| January |
Despite the war, things were still happening. Ashton's ballet The Wanderer was given for the first time with an orchestra on 5th January and Robert Helpmann's Comus was given for the first time on 14th January. Comus had its origins in Masque and used the spoken word. Both ballets featured scenery and costumes by Oliver Messel. At this time Sadler's Wells Ballet was dancing at the New Theatre in St Martin's Lane.
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| March |
The Ballets Russes revealed plans for films of their productions including Massine's Gaite Parisienne - now gloriously bought to life by The Trocks.
On the 25th March the death of Olga Preobrajenska was reported in Dancing Times
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| April |
Celia Franca, who went on to found the national ballet of Canada,
was featured in Dancing Times as a recent addition to Sadler's Wells Ballet and noted to be particularly successful as Myrtha in Giselle.
On the 26th April the Sadler's Wells Ballet arrived in Bath just in time
for the second air raid on that city. The back of the theatre was
damaged, although the sets and costumes were not, as they had not yet
been unloaded. Constant Lambert and the stage manager
were camping overnight in the theatre, as they had been unsuccessful
in finding accommodations, and spent most of the night fighting a
fire. The company's only sustained loss was two trumpets!
|
| May |
Robert Helpmann's Hamlet was premiered on the 19th with designs by Leslie Hurry (and whose later designs for the Royal Ballet Swan Lake will be remembered by many)
|
| June |
Beryl Grey gave her first full length Swan Lake performance on the 11th June - her fifteenth birthday. Other graduates who joined the company that
year were Moyra (their spelling) Shearer, Ray Powell and Lorna
Mossford.
The Dancing Times features an interesting advertisement on the back:
"The largest high grade all ladies resident band in any dance hall
is at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under the direction of
Miss Ivy Benson. That you can dance here most afternoons through
the week for a modest sixpence proves too that the lead in supreme
dancing value is set by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden."
|
| July |
A new company is announced - 'Allied Ballets' - with the support of the allied governments of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Greece and Yugoslavia.
A letter to Dancing Times, from Alicia Markova, tells how
Antony Tudor's new ballet Pillar of Fire is a 'smash hit' in the
US.
|
| August |
Michel Fokine dies. He had contracted pneumonia on
a train returning from Mexico and died on the 22nd August in New York.
|
| September |
Sadler's Wells Ballet appears for one week of open air performances at
Victoria Park, London.
|
October |
Life of course carries on.... Rowena Jackson is announced as the recipient of an RAD scholarship for New Zealand.
|
| November |
A letter dated 17th July, 1942 is received by Dancing Times from
the parents of dancer Sonia Arova... it states: "Preobrajenska se porte tres bien." Evidently the report of the death of Preobrajenska was in
error. In addition they received a letter from her dated 26th May,
and also one from her secretary, which was delivered via the
international Red Cross, to attest to the fact that she was alive
and in good health.
On the 24th November Robert Helpmann's third new ballet - The Birds - is premiered. Beryl Grey plays the Nightingale, her first created role (at age 15½)
|
December |
Meantime Ashton continues to languish in the RAF.
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