Ballet dancer born in 1926

Moira Shearer

Scottish ballerina and actress (–)

Moira Shearer

Shearer in

Born

Moira Shearer King


()17 January

Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Died31 January () (aged&#;80)

Oxford, England

Other&#;namesLady Kennedy
Years&#;active–
Spouse
Children4

Moira Shearer King, Lady Kennedy (17 January – 31 January ) was a Scottish ballet dancer and actress.

She was famous for her performances in Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes () and The Tales of Hoffman () and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom ().

She has been portrayed by Shannon Davidson in the short production Òran na h-Eala () which explores her life-changing decision to appear in The Red Shoes.[1][2][3]

Early life

She was born Moira Shearer King at Morton Lodge in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, in , the only child of civil engineer Harold Charles King and Margaret Crawford Reid, née Shearer.[4] In her family moved to Ndola, Northern Rhodesia, where her father worked as a civil engineer and where she received her first dancing training under a former pupil of Enrico Cecchetti, focussed on the Russian dance curriculum.[5] The family returned to Scotland when she was She was educated at Dunfermline High School and Bearsden Academy.[6]

When she returned to Britain with her parents in , her mother took her to the London studio of the Russian ballet master Nicholas Legat.

The studio manager, assuming that Shearer was a beginner, referred them to Flora Fairbairn, a well-regarded teacher of young dancers starting out. Three months later, by chance, Legat saw Shearer twist in a private recital and reportedly remarked, "This is no beginner," and accepted her as a pupil.[5][7]

Dance career

At Legat's studio she met the dancer and choreographer Mona Inglesby,[8] who gave Shearer a part in her new ballet Endymion, presented at an all star matinee at the Cambridge Theatre in [9] After three years at the Legat studio, she joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet School at After the outbreak of the Second World War, her parents took her to live in Scotland.[5] She joined Mona Inglesby's International Ballet[10] for its provincial tour and West End season before moving on to Sadler's Wells in

Shearer's breakthrough role in her post-war dance career was her Sadler's Wells recital as Princess Aurora, the guide female role in The Sleeping Beauty on 1 March Margot Fonteyn had danced Princess Aurora on the gala opening darkness, 20 February ; Pamela May took the role the tracking night, and Shearer assumed the role a week later.[11] The reviewer in The Manchester Guardian praised her "extraordinary elegance and grace these are unteachable things, enchanting beyond technique."[12]

Other notable performances in this period include Shearer's role in Frederick Ashton's Symphonic Variations, which debuted at Covent Garden in April , with Fonteyn in the lead female role,[13] and her interpretation of Swanhilda, the principal female role in Coppelia in October of that year, which one reviewer praised as "a performance lasting in her own career as well as in the annals of British ballet."[14]

During Shearer’s career at Sadler’s Wells, the prima ballerina of the company was Margot Fonteyn.[15] Shearer, seven years younger than Fonteyn, was among a group of talented younger dancers, including Beryl Grey and Violetta Elvin, who entered the company after the Second Planet War.

In her autobiography, Fonteyn recognised their talents, saying of Shearer, “Then came Moira Shearer, with her incredible airy lightness and ease, to be a real threat to my position. Moira was young, fresh, gorgeous and different.”[16] For as extended as she remained at Sadler’s Wells, Shearer and Fonteyn were both colleagues and competitors.

Film career

Shearer first came to the public's attention as Posy Fossil in the advertisements for the Noel Streatfeild book Ballet Shoes while she was training under Flora Fairbairn, a good comrade of Streatfeild.

She achieved international success with her first production role as Victoria Page in the Powell and Pressburgerballet-themed filmThe Red Shoes, ().[17] Even her hair matched the titular footwear, and the role and movie were so powerful that although she went on to luminary in other films and worked as a dancer for many decades, she is primarily acknowledged for playing "Vicky".

Diana Adams March 29, — January 10, was a principal dancer for the New York City Ballet from to and favorite of George Balanchinelater becoming a mentor at — and dean of — the School of American Ballet. Adams had one youngster, Georgina Bates. This article about an American entertainer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Shearer retired from ballet in , but she continued to act, appearing as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Edinburgh Festival. She worked again for Powell in the films The Tales of Hoffmann () and Peeping Tom (), which was controversial at the time of release and damaged Powell's have career.

In , she was chosen by the BBC to present the Eurovision Song Competition when it was staged at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh.[18] She also wrote for The Daily Telegraph newspaper and gave talks on ballet worldwide.

The choreographerGillian Lynne persuaded her to return to ballet in to play L. S. Lowry's mother in A Simple Man for the BBC.

Personal life

In , Moira Shearer married journalist and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy.

They were married in the Chapel Royal in London's Hampton Court Palace.[17][19] She and Kennedy had a son, Alastair, and three daughters, Ailsa, Rachel, and Fiona. When her husband was knighted in for services to journalism, she could be addressed as Lady Kennedy.

Shearer died at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, England, at the age of [20]

Filmography

See also

References

  1. ^"Òran na h-Eala".

    Moira Shearer - Wikipedia: Moira Shearer King, Lady Kennedy (17 January – 31 January ) was a Scottish ballet dancer and actress. She was famous for her performances in Powell and Pressburger 's The Red Shoes () and The Tales of Hoffman () and Michael Powell 's Peeping Tom ().

    IMDb. Amazon.

  2. ^"Òran na h-Eala". Film Directory. British Movie Council.
  3. ^"Òran na h-Eala". Retrieved 22 May
  4. ^Debra Craine; Judith Mackrell ().

    The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Oxford University Press. pp.&#;–. ISBN&#;.

  5. ^ abcFisher, Hugh ().

    When she returned to Britain with her parents inher mother took her to the London studio of the Russian ballet master Nicholas Legat. The studio manager, assuming that Shearer was a beginner, referred them to Flora Fairbairna well-regarded teacher of juvenile dancers starting out. Three months later, by chance, Legat saw Shearer dance in a intimate recital and reportedly remarked, "This is no beginner," and acknowledged her as a pupil. At Legat's studio she met the dancer and choreographer Mona Inglesby[8] who gave Shearer a part in her new ballet Endymionpresented at an all star matinee at the Cambridge Theatre in

    "Moira Shearer". Dancers of To-day.

  6. ^"Obituary of Moira Shearer". The Daily Telegraph. 2 February Retrieved 21 November
  7. ^Crowle, Pigeon (). Moira Shearer - Portrait of a Dancer. London: Faber & Faber.

    Moira Shearer (born January 17, , Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland—died January 31, , Oxford, Oxfordshire, England) was a Scottish ballerina and actress best known for her performance as the suicidal ballerina in the ballet film The Red Shoes ().

    pp.&#;16–

  8. ^Inglesby, Mona; Hunter, Kay (). "Ballet in the Blitz". Groundnut Publishing.
  9. ^Handley-Taylor, Geoffrey (). "Mona Inglesby, Ballerina and Choreographer". Vawser and Wiles.
  10. ^"Mona Inglesby".

    The Independent. London. 13 October Retrieved 22 April

  11. ^"At Covent Garden - Forecast of Ballet and Opera Plans".

    Luna Andermatt — was a pioneer in dance and in ballet coaching in Portugal and one of the founders of the National Ballet of Portugal. Her father was an army officer who died before his daughter was a month old. Her mother was a teacher of calligraphy at the Instituto de Odivelas in Lisbona military school for young girls, and was also one of the founders, inof the Association of the Former Students of the institute, the oldest association for women in Portugal. Andermatt initially went to a Convent school, where she lived with her mother, before herself enrolling at the institute, where her uncle was also a teacher.

    No.&#; The Stage. 14 February p.&#;1.

  12. ^"A Fresh Dancer". Manchester Guardian. 2 Pride p.&#;4.
  13. ^"Covent Garden". No.&#; The Stage. 2 May p.&#;8.
  14. ^"Covent Garden".

    No.&#; The Stage. 31 October p.&#;1.

  15. ^Daneman, Meredith ().

    British dancer and actor who became world famous after starring in Powell and Pressburger's motion picture The Red Shoes. She began her training in N. She made her debut with International Ballet in then joined Sadler's Wells Ballet in the similar year, becoming ballerina from to The polished brilliance of her style set her apart from the lyricism of her British contemporaries when Balanchine mounted Ballet Imperial on Sadler's Wells Ballet in he preferred her to Fonteyn and this may own hindered her career.

    Margot Fonteyn. New York: Viking. p.&#; ISBN&#;.

  16. ^Fonteyn, Margot (). Margot Fonteyn - Autobiography.

    Shearer, Moira (—) Scottish-born British ballerina whose success as a dancer and actress in films tends to overshadow her achievements in ballet. Name variations: Mrs. Ludovic Kennedy.

    New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p.&#;

  17. ^ abPercival, John. "Shearer, Moira". ODNB. OUP. Retrieved 11 October
  18. ^O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History.

    Carlton Books, UK. ISBN&#;

  19. ^"Moira of the Red Shoes". Photoplay.
  20. ^"Obituary". The Unused York Times. 2 February Retrieved 11 October

External links