Ashton, Sir Frederick William Mallandaine 1904-88
English dancer and choreographer

Born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, he was brought up in Peru where he saw Anna Pavlova dance. Following education at an English public school, he had a brief business career in the City of London, during which time he took ballet classes with L�onide Massine in secret. He continued his studies with Marie Rambert who commissioned his first piece, A Tragedy of Fashion (1926). After a year dancing under the direction of Bronislava Nijinska in the USA, he returned to Britain to help found the Ballet Club, which later became Ballet Rambert (now Rambert Dance Company). During this time he partnered and created roles for dancers like Alicia Markova. He joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet in 1935 as a dancer/choreographer, and despite frequent trips abroad to the New York City Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet company, and other companies, he remained at Sadler's Wells as the company developed into the Royal Ballet. In 1948 he became one of the company's artistic directors and in 1963 succeeded Dame Ninette de Valois as director, a post he held for seven years. His work includes Fa�ade (1931), Ondine (1958), La Fille Mal gardee (1960), Margu�rite and Armand (1963, for which he teamed Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn), The Dream (1964), A Month in the Country (1979), Monotones (1965), Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan (1979, created for Lynn Seymour) and Rhapsody (1980). He also worked in film, for The Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971), and opera - creating the dances in Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice (1973). He was knighted in 1962, and given many other honours around the world.

Bibliography: David Vaughan, Frederick Ashton and his Ballets (1977)