Nancy Elizabeth Oliphant (August 5, 1918 – July 12, 2004) was a co-founder of the

National Ballet School of Canada Canada's National Ballet School, also commonly known as the National Ballet School of Canada, is a classical ballet school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Along with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, it is a provider of professional ballet tr ...

Life

Oliphant was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1918. Her father was a lawyer who died within weeks of her birth in a train crash. Oliphant suffered from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

as a child and her doctor prescribed

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form ...

lessons to help with her breathing. Her mother obtained lessons from a Miss Sheen who had been taught by others trained in Russia. Throughout her career Oliphant was known for following a Russian ballet style in her teaching.Betty Oliphant
29 July 2004, The Telegraph, retrieved 4 August 2016 She studied with

Tamara Karsavina Tamara Platonovna Karsavina (russian: Тамара Платоновна Карсавина; 10 March 1885 – 26 May 1978) was a Russian prima ballerina, renowned for her beauty, who was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and lat ...

Laurent Novikoff Laurent Novikoff (1888 – June 18, 1956) or Laurent Novikov, was a Russian ballet dancer who became a citizen of the United States in 1939. Biography He graduated from Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet School in 1906. He danced with Diaghilev in 1909 and ...

and Marie Rambert. By the age of 17, she had opened her own school having decided that she was too tall to be top dancer herself. She moved to Canada in 1947. In 1951, she became ballet mistress for the National Ballet of Canada at the request of Celia Franca, the company's director. She and Franca founded the National Ballet School of Canada in 1959. Alumni include

Frank Augustyn Frank Joseph Augustyn, (born January 27, 1953) is a Canadian ballet dancer and artistic director. He was principal dancer of the National Ballet of Canada and the Berlin Opera Ballet. Background Frank Augustyn was born in Hamilton, Ontario. ...

, Rex Harrington,

Karen Kain Karen Alexandria Kain (born March 28, 1951) is a Canadian former ballet dancer, and was the artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada from 2005 - 2021. Early training and childhood Kain's mother enrolled her daughter in ballet training ...

, John Alleyne, James Kudelka and Veronica Tennant. She had been trained in the

Cecchetti method The Cecchetti method is variously defined as a style of ballet and as a ballet training method devised by the Italian ballet master Enrico Cecchetti (1850–1928). The training method seeks to develop essential skills in dancers as well as str ...

of classical dance. In 1959, she became associate artistic director for the National Ballet of Canada, but resigned in 1975 to devote herself to the school. She retired in 1989. She was known for her strict manner, high standards and insistence on technique. She wrote an auto biography where she recounted her difficult private life consoled by her career success. She was appointed an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the c ...

in 1972, and promoted to a Companion of the Order in 1985. In 1988, the National Ballet School of Canada named its new performance space the Betty Oliphant Theatre. In 1996, she published an autobiography ''Miss O: My Life in Dance'' (). She died in

St. Catharines, Ontario St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2016, it has an area of , 136,803 residents, and a metropolitan population of 406,074. It lies in Southern Ontari ...

at the age of 85.Betty Oliphant
at ''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available f ...

References

External links

Betty Oliphant
at ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Oliphant, Betty 1918 births 2004 deaths Canadian ballerinas Canadian female dancers Companions of the Order of Canada British emigrants to Canada Members of the Order of Ontario Dancers from London Ballet mistresses English ballerinas English female dancers