The Bournemouth Ballet Club Collection

This collection includes individual files for each year containing relevant information on administrative matters, artistic productions and events from the Bournemouth Ballet Club, from its foundation in 1947 to 2010 when it was disbanded. Material includes extensive hand-written minutes of committee meetings, account sheets, administrative reports, theatre programmes, leaflets, press cuttings, photographs of performances and individual portraits, recordings of performances or rehearsals in analogue and digital formats, correspondence, prize cups and other memorabilia, including two tablecloths signed by prominent guest teachers and speakers.

Among the series of records and ephemera are a detailed booklet about the first 45 years of the Club’s history; two minute-books of the period from 1947-51 and 1969-82; programmes of seasons 1966/67 to 2009/10 (there are no programmes for the 1971/72 to 1975/76 seasons); also scrapbooks covering the years 1955-82, featuring an incomplete series of studio photographs of performance seasons, depicting students and events; also news cuttings, mainly from local press, giving details of upcoming events or reviews of performances. Material relates to the many and various productions by the Club including:

• The Choice choreographed by Felicity Gray
• Coppélia choreographed by Alan Carter
• The Sleeping Beauty choreographed by Alan Carter
• Seasons and Planets choreographed by Alan Carter
• Peter Pan choreographed by Mela Carter
• The Fairy Doll and Hiawatha choreographed by Richard Slaughter
• Les Sylphides, The Nutcracker Act 2 and The Bournemouth Promenade, choreographed by Richard Slaughter and Ursula Hageli
• The Carnival of the Animals, Swan Lake Act 2 and An American in Paris, choreographed by Richard Slaughter and Ursula Hageli
• Caribbean Magic, choreographed by Katie Gill
• Secrets of the Seasons choreographed by Hailey Prince
• Step By Step: Dancing through the Decade choreographed by Heidi Mizen
• Wizard of Oz - designed by Sue Mindelsohn

The Bournemouth Ballet Club was founded by Elizabeth Collins, Ida Stewart and Nalda Murilova in 1947. The Club was formed to promote a greater appreciation and understanding of the art of Ballet, and to produce original ballets performed by student members.

Some of the Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the Club in its 63 years of existence included J.K. Werner, D. N. Willoughby, K. H. Kirby, Ninette de Valois, Anton Dolin, Leo Kersley, Barbara Fewster, Beryl Grey, John Field, G. B. L. Wilson, and many others of significance in the dance world.

Talks, demonstrations and masterclasses were regularly given by these and other celebrated ballet dancers and teachers, including Valerie Adams, Michael Somes, Margot Fonteyn, Svetlana Beriosova, Lydia Kyasht, Irina Baronova, Robert Harrold, Joan Lawson and Stanley Holden. Also Elaine Thomas, a former student member of the Club, and Alan and Julia Carter, who had taken over the Wessex School of Ballet in Bournemouth (from Ida Stewart and Elizabeth Collins) in 1977.

This collection is open for consultation and can be viewed by appointment only. Please contact White Lodge Museum via our website at The Royal Ballet School, White Lodge Museum http://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/the-school/museum/

Gift of Valerie Adams, 2012