Ninette de Valois

Dame Ninette de Valois (born Edris Stannus, 6 June 1898 to 8 March 2001) was an Irish-born British ballet dancer, teacher, choreographer and director of classical ballet. Born at Baltyboys House near Blessington in County Wicklow, she moved to England as a child and began ballet lessons at ten. She danced professionally with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes from 1923 and then founded the Academy of Choreographic Art in London and the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet in Dublin. Working with Lilian Baylis at the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells, she built the Vic-Wells Ballet, the predecessor of The Royal Ballet, the Royal Ballet School and the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Her own ballets include Job (1931), The Rake's Progress (1935) and Checkmate (1937), and she engaged Frederick Ashton and Constant Lambert in the 1930s. She also helped found ballet training in Turkey. She is widely regarded as the godmother of English and Irish ballet.