Andrée Howard
| Andrée Howard | |
|---|---|
| Born |
3 October 1910 London, England |
| Died | 18 April 1968 (aged 57) London, England |
| Occupation | Ballet choreographer |
Andrée Howard (3 October 1910 – 18 April 1968) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. She created over 30 ballets, of which almost nothing remains.
Andrée Howard was born in London on 3 October 1910. Her career as a dancer began as a pupil of Marie Rambert and she also studied in Paris where she danced in early performances of Léonide Massine's Les Présages.
Her ballet Death and the Maiden (choroeography and costumes) for Ballet Rambert based on the music by Franz Schubert was premiered at the Duchess Theatre, London, on 23 February 1937, danced by herself as The Maiden, and John Bryon as Death. On 18 January 1940, it received its American Ballet Theatre premiere at The Center Theatre, New York, danced by Howard, and with Kurt Karnakoski as Death.
Her 1939 Lady into Fox was based on David Garnett's 1922 first novel under his own name Lady into Fox. Reviewing the 2006 reinterpretation, Judith Mackrell of The Guardian called it "a seminal Ballet Rambert work". Unfortunately, all that choreographer Mark Baldwin could find of the original choreography was a 12-minute jerky silent film. Baldwin stated: "There are all these fabulous ballets like Lady Into Fox still waiting for us to dip into. The past is such a fabulous resource."
Her best known work is La fête étrange, based on an episode in Alain Fournier's novel Le Grand Meaulnes. It was created in 1940 for London Ballet, with stage design and costumes by Sophie Fedorovitch. It has been performed over 200 times by The Royal Ballet, and by Scottish Ballet.
In 1938, she was one of the founding members of Antony Tudor's London Ballet along with Hugh Laing, Agnes de Mille, Peggy van Praagh, Maude Lloyd and Walter Gore. With the onset of World War II, in 1940 was invited with them to New York, joining Richard Pleasant's and Lucia Chase's reorganised Ballet Theater. Chase's company was later to become the American Ballet Theatre.
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