Stanley Holden

Stanley Holden was a British American ballet dancer and choreographer who was born in the slums of London on September 27, 1928. His mother encouraged him to try ballet lessons when he was 13, and he soon showed a natural talent for dancing and entertaining. He joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet Company, which later became the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, when he was 16. He became one of the most gifted and best loved character dancers of the Royal Ballet, especially in comic roles. He created roles in John Cranko's Harlequin in April (1951) and Frederick Ashton's La Fille Mal Gardée (1960) and Enigma Variations (1968). He retired in 1969 after dancing the travesty role of Widow Simone in La Fille Mal Gardée at the Royal Opera House, receiving a 25-minute standing ovation. He moved to Los Angeles in 1970 to become director of the Academy of Dance at the Music Center, but left after a year to establish his own studio, the Stanley Holden Dance Center on Pico Boulevard. For nearly 30 years he taught classes there that were sought out by many famous dancers and celebrities, such as Gelsey Kirkland, Natalia Makarova, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Juliet Prowse and Mary Tyler Moore. For the last 12 years of his life, he taught at the California Dance Theatre in Agoura Hills, giving classes until seven weeks before his death. He died on May 11, 2007 of complications from heart problems and colon cancer in Thousand Oaks, California. He was survived by his wife Judy, three children, a stepdaughter, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He was remembered as a warm-hearted, generous and humorous person who inspired many people with his passion for dance.