Antony Tudor

Antony Tudor (4 April 1908 - 19 April 1987), born William Cook, highly influential twentieth-century English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer.

Biography

The Cockney-born Tudor, who discovered dance accidentally, began dancing professionally with Marie Rambert in 1928, becoming general assistant for her Ballet Club the next year. A precocious choreographer, at age twenty-three he created for her dancers "Cross Garter'd", then "Lysistrata","The Planets" and other works at the little Mercury Theatre, and his two most famous and revolutionary, "Jardin Aux Lilas" ("Lilac Garden") and "Dark Elegies", before the age of thirty, himself dancing main roles. In 1938, he founded the London Ballet with Rambert members, including his future life-long partner, Hugh Laing [On the versatile Laing (1911-1988), see his entry in "The Encyclopedia of Dance & Ballet", Mary Clarke and David Vaughan, eds (New York: Putnam, 1977), pp. 202f; and William Como, "Editor's log: Hugh Laing", "Dance Magazine" ( July 1988), p. 32 ] , Andreé Howard and Agnes de Mille, but, with the onset of World War II, in 1940 was invited with them to New York, joining Richard Pleasant's and Lucia Chase's reorganized Ballet Theater. Chase's company was later to become the American Ballet Theatre, with which Tudor was closely associated for the rest of his life. He was resident choreographer with Ballet Theater for ten years, restaging some of his earlier works but also setting the new works, his great "Pillar of Fire", "Romeo and Juliet", "Dim Lustre" and "Undertow", on that company by the end of the war. Retiring from dancing in 1950, he headed the faculty of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School, taught at the Juilliard School recurrently from 1950 onwards, and was artistic director for the Royal Swedish Ballet from 1963 to 1964. He choreographed three works for the New York City Ballet. Tudor continued his teaching career as Professor of Ballet Technique at the Department of Dance, University of California, Irvine from 1973 (work curtailed by a serious heart condition), while rejoining American Ballet Theater in 1974 as associate artistic director, creating "The Leaves Are Fading" and "Tiller In the Fields", his last major work, in 1978. With Laing he continued seasonal residence in Laguna Beach, California.

Tudor was awarded a creative arts medal by Brandeis University, the "Dance Magazine" and Capezio awards, New York City’s Handel Medallion, and both Kennedy Center and Dance/USA National Honors. [For these and other cited facts, see the obituary statement by Gary Parks, "Antony Tudor, 1908-1987", "Dance Magazine" 61 (August 1987): 19; Tudor's entry in "The Encyclopedia of Dance & Ballet", Mary Clarke and David Vaughan, eds (New York: Putnam, 1977), pp. 341f; and "On Point" (Friends of American Ballet Theatre) 13, no. 1 (Fall 1986): 3-4.]

Antony Tudor is generally accepted to be one of the great originals of modern dance forms. Along with George Balanchine, he is seen as a principal transformer of ballet into a modern art, but of a genius that uses, rather than proceeds from, ballet forms. His work is usually considered as modern “psychological” expression, but—like their creator--of austerity, elegance and nobility. Mikhail Baryshnikov stated: "We do Tudor's ballets because we must. Tudor's work is our conscience." ["On Point" 13, no.1, p. 3.] A disciplined Zen Buddhist, Antony Tudor died on Easter Sunday in his residence at the First Zen Institute of America. [For an essay interpretation of the man and his art, see Olga Maynard, "Antony Tudor: A Loving Memoir", "Dance Magazine": 61 (August 1987): 18-19, illus. For closer interpretation of Tudor's work through the 1950s, see Olga Maynard, "The American Ballet" (Philadelphia: Macrae Smith Company, 1959), 'Antony Tudor', pp. 127-138.]

Major works

*"Cross Garter'd" (1931) [A listing of Tudor's works and important dates is available at "Dancepages: Antony Tudor" (14 Nov. 2005) [http://www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr/~esouche/dance/Tudor.html] ]

*"Lysistrata" (1932)
*"Adam and Eve" (1932)
*"The Planets" (1934)
*"The Descent of Hebe" (1935)
*"Jardin Aux Lilas" (1936)
*"Dark Elegies" (1937)
*"Judgement of Paris" (1938)
*"Soirée musicale" (1938)
*"Gala Performance" (1938)
*"Time Table" (1938)
*"Pillar of Fire" (1942)
*"Romeo and Juliet" (1943)
*"Dim Lustre" (1943)
*"The Day Before Spring" (1945)
*"Undertow" (1945)
*"Shadow of the Wind" (1948)
*"Nimbus"
*"Lady of the Camellias" (1951)
*"The Glory" ("La Gloire") (1952)
*"Echoing of Trumpets" (1963)
*"Shadowplay" (1967)
*"The Leaves are Fading" (1975)
*"The Tiller in the Fields" (1978)

References

ee also

*Marie Rambert
*Agnes de Mille
*Maya Deren
*American Ballet Theatre
*New York City Ballet
*Broadway theatre
*Metropolitan Opera Ballet