Antony Tudor (born William Cook; 4 April 1908 – 19 April 1987) was an English ballet
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 ...
, teacher and dancer. He founded the
London Ballet London Ballet was a short lived British ballet company founded by the British choreographer and former Ballet Rambert dancer Antony Tudor in 1938, along with Rambert members Hugh Laing, Andrée Howard, Agnes de Mille, Peggy van Praagh, Maude Llo ...
, and later the Philadelphia Ballet Guild in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, Pennsylvania, U.S., in the mid-1950s.
Early life and education
Tudor was born William Cook in
East London
East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...
, and grew up in the
Finsbury
Finsbury is a district of Central London, forming the southeastern part of the London Borough of Islington. It borders the City of London.
The Manorialism, Manor of Finsbury is first recorded as ''Vinisbir'' (1231) and means "manor of a man c ...
area.
He discovered dance accidentally. Tudor's first exposure to professional ballet was in his late teens when he first saw
Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), also known as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario an ...
's
Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Russian Revolution, Revolution ...
. He witnessed the dancer
Serge Lifar
Serge Lifar (, ''Serhіy Mуkhailovуch Lуfar'') ( 15 December 1986) was a Ukrainian dancer, choreographer, and one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century. Lifar was also a choreographer, director, writer, theoretician abou ...
of the Diaghilev Ballet in
Balanchine
George Balanchine (;
Various sources:
*
*
*
* born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze;, : April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th-century. Sty ...
's ''
Apollon Musagète
''Apollo'' (originally ''Apollon musagète'' and variously known as ''Apollo musagetes'', ''Apolo Musageta'', and ''Apollo, Leader of the Muses'') is a neoclassical ballet in two '' tableaux'' composed between 1927 and 1928 by Igor Stravinsky. ...
'' in 1928. Later, the Ballets Russes would introduce him to
Anna Pavlova
Anna Pavlovna Pavlova. (born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova; – 23 January 1931) was a Russian prima ballerina. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, but is most recognized for creating ...
, who further inspired his journey into the world of dance. Tudor reached out to
Cyril W. Beaumont, the owner of a ballet book shop in the
Charing Cross Road
Charing Cross Road is a street in central London running immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles Circus (the intersection with Oxford Street), which then merges into Tottenham Court Road. It leads from the north in the direc ...
district in London, to seek advice regarding training and was instructed to study with
Marie Rambert
Dame Marie Rambert DBE (born Cyvia Rambam; 20 February 188812 June 1982) was a Polish-born English dancer and pedagogue who exerted great influence on British ballet, both as a dancer and teacher.
Early years and background
Born to a liberal ...
, a former Diaghilev Ballet dancer who taught 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 stre ...
.
Career
He began dancing professionally with Marie Rambert in 1928, becoming general assistant for her
Ballet Club
Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...
the next year. A precocious choreographer, at age twenty-three he created for her dancers ''Cross Garter'd'', then ''Lysistrata'', ''The Planets'' and other works at the little
Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate, and his two most revolutionary, ''
Jardin aux lilas
''Jardin aux lilas'' (''Lilac Garden'') is a ballet in one act choreographed by Antony Tudor to a composition by Ernest Chausson entitled ''Poème (Chausson), Poème'', Op. 25. With scenery and costumes designed by Hugo Stevenson, it was first pr ...
'' (''Lilac Garden'') and ''Dark Elegies'', before the age of thirty, himself dancing the main roles.
In 1938, he founded the
London Ballet London Ballet was a short lived British ballet company founded by the British choreographer and former Ballet Rambert dancer Antony Tudor in 1938, along with Rambert members Hugh Laing, Andrée Howard, Agnes de Mille, Peggy van Praagh, Maude Llo ...
with Rambert members, including his future life partner
Hugh Laing
Hugh Laing (born Hugh Morris Alleyne Skinner, 6 June 191110 May 1988) was a ballet dancer who danced with Marie Rambert's Ballet Club and New York City Ballet. He was the partner of choreographer Antony Tudor.
Biography
Hugh Laing was born in ...
,
Andrée Howard,
Agnes de Mille
Agnes George de Mille (September 18, 1905 – October 7, 1993) was an American dancer and choreographer.
Early years
Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMill ...
,
Peggy van Praagh,
Maude Lloyd and
Walter Gore
Walter Gore (8 October 1910 – 16 April 1979) was a British ballet dancer, company director and choreographer.
Early life
Walter Gore was born in Waterside, East Ayrshire Scotland in 1910 into a theatrical family. From 1924, he studied a ...
. With the onset of World War II, in 1940 he was invited with them to New York, joining Richard Pleasant's and
Lucia Chase's reorganized Ballet Theater. Chase's company was later to become the
American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant. Through 2019, it had an annual eight-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center) in the spr ...
, with which Tudor was closely associated for the rest of his life.
He was a resident choreographer with Ballet Theater for ten years, restaging some of his earlier works but also creating new works, his great ''
Pillar of Fire'' (1942), ''Romeo and Juliet'', ''Dim Lustre'' and ''Undertow'', on that company by the end of the war. Retiring from dancing in 1950, he headed the faculty of the
Metropolitan Opera Ballet School, taught at the
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...
recurrently from 1950 onwards. He mentored dancers of color and offered weekly classes at the Philadelphia Ballet Guild, which he established in the mid-1950s.
[ Among others, he taught ]Carole King
Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter and musician renowned for her extensive contributions to popular music. She wrote or co-wrote 118 songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billbo ...
, who went on to found the predecessor to the NAISDA Dance College for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...
students of contemporary dance
Contemporary dance is a genre of Concert dance, dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly stron ...
in Australia.
He was artistic director for the Royal Swedish Ballet
The Royal Swedish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in Europe. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Gustav III of Sweden, King Gustav III founded the ballet in 1773 as a part of his national cultural project in response to the French and Italian ...
from 1963 to 1964. He choreographed three works for the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's fir ...
.
From 1973, Tudor continued his teaching career as professor of ballet technique at the Department of Dance, University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
(work curtailed by a serious heart condition), while rejoining American Ballet Theatre in 1974 as associate artistic director, creating ''The Leaves Are Fading'' and ''Tiller in the Fields'', his last major work, in 1978. With Laing, he continued seasonal residence in Laguna Beach, California
Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Lagoon") is a city in Orange County, California, United States. Located in Southern California along the Pacific Ocean, this seaside resort city has a mild year-round climate, scenic c ...
.
Muses for whom specific ballets where created include Maude Lloyd, Hugh Laing and Nora Kaye
Nora Kaye-Ross (born Nora Kaye Koreff; January 17, 1920 – February 28, 1987) was an American prima-ballerina known for her ability to perform dramatic roles. Called the ''Duse of Dance'' after the acclaimed actress Eleonora Duse, she also wor ...
. While specific ballets were not created for them, Diana Adams
Diana Adams (March 29, 1926 – January 10, 1993) was a principal dancer for the New York City Ballet from 1950 to 1963 and favorite of George Balanchine, later becoming a teacher at — and dean of — the School of American Ballet.
Adams was bo ...
and Sallie Wilson can also be considered as muses of Tudor.
As a teacher, Tudor was known for focusing on physical and psychological details to strip away the ego allowing the dancer to be pushed outside their comfort zone and extend their potential. In an interview with Dick Cavett
Richard Alva Cavett (; born November 19, 1936) is an American television personality and former talk show host. He appeared regularly on nationally broadcast television in the United States from the 1960s through the 2000s.
In later years, Cave ...
, Tudor said, "You've got to get rid of the personal mannerisms to get to the character in the ballet and dancers don't want to let go. Breaking down a person isn't hard. But you cannot break them down unless you are willing to pick up the ashes right away and turn them into the Phoenix. That's the tough thing. You're terribly tempted to lay them flat and walk on them."
Recognition
Tudor was awarded a creative arts medal by Brandeis University
Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...
, the ''Dance Magazine
''Dance Magazine'' is an American trade publication for dance. It was first published in June 1927 as ''The American Dancer''. ''Dance Magazine'' is currently part of Dance Media, led by longtime arts publisher Joanna Harp as president, and has mu ...
'' and Capezio
Capezio is the trade name of Capezio Ballet Makers Inc., an American manufacturer of dance shoes, apparel and accessories.
History
In 1887, Salvatore Capezio, an Italian cobbler emigrated to the United States, opened a shoe repair shop near th ...
awards, New York City's Handel Medallion
The Handel Medallion is an American award presented by the Government of New York City, City of New York. It is the city's highest award given to individuals for their contribution to the city's intellectual and cultural life.
Establishment
Th ...
, and both Kennedy Center
The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...
and Dance/USA National Honors.
Tudor was inducted into the Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Dance in 1988.
Death and legacy
A disciplined Zen Buddhist
Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...
, Tudor died on Easter Sunday
Easter, also called Pascha (Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek language, Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, de ...
in his residence at the First Zen Institute of America, aged 79.
Tudor is generally accepted as one of the great originals of modern dance forms. Along with George Balanchine
George Balanchine (;
Various sources:
*
*
*
* born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze;, Romanization of Georgian, : April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers ...
, he is seen as a principal transformer of ballet into a modern art, but of a genius that uses, rather than proceeds from, ballet forms. His work is usually considered as modern "psychological" expression, but – like their creator – of austerity, elegance and nobility, remarkably primarily using only classical forms. Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Барышников, p=mʲɪxɐˈil bɐ'rɨʂnʲɪkəf; ; born January 27, 1948) is a Latvian and American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male ...
said, "We do Tudor's ballets because we must. Tudor's work is our conscience."
Thirty of Tudor's dances have been documented in Labanotation
Labanotation (grammatically correct form "Labannotation" or "Laban notation" is uncommon) is a system for analyzing and recording human movement (Notation, notation system), invented by Austro-Hungarian choreographer and dancer Rudolf von Laban ...
by the Dance Notation Bureau. The scores' introductory material contains history of the dances, cast lists, stylistic notes, background on Tudor, and information needed to stage the works (costumes, sets, lighting, music).
Trust
The Antony Tudor Ballet Trust was established to continue staging Tudor's works. His will appointed Sally Brayley Bliss as the sole trustee of his ballets upon his will submission to the Surrogate's Court of the State of New York in 1987.
The trust includes the following répétiteurs: Diana Byer, John Gardner, Airi Hymninen, James Jordan, Donald Mahler, Amanda McKerrow, Christopher Newton
Christopher Newton (11 June 1936 – 20 December 2021) was a Canadian director and actor, who served as artistic director of the Shaw Festival from 1980 to 2002.
Early life and education
Newton was born in Deal, Kent, England and educated at ...
, Kirk Peterson, David Richardson, Willy Shives, Lance Westwood, Celia Franca
Celia Franca (25 June 1921 – 19 February 2007) was a co-founder of The National Ballet of Canada (1951) and its artistic director for 24 years.
Early life
Franca was born Celia Franks in London, England, the daughter of an East End ta ...
(in memoriam) and Sallie Wilson (in memoriam). Tara McBride is the administrator for the trust.
Major works
(*Ballets available for production)
See also
* List of dancers
A
*Fred Astaire ( – ), American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer, musician and actor. He was an innovator in dance. He made 31 musical films, 10 featuring his dances with Ginger Rogers, and was honored with the fifth ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
''Zen Notes'' obituary issue
34:5 (May 1987), includes "Tudor Dies" by Mary Farkas; "Notes on Tudor" by Clara Gibson Maxwell and Suzanne Ames.
*Clara Gibson Maxwell,
Dancing Tudor's ''Cereus''
, ''Zen Notes'', 28:10 (October 1981): 6.
*Entry of Tudor's Dances on th
Dance Notation Bureau's On-line Theatrical Dances Catalog
*
Archival film of Tudor's Gala Performance in 1959 at Jacob's Pillow
Archive film of Tudor's Jardin aux Lilas in 1953 at Jacob's Pillow
Guide to the Hugh Laing and Antony Tudor papers, 1911-1988
, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library.
Archival footage of Johan Renvall and Madeleine Onne performing in Tudor's ''Little Improvisations'' in 1983 at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tudor, Antony
1908 births
1987 deaths
British ballet choreographers
English choreographers
English male ballet dancers
British expatriates in the United States
Kennedy Center honorees
English LGBTQ dancers
Dancers from London
University of California, Irvine faculty
Choreographers of American Ballet Theatre
Rambert Dance Company dancers