De Valois, Ninette << duh VAL wah, nih NEHT >> (1898-2001), founded the United Kingdom’s Royal Ballet and was its director until her retirement in 1963. De Valois was born in County Wicklow, Ireland, on June 6, 1898. Her real name was Edris Stannus. She trained to be a dancer and made her debut in 1914. She danced with Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes from 1923 to 1925. From 1926 to 1931, she supervised a dance school in London. In 1931, De Valois moved to the Vic-Wells company, later renamed the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. In 1956, the company became the Royal Ballet under a charter granted by Queen Elizabeth II.
De Valois choreographed (created dances for) several dramatic ballets, including Job (1931), The Rake’s Progress (1935), Checkmate (1937), and Don Quixote (1950). King George VI made her a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1951, and she became known as Dame Ninette De Valois. She wrote an autobiography, Come Dance With Me (1957). She died on March 8, 2001.
