Friderica Derra de Moroda MBE (2 June 1897 – 19 June 1978) was a British dancer,

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

and dance teacher of Greek and Hungarian descent.

Career

Derra de Moroda was born in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

, the daughter of a Greek writer and a Hungarian art historian. The family moved to Munich after the death of their father. After a ballet education, she made her debut, aged 14, on 22 February 1912 as a freelance dancer in the

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists or ) is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Ho ...

. From 1914, she was in England and founded her first own dance school in London. From 1918 she took lessons from

Enrico Cecchetti Enrico Cecchetti (; 21 June 1850 – 13 November 1928) was an Italian ballet dancer, mime, and founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two dancers from Civitanova Marche, he was born in the costuming room of the ''Teatro Tordinona'' in ...

for four years and then performed for the first time in Salzburg in 1923: A solo dance evening in the Great Hall of the

Mozarteum Mozarteum University Salzburg ( German: ''Universität Mozarteum Salzburg'') is one of three affiliated but separate (it is actually a state university) entities under the "Mozarteum" name in Salzburg municipality; the International Mozarteu ...

delighted the audience. In 1936, she became a British national. In 1941, she took over the direction and artistic responsibility of the ballet of the National Socialist cultural organization

Kraft durch Freude NS Gemeinschaft ; KdF) was a German NSDAP-operated leisure organization in Nazi Germany. Richard Grunberger, ''The 12-Year Reich'', p. 197, It was part of the German Labour Front (), the national labour organization at that time. Set up in Nove ...

in Berlin, which toured regularly until 1944. De Moroda was interned as a British citizen in a camp at

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

towards the end of the war. After the death of her sister, Minka, in December 1950, de Moroda inherited the and, in 1952, she established there a ballet school, which she ran until 1967 and which was attended above all by the members of the ballet from the

Salzburger Landestheater The Salzburg State Theatre (''Salzburger Landestheater'') is a theatre situated in Salzburg, Austria, a venue for opera, theatre, and dance, contemporary and older works, with resident companies of actors, singers and dancers. The theatre present ...

, but also by the later solo dancer

Margot Werner Margot Werner (8 December 1937 – 1 July 2012) was an Austrians, Austrian ballet dancer, chanson singer, and actress. During her career, she was both the principal dancer at the Bavarian State Ballet, and a soloist at the Bavarian State Opera and ...

. From 1960 onward, she devoted herself increasingly to dance research and built up an extensive library of dance-specific literature. The estate of the ''Derra de Moroda Dance Archives'' is publicly accessible at the Institute for Musicology of the

University of Salzburg The University of Salzburg (, ), also known as the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (''Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg'', PLUS), is an Austrian public university in Salzburg, Salzburg municipality, Salzburg (federal state), Salzburg State, ...

Legacy

On 15 June 1977, she was the first woman ever to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the

. In 1936, she rediscovered the original manuscript of the ''Nuova e curiosa scuola de' balli theatrali'' by .Publications by De Moroda

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

. Accessed 4 November 2022. She was made a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in 1974.

Death

Friderica Derra de Moroda died in 1978 in

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

, aged 81.

References

External links

Portrait
on National Portrait Gallery
Portrait
on NPG
''Wer war Friderica Derra de Moroda?''
by Stephanie Schroedter on WorldCat {{DEFAULTSORT:Derra de Moroda, Friderica 20th-century British ballet dancers British choreographers British women choreographers Members of the Order of the British Empire Ballet teachers 1897 births 1978 deaths People from Bratislava Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom British people of Greek descent British people of Hungarian descent