Kathrine Sorley Walker Archive

The collection of Kathrine Sorley Walker includes reviews and articles (in the form of clippings, programme notes, manuscripts and drafts) documenting her career as an observer of dance and researcher into its history. This includes some unpublished work and her writings kept as a ballet diary before she became a published critic, as well as cuttings books and indexes chronicling her published writing. The collection also includes research materials, assorted memorabilia and correspondence relating to her work on The de Basil Ballets Russes, Cyril W. Beaumont, the Espinosa family, Robert Helpmann, Andrée Howard and Ninette de Valois.

Kathrine Sorley Walker (5 March 1920 – 14 April 2015) was a Scottish-born dance writer, historian and critic who played a significant role in the development of the dance holding in the V&A's Theatre and Performance Collections. She was brought up by her widowed mother (her father Lieutenant Sorley Walker having died in India aged 28) and it was her mother who introduced her to ballet and theatre in London in the 1930s. Kathrine was educated at Crouch End College, and Kings College, University of London, taking further degrees at Besançon University and Trinity College of Music before becoming an editor with Geographical and subsequently a literary editor most notably working on the writings of Raymond Chandler. In the early 1940s, on the advice of Cyril W. Beaumont she became involved with the dance collections built up by the Ballet Guild in London and when they were passed on to the newly established London Archives of the Dance (LAD) in 1945 she became their archivist. The collection eventually fed into the core collections of the Theatre & Performance holdings of the V&A and Kathrine continued to pass on programmes, press releases and other material throughout her life. She also published extensively about the holdings of LAD. She wrote her first book, Brief for Ballet in 1947 and several other volumes to introduce new audiences to dance. Among her important books were biographies of Robert Helpmann and Cyril W. Beaumont, The Royal Ballet A Picture History with Sarah C. Woodcock (1982), De Basil's Ballets Russes (1982) and Ninette de Valois: Idealist Without Illusions with contributions from Dame Ninette (1987). She also wrote a series of monograph-length articles for Dance Chronicle as well as contributing to numerous dance publications internationally and wrote programme notes primarily for The Royal Ballet and Australian Ballet. Kathrine Sorley Walker was ballet critic for the Daily Telegraph for 24 years. Initially mentored by A. V. Coton, whose criticism she subsequently edited, after his death in 1969 she wrote in tandem with Fernau Hall, succeeding him as sole dance critic between 1988-1993. She also published several volumes of poetry and continued to watch theatre and dance until her death.

THM/461/1 - Cuttings books (1962-1994)

THM/461/2 - Catalogues of published articles (1941-2003)

THM/461/3 - Programme notes (1972-2003)

THM/461/4 - Correspondence (1939-2007)

THM/461/5 - Manuscripts and drafts (1937-2010)

THM/461/6 - Clippings (1940-2014)

THM/461/7 - Research notes (1943-2014)

THM/461/8 - Assorted memorabilia (1927-1987)

This archive collection is available for consultation in the V&A Study Rooms by appointment only. Full details of access arrangements may be found here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/archives/

Access to some of the material may be restricted. These are noted in the catalogue where relevant.

Bequeathed by Katherine Sorley Walker, 2015

Information on copying and commercial reproduction may be found here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/archives/

This collection was appraised in line with collection management policy.

No further accruals are expected.

See also the core collections of the V&A Department of Theatre and Performance. Material relating to Kay Ambrose, Richard Ziegler, Ninette de Valois, de Basil's Ballet Russes, Robert Helpmann and Lilian Baylis, as well as the Ballet Russes in general may be found in several collections, including the biographical, productions, company and photographs files.

Please ask for details.