English ballerina
Annette Page
(December 1932 – 4 December 2017) was an English ballerina. She was a principal dancer with the
Royal Ballet
, and was usually partnered onstage by her husband,
Ronald Hynd
.
Life
[
edit
]
Brought up in
Manchester
, Page began to take ballet classes when she was about four. This led to her taking
Royal Academy of Dance
exams, and seeing the
Royal Ballet
in Manchester persuaded her to pursue a dance career.
When she was twelve she auditioned for
Ninette de Valois
, who offered her a scholarship to attend the
Royal Ballet School
, at which she began during the final year of the Second World War.
At the age of seventeen she was given a contract by
Sadlers Wells
, the Royal Ballet's touring company, and a year later joined the Royal Ballet.
[1]
[2]
Page's debut in 1949 was as the balletic dog "Pepe" in a revival of the 1930s one-act ballet
A Wedding Bouquet
, based on a play by
Gertrude Stein
, which was first produced by the Vic-Wells Ballet (later the Sadler's Wells Ballet) on 27 April 1937; choreographed by
Frederick Ashton
.
Dance Magazine
promptly reported a rumour that she was being "groomed to succeed
Fonteyn
in the distant future. ... The rumour ... may be mere wishful thinking, but it is sincerely wishful."
[
citation needed
]
She did, however, rise to become a principal ballerina dancing all the great classical and romantic roles, usually partnered by her husband
Ronald Hynd
. Other partners included
Christopher Gable
,
Donald MacLeary
,
Anthony Dowell
and
Rudolf Nureyev
, with whom she danced
The Sleeping Beauty
and
La Bayadere
.
Her farewell performance was in April 1967 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden where she danced the role of Lise in Ashton's
La fille mal gardee
. And her final performance was as
Cinderella
with the Royal Ballet in Seattle, in which she had created a record by dancing the role twice in one day at the Royal Opera House.
Family
[
edit
]
Page was later to assist her husband, Ronald Hynd, during his directorship of The Bavarian State Ballet, Munich and was a Member of The Arts Council of Great Britain. Hynd and Page had a daughter, Louise (born 1968).
[
citation needed
]
Death
[
edit
]
Page died of motor neurone disease on 4 December 2017, at age 84.
[3]
[
where?
]
Notes
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]