Amy Reusch Posted March 31, 2001 Share Posted March 31, 2001 Before I make a fool of myself in print (somehow I've never felt that serious about the internet... probably that brands me as an old fogey), I thought I'd check with whoever is listening here about the tradition of naming one's company "X Festival Ballet". My impression is that the first Festival Ballet was the Markova-Dolin effort and they named their company "Festival Ballet" because of that year's "Festival of Britain". Suddenly, it seems to me that there are many "Festival Ballet"s out there... Are they all following the London Festival Ballet precedent? And is it from the Markova days or were they inspired by the more recent form of the company? In other words, did other Festival Ballets only begin springing up in the 1990s founded by people who had been inspired by Markova, or were they inspired by Nagy? Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted March 31, 2001 Share Posted March 31, 2001 I think you've hit the source with London Festival Ballet. There were plenty of "Festival Ballets" around in the later 50s and throughout the 60s with no Festival to support them, so I think that the ur-Festival must have been the Festival of Britain, at least in this usage. Link to comment
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