My interview with Ninette De Valois

1.Describe where you are from and give us information about your family?

 A: I was born as Edris Stannus. I was born in the Baltyboys house in Blessington, County Wicklow, Ireland. Blessington is one of the biggest towns in Wicklow. Wicklow has a very artistic side to every corner you turn to see. There are buildings, statues, and relics of the past staring back at you ( Blessington).
  My father was Lieut Colstannus, he was a British army officer. My mother was Lillith Graydon-Smith she was a glassmaker and collector of Waterford Glass. My parents have two daughters. (Irish Times Archive) My parents never really spoke of my other family members. I don’t know of my grandparents except for my grandmother. My mom had moved to England, where she live with her grandmother in Kent (Irish Times Archive). I really not rather speak of my family at the moment. I just don’t have anything else to say.

2. What events in your early life made you get interested in the arts?

A: I just love when people ask me this question, but answering the question I feel as if I have so much to say. Being raised in London from the age of eight I had studied dancing at Lila Field Academy. My teachers had a very traditional way of teaching dance and thats how I kind of sculpted my way into the Royal Ballet technique of dance. Later I had then dance with Lila Field group "Wonder Children" in 1913. At that time I legally changed my name to Ninette De Valois for my stage name ( Segal, Lewis Dame Ninette de Valois; Influential Founder of Britain's Royal Ballet).
 Later in time I began to dance in musical revues and operas. After being in musicals and on the musical hall circuit, I then joined the small Massine/Lopoukhova company ( Sergei Diaghilev Ballets Russes). It was very intensive hard working training there and you had to devote your every need and piece of time to dance there with that company. I danced there for three years and I soon rose to the rank of soloist. Sergei Diaghilev he inspired and influenced me. I was in his production "The Sleeping Beauty". That production is what I say influenced me as a teacher, choreographer and artistic director  ( Segal, Lewis Dame Ninette de Valois; Influential Founder of Britain's Royal Ballet).


3. What role did mentors play in helping you develop the interests and talents you have as in artist?
A: I would say the person who influenced me the most and even made me what I am today would be Sergei Diaghilev. I sincerely thank him with all my heart. I would not be here today and where I'm at if it wasn’t for him. He has influenced me being a teacher, choreographer, and artistic director. The interest in dance just came to me because I started taking classes like every other girl out there. Being with Diaghilev, I have gotten to work with some of the world’s most famous people like George Balanchine. We worked with Balanchine in operas he choreographed for Diaghilev ( Segal, Lewis Dame Ninette de Valois; Influential Founder of Britain's Royal Ballet).
 After my three years with Sergei Diaghilev he influence me to find my style in dance. Being a dancer you have to be a perfectionist and I still had things that I needed to work on. In 1926 I then joined the Old Vic Theatre in London as a movement coach and choreographer. I then directed the company (Dame Ninette de Valois). I had created a Bar aux Folies-Bergère for Marie Rambert’s Ballet Club. I would choreograph exciting modern works and it put Vic-Wells Ballet at the top and began mounting it as one of the Russian Classics ( Gene, Beth The Making of a Choreographer).

4. What were your major accomplishments and methods you used in your art?
A: Every time I think of my accomplishments as being a dancer I get a warm feeling inside because I would never be able to think I could do it and I’m here today with you talking about my life. I established the Vic-Wells Ballet company in which I directed for more than three decades. Later on this was the most important accomplishment in my life when I founded the sister company which became the Birmingham Royal Ballet ( Valois, Dame Ninette de).
 My dances that I had choreographed were a big accomplishment too. They included the Job,(1931)  The Rake's Progress (1935), and Checkmate (1937). People would say my choreography was uneven. The best things in The Job was the acrobatic dance of Satan and the satirical expressionist dance ( Dame Ninette de Valois OM). Yes I know that sounds a little crazy but being an artist you have to express your self beyond what you can do by trying things that you didn’t know you could do. Push your self think outside of your own comfort zone. In 1935 I had choreographed The Rake’s Progress. It was originally based off Hogarth's paintings, with music by Gavin Gordon. Later I choreographed the Checkmate and that was my hugest accomplishment. Usually in ballet the men have very dominant roles and in Checkmate I wanted something different that would keep my audience in suspense. In Checkmate the ballerina assumed the dominant role as the Black Queen bent on the destruction of the White King ( Dame Ninette de Valois OM).

5. What were the key opportunities you had that led to turning points in your life and art?
A: Opportunities come and go and you have to turn them down sometimes to do what is better for yourself. Being in Sergei Diaghilev Ballet Russes the best opportunities came to me. Diaghilev had sent me to dance in "The Sleeping Beauty" as lead. When I was in Ballet Russes, I created a role in Bronislava Nijinska's "Les Biches". Doing that I had gotten to work with George Balanchine and that was a really amazing experience right there to just be working with him one on one ( Segal, Lewis Dame Ninette de Valois; Influential Founder of Britain's Royal Ballet).
 In 1926 I had founded the Academy of Choreographic Art in Kensington. That same year I had became the director of London's Old Vic Theatre. Besides working with London's Old Vic Theatre. I wanted to develop a repertory ballet company. I was then working with Festival Theatre in Cambridge led me to my first ballet I choreographed Les Petits Riens.  Being a director and a founder of a company at the time made me want to kinda separate myself from others and start my own company, but that is mainly how I became the founder of Britain's Royal Ballet ( Segal, Lewis Dame Ninette de Valois; Influential Founder of Britain's Royal Ballet).

6. What was the world of art like in your particular field of dance when you entered it?
  A: That is a good question. Of course there was ballet. Around the 1920s and 1930s there was much jazz flair. I remember growing up and hearing about local dance marathons. They were throughout local towns. Couples would dance non-stop for hours competing for prize money. Many towns had banned them. They would find that they were disruptive, and disturbing( Becker, Paula Dance Marathons of the 1920s and 1930s).
  I remember when I was a little girl I was watching this girl dance at a children’s party. I remember demanding to do the Irish Jig. I kept complete confidence in myself like I knew what I was doing but anxious at the moment too ( Dame Ninette de Valois OM). With in the ballet period there was a form of Neoclassical style of dance during the 1920’s. George Balanchine was the creator of the neoclassical ballet. Neoclassical ballet often has classically trained dancers. The choreography was usually performed on Pointe, barefoot, or ballet slippers. The music was inspired by George Balanchine or Tchaikovsky. Costumes at the time were classical tutu’s (Ann, Pamela The History of Neoclassical Dance). I would say dance has not really change but that women have got more dominant in roles today.

7. Who are the people that you admire both in the arts and beyond and why do they inspire you?
A: People that inspire me in the arts are Sergei Diaghilev and Alicia Markova. I admire Sergei because he made me what I am today. He took me in when I joined his Ballet Russes and I was a soloist. Being with him inspired me to be choreographer, teacher, and director. Without him I would not be the founder of the Britain's Royal Ballet.  Alicia I admire because I feel like she helped me find my style when I couldn’t find it. She could do a couple of steps and add a touch to it and it looks perfect.  Even if you didn’t have a leading role she made everyone feel as if they really could feature there individual talents ( Dame Ninette de Valois OM).
 My last person I admire is my mom. She inspired somewhat of my choreography too. My style is intensely theatrical, based firmly on narrative, and responsive to the music, which she and I chose with great care. Having a family I was particularly good at creating dramatic roles for male dancers because of having to deal with different minds and opinions all in one home it was difficult ( Dame Ninette de Valois OM).

8. What hardships or roadblocks did you have to overcome in order to be an artist?
A: Yes I was facing a chronic ill health. After being a prima ballerina I gave up dancing because I had discovered I had been suffering from years of polio. I also had a vision problem ( Dame Ninette de Valois OM). I did not let that stop me though. Instead of me stop dance I threw all that energy into my own dance academy. Later I even wrote my own books.
 I wrote four books Invitation to the “Ballet”,(1937), “Come Dance with Me” (1957), “Step by Step” (1977), and “The Cycle," a volume of poems (1985). I would rather have been a writer than a dancer. Little by little I took time out of my day to start writing poetry. I get more fun out of my poetry then my choreography (Woods, Audrey Dame Ninette de Valois, Royal Ballet founder, 102). I mean being a dancer for most of my life I had a lot roadblocks like injuries, and my health issues. Though I didn’t let that stop because look where I’m today siting here with you talking about my life. I’m a founder of the beautiful Britain’s Royal Ballet.

9.  How did the major cultural, economic and political situations of the time impact your work?
A: You don’t hear a question like that everyday now do you. Culture during the 1920s made an impact not only on me but others as well. More Americans lived in cities than on farms. The nation wealth had doubled. People listened to the same music, and did the same dances(The Roaring Twenties).  Economic problems were the Great Depression. It eliminated jobs and Worker’s salaries increased but did not match the rate of the price increases and farmers were forced further into debt ( Nostro, Rit American Economics in the 1920s and 1930s).
 With all the wars going on World War II made a huge impact on me. World War II caused destruction, to my dance company’s set and costumes. Male dancers had to serve in the military causing me and the company Sadler's Wells Theatre to close, because of us loosing are male dancers. Though in 1946 Sadler's Wells Ballet won a new home at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Political situations at the time were when World War II was going. During that Salder’s Wells it was ignored by the fashionable dance world. Sadler's Wells Ballet had became more known through the 1930s, and moved ahead still more strongly during the war, especially on tour ( Dame Ninette de Valois OM).

10. What personal stories ( anecdotes) best illustrate how you became successful in the arts?
A: O I could go all day plenty to tell of course. Working with Constant Lambert as a music director was very diverse. Dancers employed at Salder’s Wells were Anton Dolin, Alicia Markova, Margot Fonteyn, and Robert Helpmann, as well as Pearl Argyle, Harold Turner and June Brae from Ballet Rambert. They made me expand my the diversity of my dance style because of working with all different and amazing dancers ( Dame Ninette de Valois OM).
 I worked out my choreography in advance rehearsals. I would have to be in a studio that was quiet so that I could just focus on me and only me. Come in with a clear mind focus and ready to go so that no studio time would be wasted. Altogether I choreographed more than fifty productions from classical to modern. Much of this hard work I created for my self has been lost but I tell you now to always keep up the hard work ( Dame Ninette de Valois OM).