International Ballet

International Ballet
General information
NameInternational Ballet
Year foundedMay 1941 (1941-05)
Closed5 December 1953
FounderMona Inglesby
Senior staff
DirectorMona Inglesby
Company managerGuy Charles, Miss E. Fleetwood, Dorothy Brown
Artistic staff
Ballet Master in ChiefStanislas Idzikowski
Ballet MasterNicholas Sergeyev, Geoffrey Espinosa, Ernest Hewitt
Music DirectorGeorge Weldon, Ernest Irving, James Walker, Anthony Baines

International Ballet was a British ballet company that operated, with great success, between 1941 and 1953. Its director throughout its existence was Mona Inglesby, who was also its principal ballerina. Although it was Britain's largest ballet company during the war years,[1] and performed to an audience of between one and two million in wartime Britain and between ten and twenty million in its twelve-year life,[n 1] its contribution to the growth of British ballet has been largely overshadowed[4][5] by that of the other four ballet companies that were operating in 1953. All are state subsidised, and are still operating: Sadler's Wells Ballet (now the Royal Ballet), Ballet Rambert (now the Rambert Dance Company), Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet now (Birmingham Royal Ballet), and the newly formed Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet).

International Ballet is probably unique amongst large ballet companies in that it paid its way without any private or state grant aid.[1] Staging ballet has always been expensive, and Arts Council funding for the year 2013-2014 for those other three companies was Rambert £2M, English National Ballet £6M and the Royal Ballet well over £10M.[6]

  1. ^ a b "Mona Inglesby: the forgotten heroine of British ballet". London: The Telegraph. 9 December 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Cite error: The named reference Hunter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference H-Taylor was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Dance Now, Spring 2007, 'Time to get authentic'. Mona Inglesby's heritage assessed by Ismene Brown" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  5. ^ "Black-Out Ballet: The Invisible Woman of British Ballet". the arts desk. 11 December 2012. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  6. ^ "Arts Council national portfolio funding programme". Archived from the original on 10 June 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2014.


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