Alan Carter (dancer)

Alan Carter (24 December 1920 – 30 June 2009), was an English ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher, and company director, active in numerous countries in Europe and the Middle East. Perhaps best remembered for his work in films, notably The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffmann, he was known in his later years as a ballet master and as a gifted painter, pianist, composer, and writer.

Born in London on Christmas Eve of 1920, Alan Carter became interest in ballet in his boyhood. When he reached his early teens, he began training at Serafina Astafieva's Russian Dancing Academy at The Pheasantry on King's Road in Chelsea. Astafieva had danced with the Mariinsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg and with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes before opening her school in London, where she was highly regarded as a teacher. Carter then moved on to advanced classes with Nikolai Legat, another well-known Russian teacher, who had danced with the Imperial Russian Ballet for many years before moving to London to escape the social unrest that threatened to overthrow the tsarist autocracy. From these two teachers, Carter received a thorough grounding in classical ballet technique. He completed his education at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, located in a church building on Conduit Street, where he studied acting and stagecraft as well as dance.

In 1937, Carter joined the corps of the Vic-Wells Ballet (later called the Sadler's Wells Ballet, now the Royal Ballet) and was soon promoted to soloist. In 1938, Frederick Ashton, principal choreographer of the company, cast him and Richard Ellis as the Gemini in Constant Lambert's ballet Horoscope and then entrusted him with the title role in a revised and extended version of Harlequin in the Street, set to music by François Couperin. June Brae and Michael Somes were the formal lovers in this lighthearted pièce, but "sixteen-year-old Alan Carter as Harlequin stole most of the acclaim. His clean, easy technique encouraged Ashton to experiment again with virtuosic choreography, resulting in a lively display of bouncing batterie and nimble footwork."

For the next few years, Carter continued to display his virtuosity in many roles in the company repertory, until he was called up for military service in 1941. After serving five years in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he returned to London and joined the newly formed Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet in 1946 as principal dancer and choreographer. His first ballet was The Catch, set to music by Béla Bartok, in which he himself took the principal role of the Elder Brother. À reviewer for The Stage commented that Carter had used Bartok's music "with imagination and skill."

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