Tudor, Antony (1908-1987), a British-born dancer and choreographer (dance composer and designer) became famous for his dramatic ballets that explored the psychological conflicts taking place within a single personality. He achieved his greatest choreographic successes in the United States, where he spent most of the second half of his life.
Antony Tudor was born on April 9, 1909, in London. His original name was William John Cook. He began dancing in 1927 and trained as a ballet dancer under the great Polish-born teacher Marie Rambert. Tudor joined the Ballet Rambert in 1930, where he created several ballet roles. These included roles in Frederick Ashton’s Facade (1931) and his own early works, including Cross-Garter’d (1931), Lysistrata (1932), and The Planets (1934). Several of Tudor’s works won high praise, including Jardin aux lilas (1936, later called Lilac Garden), Dark Elegies (1937), and Judgement of Paris (1938).
Tudor immigrated to the United States at the outbreak of World War II in 1939. There he joined the newly formed Ballet Theatre (now the American Ballet Theatre) in New York City. He remained with this company for a decade, creating many of the psychological masterpieces that brought him critical acclaim. They included Pillar of Fire (1942), The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1943), Dim Lustre (1943), and Undertow (1945). After 1950, Tudor worked mainly as a free-lance choreographer and director. He also provided productions for the Royal Swedish Ballet, the dance students he taught at the Juilliard School in New York City, and the ballet company of the New York Metropolitan Opera.
In a long choreographic career that continued until 1978, Antony Tudor also devised and directed incidental dance scenes for stage plays and musicals and for many operas. As early as the 1930’s, he became a pioneer of ballet on film and television, producing several works from 1936 to 1939 for the newly begun television service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Tudor died on April 19, 1987.
