thomas Dunhill, and piano with Frederick Cliffe.

In 1914 he joined the Officer Training Corps, receiving a temporary commission in April 1915. He served initially in the infantry as 2nd Lieutenant with the 32nd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers and in November 1917 he was attached to the Royal Flying Corps. On 31 July 1918 his aircraft was shot down over Germany by the young Hermann Göring, and he spent the remainder of the war as a German prisoner of war at Ruhleben camp near Berlin. There he met the composer Edgar Bainton, who had been interned since 1914, and who was later to become Director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music.

The manuscript of the unpublished ''Violin Sonata in E minor'' bears the date 1918, the only surviving work of that year and one of very few to be written by Benjamin during the war.

He returned to Australia in 1919 and became piano professor at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, Sydney. He returned to England in 1921 to become piano professor at the RCM. Following his appointment in 1926 to a professorship which he held for the next thirteen years at the RCM, Benjamin developed a distinguished career as a piano teacher. His better-known students from that era include Muir Mathieson, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Miriam Hyde, Joan Trimble, Stanley Bate, Bernard Stevens, Lamar Crowson, Alun Hoddinott, Dorian Le Gallienne, Natasha Litvin (later Stephen Spender's wife and a prominent concert pianist), William Blezard and Benjamin Britten, whose ''Holiday Diary'' suite for solo piano is dedicated to Benjamin and mimics many of his teacher’s mannerisms.

He continued writing chamber works for the next few years – ''Three Pieces for violin and piano'' (1919–24); ''Three Impressions'' (voice and string quartet, 1919); ''Five Pieces for Cello'' (1923); ''Pastoral Fantasy'' (string quartet, 1924), which won a Carnegie Award that year; ''Sonatina'' (violin and piano, 1924).

Orchestral works became more common after 1927 — ''Rhapsody on Negro Themes'' (MS 1919); ''Concertino for piano and orchestra'' (1926/7); ''Light Music Suite'' (1928); ''Overture to an Italian Comedy'' (1937); ''Cotillon'' Suite (1938). There also appeared over twenty meticulously crafted songs and choral settings.

He was also an adjudicator and examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, which led him to places such as Australia, Canada and the West Indies. It was in the West Indies that he discovered the native tune on which he based his best-known piece, ''Jamaican Rhumba'', one of ''Two Jamaican Pieces'', composed in 1938, for which the Jamaican government gave him a free barrel of rum a year as thanks for making their country known.

The Violin Concerto of 1932 was premiered by Antonio Brosa with Benjamin conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 1935 he accompanied the 10-year old Canadian cellist Lorne Munroe on a concert tour of Europe. Three years later he wrote a ''Sonatina'' for Munroe, who later became the principal cellist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, and also recorded the piece.

His ''Romantic Fantasy for Violin, Viola and Orchestra'' was premiered by Eda Kersey and Bernard Shore in 1938, under the composer. Its first recording was by Jascha Heifetz and William Primrose.

He resigned from his post at the RCM and left to settle in Vancouver, Canada, where he remained for the duration of the war. In 1941 he was appointed conductor of the newly-formed Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Symphony Orchestra, holding the post until 1946. During this time he gave “literally hundreds” of Canadian first performances. After a series of radio talks and concerts in addition to music teaching, conducting and composing, he became a major figure in Canadian musical life. He frequently visited the United States, broadcasting and arranging many performances of contemporary British music. He was also Resident Lecturer at Reed College, Portland, Oregon between 1944 and 1945.

Almost unknown today, Arthur Benjamin's Symphony was given its British premiere at the Cheltenham Festival in July 1948 by Sir John Barbirolli and the Hallé Orchestra. Further performances by the same artists took place in Manchester, Liverpool and the Royal Albert Hall in London the following year. After one more performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in August 1954, conducted by the composer, the work appears to have been utterly neglected until it was recorded in recent times by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Christopher Lyndon Gee.

The other major work of the period was the ''Sonata for Viola and Piano'' of 1942, also known as ''Elegy, Waltz and Toccata'' and bearing the dedication "Written for and dedicated to William Primrose". Benjamin simultaneously prepared the work as a ''Concerto for Viola and Orchestra'', which was given its premiere by Frederick Riddle and the Hallé Orchestra on 30 June 1948, again conducted by Barbirolli. Riddle later recorded the work in its sonata version with the pianist Wilfred Parry for the BBC. Both the Sonata and the Symphony reflect not just the sombre mood of the times but also the darker territory that Benjamin had begun to explore.

Other orchestral and concertante works written in Canada were the Sonatina (1940), ''Ballade'' (1944), ''Suite for Flute and Strings'' (1945), ''Prelude to Holiday'' (1941), ''Red River Jig'' (1945), the orchestral setting of the ''Two Jamaican Pieces'' (1942), ''From San Domingo'' (1945), ''Caribbean Dance'' (1946) and two Mendelssohn transcriptions: ''Præludium'' and ''Prelude and Fugue'' (1941). The ''Oboe Concerto on themes of Cimarosa'' (1942) was an orchestration of harpsichord pieces by Domenico Cimarosa; for many years it was frequently mis-labelled as "Cimarosa's Oboe Concerto, arranged by Arthur Benjamin".

The ''Elegiac Mazurka'' of 1941 was commissioned as part of the memorial volume 'Homage to Paderewski’ in honour of the Polish pianist who had died that year. In 1945 a shortened piano solo arrangement of the ''Jamaican Rhumba'' was published.

Returning to England in 1946, he resumed teaching at the RCM. In 1949, Benjamin wrote his piano concerto ''Concerto quasi una Fantasia''. The concerto, written to a commission from the Australian Broadcasting Commission, served as the solo vehicle for Benjamin's Australian concert tour of 1950 and was premiered by him on 5 September 1950 with Eugene Goossens and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It was repeated in a further seven Australian cities. These were Benjamin's final performances as a pianist.

The other major original works written during the 1950s were the Harmonica Concerto (1953), written for Larry Adler, who performed it many times and recorded it at least twice; the ballet ''Orlando’s Silver Wedding'' (1951), ''Tombeau de Ravel'' for clarinet and piano, a second string quartet (1959) and the Wind Quintet (1960). He had a lasting admiration for Maurice Ravel, whose influence is most obvious in ''Tombeau de Ravel'' and the much earlier ''Suite'' of 1926 for piano solo.

He was honoured by the Worshipful Company of Musicians by the award of the Cobbett Medal later that year (1957).

His private students included John Carmichael.

Arthur Benjamin died on 10 April 1960, at the age of 66, at the Middlesex Hospital, London, from a re-occurrence of the cancer that had first attacked him three years earlier. An alternative explanation of the immediate cause of death is hepatitis, contracted while Benjamin and his partner, Jack Henderson, a Canadian who worked in the music publishing business, were holidaying with the Australian painter Donald Friend in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

Operas

Benjamin wrote four operas. The one-act opera ''The Devil Take Her'', to a libretto by Alan Collard and John B. Gordon, was first produced at the RCM on 1 December 1931, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. Another one-acter, ''Prima Donna'' (1932) had to wait until 23 February 1949 for its premiere, at the Fortune Theatre in London. Its libretto was by Cedric Cliffe, son of Benjamin's piano teacher at the RCM Frederic Cliffe. Both these works met with critical success.

''A Tale of Two Cities'' (1950), and ''Mañana'' were full-length operas. The librettist for the former was again Cedric Cliffe. First produced by Dennis Arundell during the Festival of Britain in 1951, it won a gold medal and was later broadcast in a live performance by BBC Radio 3 on 17 April 1953. After this performance, Benjamin revised the piece into its final version. The opera was successfully produced in this form in San Francisco in April 1960, only days before his death. ''Mañana'' was commissioned in 1955 and produced by BBC television on 1 February 1956. Unfortunately, it was judged a flop at the time and never revived.

A fifth opera, ''Tartuffe'', with a libretto by Cedric Cliffe based on Molière, was unfinished at Benjamin's death. The scoring was completed by the composer Alan Boustead and the work produced by the New Opera Company at Sadler’s Wells on 30 November 1964, conducted by Boustead. This appears to have been this opera’s only performance.

Films

Benjamin was equally active as a writer of music for films, beginning in 1934 with ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'', an adaptation of music from the Napoleonic era, and Alfred Hitchcock’s ''The Man Who Knew Too Much'' (1934, remade 1956), for which Benjamin composed the extended ''Storm Clouds Cantata''. Other scores included those for Alexander Korda's 1947 film of ''An Ideal Husband'', ''The Conquest of Everest'', ''The Cumberland Story'' (1947), ''Steps of the Ballet'' (British Council/Central Office of Information 1948), ''The Crowthers of Bankdam'' (Holbein Films 1947), ''Above Us the Waves'' (1955) and ''Fire Down Below'' (1957/60). While most of his music scores are archived in the British Library, his film scores are completely lost. Apart from the Boosey & Hawkes edition of ''An Ideal Husband'' the only surviving score is the ''Storm Clouds Cantata''.

Premieres as pianist

Arthur Benjamin gave a number of important premieres including:

Herbert Howells' Piano Concerto No. 1 (1913)

Arthur Bliss's suite ''Masks'' for solo piano by (2 February 1926).

Constant Lambert's Piano Concerto (18 December 1931, Lambert conducting)

the British premiere of George Gershwin's ''Rhapsody in Blue''.

Tributes from other composers

Herbert Howells wrote an orchestral suite ''The Bs'', in five movements, each celebrating a close friend. The work was first performed in 1914, and ends with an heraldic march movement entitled "Benjee", saluting Arthur Benjamin, who the previous year had given the premiere of Howells' Piano Concerto No. 1. Howells' orchestral piece ''Procession'' (written for the 1922 Proms) is dedicated to Benjamin. Benjamin, in turn, later dedicated the three-page ''Saxophone Blues'' (1929) to Howells.

The Australian pianist and composer Ian Munro, who has a special affinity with Arthur Benjamin and has recorded many of his piano works, has written a small biography of Benjamin. The first major biography of Arthur Benjamin has been written by Wendy Hiscocks as her doctoral thesis at the Australian National University, and will be published in 2010 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death.

References

External links

Extensive biography

Another biography, this at the webpage of his publishers

Category:1893 births Category:1960 deaths Category:20th-century classical composers Category:Light music composers Category:Australian composers Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music Category:Academics of the Royal College of Music Category:People from Sydney Category:Australian military personnel of World War I Category:LGBT musicians from Australia Category:LGBT composers Category:Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom

da:Arthur Benjamin de:Arthur Benjamin fr:Arthur Benjamin it:Arthur Benjamin he:ארתור בנג'מין ht:Arthur Benjamin ja:アーサー・ベンジャミン fi:Arthur Benjamin uk:Артур Бенджамін zh:阿瑟·本杰明

Coordinates	33°55′31″N18°25′26″N
name	Moira Shearer
birth name	Moira Shearer King
birth date	January 17, 1926
birth place	Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, UK
death date	January 31, 2006
death place	Oxford, England, UK
yearsactive	1948-1987
othername	Lady Kennedy
spouse	Ludovic Kennedy (1950-2006) (her death) 4 children }}

Moira Shearer, Lady Kennedy (17 January 1926 – 31 January 2006), was an internationally famous Scottish ballet dancer and actress.

Early life

She was born Moira Shearer King in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, the daughter of actor Harold V. King. In 1931 her family moved to Ndola, Northern Rhodesia, where she received her first dancing training under a former pupil of Enrico Cecchetti. She returned to Britain in 1936 and trained with Flora Fairbairn in London for a few months before she was accepted as a pupil by the Russian teacher Nicholas Legat. After three years with Legat, she joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet School. However, after the outbreak of the World War II, her parents took her to live in Scotland. She made her debut with Mona Inglesby's International Ballet in 1941 before moving on to Sadler's Wells in 1942.

Film career

She came to international attention for her first film role as Victoria Page in the Powell & Pressburger ballet-themed film ''The Red Shoes'', (1948). Even her hair matched the titular footwear, and the role and film were so powerful that although she went on to star in other films and worked as a dancer for many decades, she is primarily known for playing "Vicky."

Shearer retired from ballet in 1953, but she continued to act, appearing as Titania in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' at the 1954 Edinburgh Festival. She worked again for Powell on the controversial film ''Peeping Tom'' (1960), which damaged Powell's own career.

In 1972, she was chosen by the BBC to present the Eurovision Song Contest when it was staged at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. According to author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor's ''The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History'', Shearer accepted the role of hostess because her children wanted something to tease her with in the future. She also wrote for ''The Daily Telegraph'' newspaper and gave talks on ballet worldwide.

The choreographer Gillian Lynne persuaded her to return to ballet in 1987 to play L. S. Lowry's mother in ''A Simple Man'' for the BBC.

Personal life

In 1950, Moira Shearer married Ludovic Kennedy. They were married in the Chapel Royal in London's Hampton Court Palace. The couple had a son, Alastair, and three daughters, Ailsa, Rachel and Fiona. She died at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, England at the age of 80.

Filmography

{| class=wikitable ! Year !! Title !! Role |- |1948 || ''The Red Shoes'' || Victoria Page |- | 1951 || ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' || Stella/Olympia |- | 1953 || ''The Story of Three Loves'' || Paula Woodward |- | 1955 || ''The Man Who Loved Redheads'' || Sylvia/Daphne/Olga/Colette |- | 1960 || ''Peeping Tom'' || Vivian |- | 1961 || ''Black Tights'' || Roxane |- | 1987 || ''A Simple Man'' (TV movie) || Mother |}

See also

List of Eurovision Song Contest presenters

References

External links

The Ballerina Gallery - Moira Shearer

BBC Obituary of Moira Shearer

"The Daily Telegraph" Obituary of Moira Shearer

The Times Online obituary of Moira Shearer

Category:1926 births Category:2006 deaths Category:Ballerinas Category:Dancers of The Royal Ballet Category:Eurovision Song Contest presenters Category:People from Dunfermline Category:Scottish ballet dancers Category:Scottish film actors Category:Scottish television presenters Category:People educated at Dunfermline High School Category:People educated at Bearsden Academy

de:Moira Shearer es:Moira Shearer eo:Moira Shearer fr:Moira Shearer it:Moira Shearer lb:Moira Shearer ja:モイラ・シアラー pt:Moira Shearer sv:Moira Shearer

Sir Anthony James Dowell, CBE (born 16 February 1943 in London, United Kingdom) is a ballet dancer and was Artistic Director of Britain's Royal Ballet from 1986 to 2001, when he officially retired. He studied at the Hampshire School and The Royal Ballet’s Lower and Upper Schools. In 1961 he joined The Royal Ballet and only two years later was chosen by choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton to create the rôle of Oberon in ''The Dream''. It was in this ballet that he first danced with Dame Antoinette Sibley, who created Titania, and a great ballet partnership was formed.

Roles

Proving to have a strong technique, lyrical quality, and extraordinary dramatic sensibilities, by 1966 Dowell was promoted to the rank of principal dancer and created other rôles in Ashton's works including Beliaev in his ''A Month in the Country'', Troyte in ''Enigma Variations'', and Lo Straniero in ''Varii Capricci''. For Sir Kenneth MacMillan, he created Des Grieux in ''Manon'', Benvolio in ''Romeo and Juliet'', Kchessinska’s partner in ''Anastasia'', the Boy in ''Triad'' and Autumn in ''The Four Seasons''. He also created the Boy with Matted Hair in Antony Tudor’s ''Shadowplay'', Prospero in Nureyev’s ''The Tempest'' and the leading rôle in Hans van Manen’s ''Four Schumann Pieces'', for which he was the inspiration. Rôles in which he was particularly praised include the leads in Ashton’s ''La Fille mal gardée'', ''Cinderella'', ''Daphnis and Chloë'' and ''Symphonic Variations''; MacMillan’s ''Song of the Earth'', ''Ondine'' and ''Romeo and Juliet''; ''La Bayadère'', Jerome Robbins’ ''Dances at a Gathering'' and ''In the Night'' and Balanchine’s ''Agon''. That "he is, without a doubt, the finest Drosselmeyer who has ever danced the rôle....is without question. Sir Anthony is a consummate man of the theater...one of the last we shall know....We should rejoice in the recorded legacy of his work onstage." -Michael Maglaras

In demand

In the late 1970s he danced with both The Royal Ballet in London and American Ballet Theatre in New York where his extensive repertory included the rôle of Solor in the first performances of Natalia Makarova’s production of ''La Bayadère''. One of his last full dancing rôles was as ''Palemon'' in a revival of Sir Frederick Ashton's ballet, ''Ondine'' in the late 1980s. While Artisic Director of the Royal Ballet, Dowell presented a new version of ''The Sleeping Beauty''. The production was filmed and features Dowell in the character rôle of ''Carabosse''.

A new career

In September 1986 he was appointed Director of The Royal Ballet, a post he held until August 2001, (having become Assistant to the Director in September 1984 and Associate Director in 1985). He was succeeded by Ross Stretton.

References

Willis, Margaret (1 August 1999), DOWELL TO LEAVE ROYAL BALLET IN 2001, Dance Magazine

Simpson, Jane (January 1999), Legend: Anthony Dowell, Ballet.co.uk

Anthony James DOWELL, C.B.E., Artistic Director,. Royal Ballet. For services to Ballet Supplement to ''The London Gazette'', 17 June 1995

Portraits of Sir Anthony Dowell (National Portrait Gallery), painted by Alan Bergman, Philip Harris, and Bernard Lee Schwartz

External links

Category:Administrators of The Royal Ballet Category:People educated at the Royal Ballet School Category:Dancers of The Royal Ballet Category:English ballet dancers Category:English choreographers Category:Ballet choreographers Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:1943 births Category:Living people Category:People from London Category:Ballet designers Category:National Dance Award winners

de:Anthony Dowell fr:Anthony Dowell no:Anthony Dowell pt:Anthony Dowell fi:Anthony Dowell

Dame Antoinette Sibley, DBE (born February 27, 1939, Bromley, Kent) is an English prima ballerina. She joined the Royal Ballet in 1956 and became a soloist in 1960. During her time there she was the Royal Ballet's most popular star.

She later shared a dance partnership with the danseur Sir Anthony Dowell.

The roles she was most known for were Odette and Odile in ''Swan Lake'' and the title role in ''Giselle''.

She became President of the Royal Academy of Dance in 1991.

She was married to and divorced from the late dancer Michael Somes. She remarried in 1974 to a London-based banker, Panton Corbett.

External links

The Ballerina Gallery - Dame Antoinette Sibley

Category:English ballet dancers Category:Ballerinas Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from Bromley Category:Living people Category:Dancers of The Royal Ballet Category:1939 births

sv:Antoinette Sibley