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employs approximately 100 dancers and has purpose built facilities within the
Royal Opera House. The official associate school of
the company is the Royal
Ballet School, and it also has a sister company, the Birmingham Royal Ballet,
which operates independently. The Prima ballerina assoluta of the Royal
Ballet is the late Dame Margot Fonteyn.
In 1926, the Irish-born dancer Ninette de Valois founded the Academy
of Choreographic Art, a dance school for girls.
Her intention was to form a
repertory ballet company and school, leading her to collaborate with the
English theatrical producer and theatre owner Lilian Baylis. Baylis owned
the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells theatres and in 1925 she engaged de Valois to
stage dance performances at both venues.
Sadler's Wells reopened in 1931 and the
Vic-Wells Ballet and Vic-
Wells Ballet School were established in premises at the theatre. These would
become the predecessors of today's Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal
Ballet and Royal Ballet School. Prior to her return to Britain, Ninette de
Valois had been a member of the Ballets Russes, one of the most renowned
and influential ballet companies of the 20th century. The company disbanded
in 1929 following the death of its founder Serge Diaghilev. When de Valois
formed
the Vic-Wells Ballet, she employed some of the company's former
stars, including Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin, who joined as Principal
dancers, and Tamara Karsavina, who worked with the company as an advisor.
The Founder Musical Director was the conductor and composer Constant
Lambert who had considerable artistic as well as musical influence over the
early years of the company.
After losing the link with the Old Vic theatre, in 1939 the company was
renamed Sadler's Wells Ballet and the school became Sadler's
Wells Ballet
School.
[4]
Both continued at Sadler's Wells Theatre until 1946, when the
company was invited to become the resident ballet company of the newly re-
opened Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, under the direction of David
Webster. The company relocated to the opera house the same year in 1946,
with their first production at the venue being
The Sleeping Beauty
.
Following the relocation of the company, the school moved to its own
premises in 1947. A sister company was established to continue performances
at Sadler's Wells, called the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, under the direction
of John Field. In 1955, the sister company temporarily
lost its link with
Sadler's Wells and returned to the Royal Opera House as a touring unit of the
main company.
In 1956, a Royal Charter was granted for both companies and the
school; they were subsequently renamed the Royal Ballet, Sadler's Wells
Royal Ballet and the Royal Ballet School.
The Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet returned to Sadler's Wells Theatre in
1970, while continuing to tour the country. In 1987, however,
the company
was invited to become the resident ballet company at the Birmingham
Hippodrome.
It
relocated
to Birmingham in
1990,
being
renamed Birmingham Royal Ballet and it ceased to be part of the Royal Ballet
in 1997 when it was made independent of the Royal Opera House, with Sir
Peter Wright as Artistic Director. Birmingham
Royal Ballet retains close
relationships with both the Royal Ballet and Royal Ballet School, although it
now has its own associate ballet school, Elmhurst School for Dance.
In 1964 the Royal Ballet established "Ballet for All" under the direction
of Peter Brinson. Between 1964 and 1979 "Ballet for All" toured throughout
the country, presenting around 150 performances per annum and reaching
around 70,000 people each year. In 1976 the Royal Opera House established
its schools' matinee programme.
Today the Royal Ballet remains the resident ballet company at the
Royal Opera House, conducting its own tours internationally, and it continues
to be the parent company of the Royal Ballet School,
which is now based
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at White Lodge, Richmond Park and premises in Floral Street which are
adjacent to and have direct access to the Royal Opera House.
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