Antony Tudor

Antony Tudor was an English-born American ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer who developed the so-called psychological ballet. He began his dance studies at 19 years of age with Marie Rambert and for her company choreographed his first ballet, Cross-Gartered (1931), based on an incident in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. In 1938 he founded his own company, the London Ballet, but left the following year to join the newly formed Ballet Theatre (later the American Ballet Theatre) in the United States as dancer and choreographer for 10 years. In 1950 he became associated with the ballet and ballet school of the Metropolitan Opera, and in 1952 he became a faculty member of the dance department of the Juilliard School of Music. He served as an artistic director for the Royal Swedish Ballet in 1963 and 1964. Tudor’s choreography ranges from the tragic Dark Elegies (1937) to the comic Gala Performance (1938). His reputation, however, rests chiefly on his dramatic psychological ballets, such as Jardin aux Lilas (1936), Pillar of Fire (1942), Romeo and Juliet (1943), Undertow (1945), Nimbus (1950), Knight Errant (1968), The Leaves Are Fading (1975), and Tiller in the Fields (1978). He explored themes such as grief, jealousy, rejection, and frustration using classical techniques, subtle gestures, and symbolic use of the corps de ballet. He danced in several of his own ballets, especially those choreographed in England. He also mentored many dancers who rose to prominence in his works, such as Nora Kaye and Hugh Laing. In 1974 Tudor was appointed associate director of the American Ballet Theatre and in 1977 was joined in that position by Kaye. He died of heart failure in New York City in 1987.