Sir Frederick Ashton – A Ballet Phenomenon
Sir Frederick Ashton was the legendary dancer and choreographer who left behind him a prolific amount of acclaimed work. Born on the 17th September 1904 Ashton was the founding choreographer for The Royal Ballet, London where he became resident choreographer in the 1930s. He provided the choreography for many ballets with a career that spanned for over 50 years from 1926 to 1982.
Ashton’s first three-act ballet for the Royal Ballet, formerly known as Sadler’s Wells Ballet, was his interpretation of Prokofiev’s Cinderella in 1948. Met with great critical acclaim Ashton had first had the idea for creating the ballet as early as 1939 but the outbreak of the Second World War put a halt to proceedings. The choreographic style utilized by Ashton in his Cinderella is in homage to legendary Russian choreographer Marius Pepita. His interpretation has a dream-like quality and dreams are a major theme running through this version of Cinderella.
The ballet Sylvia followed Cinderella in 1952 as Sir Frederick’s next three- act ballet and Ashton was applauded for resurrecting this long forgotten ballet. He completely revised the choreography for Sylvia and made the plot less convoluted as it was felt that it was the complex storyline that had put people off the ballet in previous years. The entire choreography for the role of Sylvia is said to be Sir Frederick’s tribute to the great ballerina Margo Fonteyn as it was devised with the legendary female dancer in mind.
Sir Frederick’s final three-act ballet was Ondine, which was another opportunity to showcase the brilliance of Margo Fonteyn. Created in 1958 Ashton’s version incorporates a recurring theme of the sea and water in general. Ashton apparently struggled with Ondine as he did not find that the music inspired his choreography however Ondine was well received by the critics when it premiered.
Perhaps one of his greatest works is La fille mal gardée, which premiered in London in January 1960 and has been hailed as the definitive version of the ballet. Ashton reverted the ballet’s music back to the 1928 score by Ferdinand Hérold for his production and found his inspiration within the music. Ashton’s 1960 version of La fille mal gardée has been staged by many ballet companies throughout the world and has overtaken even Pepita’s version as the ‘traditional’ version to perform.
Sir Frederick resigned as Director of the Royal Ballet in 1970 under circumstances that have never been confirmed. It is believed that there was some dispute that greatly upset Ashton. He continued to choreograph for the company for many years however and also worked for other companies and provided choreography for films and stage musicals too. He died at home in Suffolk in August 1988.
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December 9, 2010
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Posted by Jam Man
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