Valois, Dame Ninette de, stage name of Edris Stannus 1898-2001
Irish ballerina

Born in Blessington, County Wicklow, she studied under Cecchetti and made her stage debut in 1914, in the pantomime at the Lyceum Theatre. She subsequently appeared with the Beecham Opera Company and at Covent Garden. After a European tour with Sergei Diaghilev (1923-25), she partnered Anton Dolin in England, and became director of ballet at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. She was a founding member (1931) of the Camargo Society and the Vic-Wells Ballet (later Sadler's Wells Ballet and the Royal Ballet). She was artistic director of the Royal Ballet until 1963 and was regarded as a pioneer of British ballet. Her rarely performed choreographic works include The Rake's Progress (1935), Checkmate (1937) and Don Quixote. She organized the National Ballet School of Turkey (1947) and was created DBE in 1951. She wrote Invitation to the Ballet (1937) and the autobiographical Come Dance with Me (1957) and Step by Step (1977). In 1974 she became the first woman to win the Erasmus Prize Foundation award, and was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1992.